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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jhaelen" data-source="post: 6402462" data-attributes="member: 46713">Well, I haven't read this thread, so I may be just repeating what someone else has already said, but anyway, this is what I think:The author of this article is quite opinionated and decidedly wrong about some fairly basic things. For one thing, the genre is called Roleplaying _Game_.It's called that because it's about roleplaying, yes, but it's also a GAME.Saying that D&D is not an RPG because you can be successful without roleplaying is just as wrong as saying that in Vampire you cannot be successful without roleplaying.I really wonder if the guy has ever actually played D&D or watched a game of Vampire?If he was a player in my D&D campaign, he wouldn't have a chance of being 'successful' without roleplaying at all. In fact, players who fail to roleplay tend to leave the group after mutually agreeing that it just won't work. On the other hand I've seen a Vampire group play the game without any regard to the story - it was just a high-powered hack&slay affair involving the villain of the week.What does this tell us? It's all in what you make of it.I also had to laugh out loud reading that in Vampire he'd not use the Initiative rules, but he'd use the Humanity rules. Well, guess what: A different storyteller may choose to do the opposite! And, yes, that might mean he's turned the game from a roleplaying game into 'just a game'.I also like how he mentions Pendragon as an example of a 'good' roleplaying game. As it happens, the weapon tables are quite important for that game. Each weapon (and armor) comes with a set of very specific advantages and disadvantages, resulting in a particular choice to be optimal in a very specific situation. This in turn leads to a character trying have a wide choice of weapons available - just in case. And in Pendragon this isn't a problem, because your squire will serve as a kind of caddy, handing you the weapon of choice when you need it.You just don't go hunting a boar with your two-handed sword, there's a boar spear that has been designed for that purpose. Trying to use the sword will probably just get you killed.He's not completely incorrect, though. It clearly doesn't hurt to think about your game (system) and ask yourself "What does x add to the story?" In fact that's the most important question I'm asking myself when designing encounters. When choosing an rpg system for my campaigns I similarly ask myself: "Is this the right system for the kind of stories I'd like us to tell?" And if the kind of stories I'd like to tell involve a lot of skirmish style combats, then D&D might just be the best choice!He's completely correct, though, to dismiss most (if not all) computer rpgs as not being true rpgs. But it's a sad player who finds that WoW is a sufficient replacement for playing D&D. It's not even close.</blockquote>

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