[1st Draft] Understanding RPGs Part One

[mythusmage]

Understanding Roleplaying Games Part One

In this initial essay we'll be dealing with the question, "What is a roleplaying game?" This is necessary because it will give us a common foundation for later discussions. A foundation if you would upon which an edifice of theory can be built.

There are definitions available, but they are lacking in one sense or another for our purposes. Or they try to include elements that more properly belong elsewhere, and not as part of the core meaning.

What is a roleplaying game? Let's give it a shot.

[definition]A roleplaying game is a pastime where people assume the role of another person in an imaginary world, with a set of rules that regulate what is, and is not, possible in that imaginary world.[/definition]

You'll note that this says nothing about what is or is not possible. It says nothing about the sort of roles that can be assumed, or the type of world that those alternates dwell in. All that is the province of the individual roleplaying game. We are dealing here with RPGs as a whole. Thus, while the definition needs to be comprehensive, we cannot get into too much detail. It should also be noted that one can be comprehensive, and still be concise.

Could the definition be framed better? It's possible. Is there a better definition? Again, it's possible. Which is why this essay is here, to solicit feedback from the daring reader. But rather than limit your options, I shall end this essay here.

 

[Crothian]

Seems to cover every aspect of role playing I can think of.

 

[mythusmage]

Still, we're not the whole of the RPG community, so there could be someone out there with more to say on the subject.

 

[alsih2o]

i don't believe the world has to be imaginary, i mean, you could play an imaginary character in the real world, yes?

 

[Crothian]

Still, we're not the whole of the RPG community, so there could be someone out there with more to say on the subject.

I'm not saying shut it down, that's the end of the discussion after this thread has been open 20 minutes. I'm saying I read your post, thought about all the different ways role playing games can be played and could not find one that doesn't fit your definition. So, by all means we will wait for others to see and respond. I say, we leave it open for a whole hour.

 

[mythusmage]

i don't believe the world has to be imaginary

To a degree that is true, one could use the real world as an RPG setting. But, it would be the real world as filtered through the players' perceptions. It addition, the actions of the players, as there characters, would create changes that would remove it from the realm of reality and place it more and more firmly in that of imagination.

Indeed, even from the very beginning a real world setting would be an imaginary world. Imaginary in that it would be the real world as the designer sees it, as he imagines it to be.

This goes back to human capabilities. We cannot know everything about the real world, we don't have that ability. We can know a little and extrapolate from there. All the rest is guess work. Which means a product of our imaginations. So this means that while a setting can be based on the real world, it must perforce be an imaginary world.

 

[alsih2o]

in addition people often try to play them selves in fantasy worlds

 

[mythusmage]

Again, true. But what they usually end up playing is an idealized, imaginary version of themselves. It becomes a game of "What would I do in this situation?" When Bob plays Bob in the Forgotten Realms, it's really a case of Bob playing himself as he thinks he would act in such a situation. Thus the Bob of Forgotten Realms becomes an alternate version of the real world Bob.

(BTW, thanks to you I have more to add to the 2nd draft of URPGs P1.)

 

[alsih2o]

more like-

an activity where a hypothetical individual, whose attributes and qualities are frequently expressed numerically, is acted by an inividual or group through scenarios usually designed to test creative possibilities and system restraints.

 

[alsih2o]

To a degree that is true, one could use the real world as an RPG setting. But, it would be the real world as filtered through the players' perceptions.

isn't that what the real world is?