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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4095594" data-attributes="member: 42582">But the system used surely affects the nature of the roleplaying undertaken, doesn't it? A game of Call of Cthulhu would feel pretty different from a game of The Dying Earth, given the completely different play experiences each is designed to deliver.I don't really know what "florid text" has to do with roleplaying - in my experience first person descriptions of character action and conversation are certainly not necessary for roleplaying to take place, and not always sufficient either.Surely roleplaying is about taking on a role within the game, and having the game (via its mechanics, including in particular those mechanics that determine who can narrate what) permit the exploration of that role. Monopoly and chess don't become roleplaying games just because I speak in a funny first person voice when I move a piece. A railroaded 2nd ed AD&D module does not become roleplaying just because I speak in a funny first person voice when I describe my PC's (mandated) action.Neither that I can see.The first is about supporting operational play in which the players directly engage the GM to have their PC's actions resolved successfully. The unit of play, and of success or failure, is either the expedition or the campaign.The second (as far as I can tell from the evidence) is about supporting a very high degree of player control via ultra-tight mechanics. The GM's role will be to provide antagonists as an obstacle to PC protagonism, but the rules seem intended to run themselves.Given that videogames do not support player control at all - the stakes, the themes, the relationship between mechanics and gameworld are all determined by the programmer, not the players - I don't see any deep similarity between 4e and computer games.The principal thing that distinguishes table-top roleplaying from the computer variety is the capacity for players to control the action, the themes, the stakes, the interpretation of the game experience. Everything about 4e seems intended to enhance all this.</blockquote>

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