A better term

[GMMichael]

As discussed here, a TTRPG is more correctly called a DRPG, for drama, discussion, or my favorite, draconian.

 

[loverdrive]

The "table" signifier is sometimes technically inaccurate, but is intended to separate the mode from live action RPGs, computer RPGs, and some other modes. The table can be a metaphor, rather than a physical reality.

As an example, Lifts: Powered by the ABpocalypse utilizes physical exercises instead of dice, yet the way it is played is barely different from any other PbtA game (well, except all the lifting weights thing). Should it be classified as a tabletop RPG?

Or, the game I'm currently making requires a computer to play. It's not a CRPG, as it lacks all the trappings of CRPGs. The way it is played is infinitely closer to TTRPGs, where the real "game" happens in the imagination of the players, it just happens to use a reflex-based minigame as a resolution mechanism.

 

[Hriston]

Leaning into how there is realtime verbal interaction between players will not differentiate between TTRPG play and live-action play, which also depends on those things.

I’m unfamiliar with LARPing in general, but it seems to me there would be a distinction to be made between acting out the game’s fiction and having a conversation about the game’s fiction.

 

[MarkB]

Or, the game I'm currently making requires a computer to play. It's not a CRPG, as it lacks all the trappings of CRPGs. The way it is played is infinitely closer to TTRPGs, where the real "game" happens in the imagination of the players, it just happens to use a reflex-based minigame as a resolution mechanism.

Are you looking for a term that is absolutely descriptive of the game you're making, or a term that will draw the attention of the audience you're hoping to attract? Finding a new term to describe your game is fine, but if people aren't familiar with the term, trying to use it to market that game is likely to confuse more people than it engages.

It isn't always a bad thing to retain the terminology even as technology and our means of accessing a thing moves on. People still talk about "dialling" a telephone number even though many have never used or even seen a rotary-dial telephone.

 

[Andvari]

or my favorite, draconian.

Takhisis approves.

 

[niklinna]

I don't know about y'all, but I read the OP as a request for some light idle-time amusement by coming up with potential alternative names for TTRPGs, rather than a request to get all angsty about how fraught it is to give something a name.

 

[niklinna]

It's a nice thought but it won't happen.

I do the sport of Weightlifting, a.k.a the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. It has been officially Weightlifitng since at least the 60s. But when people started amateur bodybuilding and just going to the gym they started calling it "lifting weights". Now everytime I tell people I do Weightlifting I have to explain what it is, despite it being the original name.

Get ready to be paying your sitter of babies when you go out for the evening. What is wrong with people these days?!

 

[payn]

Get ready to be paying your sitter of babies when you go out for the evening. What is wrong with people these days?!

As long as folks know its called a snowmobile and not a snowmachine we will be ok.

 

[Umbran]

I’m unfamiliar with LARPing in general, but it seems to me there would be a distinction to be made between acting out the game’s fiction and having a conversation about the game’s fiction.

Yes and no. It is, imho, more that enabling the players more freedom in acting out the fiction leads to the relevant distinctions.

The most important of them is probably that larps do not assume the GM will generally mediate game mechanical resolutions. Larps are typically built for participants to resolve most actions and conflicts without GM input.

 

[aramis erak]

Interpersonal RPGs sounds like an amazing name!

agreed...
tho I prefer Story Telling Game... which is, however, laden with White Wolf baggage.

Some, however, should be "Tactical character scale minis wargames"....

Storygame is laden with Forgite baggage, both good and bad, having become a subtype label...