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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7090644" data-attributes="member: 4937">I realize that, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a game that did that on purpose.  For one thing, I think we are just getting to the point where we understand what an RPG is enough to consider issues like that.One of the most compelling asymmetries I've ever seen is in a casual MMORPG called 'Puzzle Pirates'.  The game features all sorts of casual play, oriented around typical matching puzzles, but it's highest level play involves very large teams ('crews') working together to operate a ship.  And the way that works is that there is a sailing puzzle minigame, a cannon puzzle minigame, a carpentry puzzle minigame that different portions of the crew work on in parallel.  Meanwhile, a single player plays the captain's puzzle minigame, which is basically turn based tactical combat with a move feed system similar to Roborally or more recently Card Hunter.  The moves are fed by the success of the player's playing the sailing game, the weight of shot by those playing the cannon minigame, and repairs are accomplished by the carpentry minigame.  Various other minigames can break out depending on the tactical situation, and players can play alternative games to accomplish similar purposes.For all its silliness, the result is maddeningly compelling, especially with relatively small ship crews where the hands all know each other.I feel like that one of my essays is relevant to this topic, so here is a link:<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471687-Role-Playing-The-Game-of-Many-Mini-Games" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471687-Role-Playing-The-Game-of-Many-Mini-Games</a>I've never seen a PnP RPG deliberately designed with that sort of asymmetry, and certainly the modern trend - which I consider to be something of an anti-pattern - is to try to squeeze all the varieties of play in the game into a single all-encompassing 'elegant' set of rules that treats combat, social interaction, evasion, and even who is sleeping with who as a largely indistinguishable set of considerations.   However, if you look at my definition of an RPG, even if you don't have asymmetry built into it, you have the potential for the sort of asymmetry seen in 'Puzzle Pirates' to naturally evolve as an element of play.  It might be infrequent, but the possibility of a fighter using a combat mini-game to hold off endless waves of undead, while a bard tries to negotiate with a recalcitrant genie, a rogue tries to disarm/open a complex puzzle-trap, and the wizard frantically searches through his spell-lists for bits of narrative agency to assist the group with.   Everyone is playing the same scene in the same game, but each is actually involved in their own mini-game.</blockquote>

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