D&D is a Roleplaying Game
- Thread starter Bullgrit
- Start date
TracerBullet42
First Post
Wow...I love that description. It bears appearing again.Jürgen Hubert said:
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
I'm more about salsa & soda, but anyway ...
An RPG is structured make-believe; it's cooperative storytelling with boundaries that define how the natural world operates (the rules of the game) and introduce a certain measure of chance such that while the players are guiding the course of the story, the story acts upon them as much as they act upon it.
Or: it's killing monsters and taking their stuff, and similar things you'd like to do in the real world but can't.
An RPG is structured make-believe; it's cooperative storytelling with boundaries that define how the natural world operates (the rules of the game) and introduce a certain measure of chance such that while the players are guiding the course of the story, the story acts upon them as much as they act upon it.
Or: it's killing monsters and taking their stuff, and similar things you'd like to do in the real world but can't.
howandwhy99
Adventurer
<packs frosty mug>JoeBlank said:
Thia Halmades
First Post
Would you believe I've drafted and tossed three separate responses to this thread? I don't think I have a short answer to it, but I'll try and create one.
The two terms aren't separate to me. It's a game in which you play a role; a character who has the power to affect change. If you don't get into the character (the roleplay) than the game (the talking, meeting, killing) doesn't mean anything. The two aren't separate, they're permanently linked.
If I distill everything down to a pile of stats and set you loose in a dungeon, you aren't role playing. You might make the argument that modern parlance for the RPG is directly related to the improvement of a character over time via stats & equipment, but that's a poor definition used by reviewers of videogames to describe a genre. In that environment, you can succeed with a pieced together story and a whole lot of looting & dice chucking.
If I remove all of your stats and simply leave you standing in a persistant world without a means of interacting with it, we can roleplay until we're blue in the face, but you'll never know the full extent of your ability to affect the world around you. You can't, because I haven't defined it (the game).
So a role playing game is the marriage of two concepts; ancient storytelling, where people would 'play out' the roles that the narrator gave, coupled with combat training, as the boy playing the Tiger wrestles with the Hero. We've grown up and taken the idea with us; now we have rules arguments and min-maxing discussions, and yet we still manage to scream "I hit him!" "No you didn't!" across a crowded room.
I know there are people out there who barely roll dice in a session; they're pure role players and if you took those dice away, their game really wouldn't change. And there are people who have never once thought about their character history - or even what their character thinks about - beyond ale & whores. For me, the balance is in giving people what they want, which is usually loot & combat, while doing what I want, which is telling a story in a world I created.
The two terms aren't separate to me. It's a game in which you play a role; a character who has the power to affect change. If you don't get into the character (the roleplay) than the game (the talking, meeting, killing) doesn't mean anything. The two aren't separate, they're permanently linked.
If I distill everything down to a pile of stats and set you loose in a dungeon, you aren't role playing. You might make the argument that modern parlance for the RPG is directly related to the improvement of a character over time via stats & equipment, but that's a poor definition used by reviewers of videogames to describe a genre. In that environment, you can succeed with a pieced together story and a whole lot of looting & dice chucking.
If I remove all of your stats and simply leave you standing in a persistant world without a means of interacting with it, we can roleplay until we're blue in the face, but you'll never know the full extent of your ability to affect the world around you. You can't, because I haven't defined it (the game).
So a role playing game is the marriage of two concepts; ancient storytelling, where people would 'play out' the roles that the narrator gave, coupled with combat training, as the boy playing the Tiger wrestles with the Hero. We've grown up and taken the idea with us; now we have rules arguments and min-maxing discussions, and yet we still manage to scream "I hit him!" "No you didn't!" across a crowded room.
I know there are people out there who barely roll dice in a session; they're pure role players and if you took those dice away, their game really wouldn't change. And there are people who have never once thought about their character history - or even what their character thinks about - beyond ale & whores. For me, the balance is in giving people what they want, which is usually loot & combat, while doing what I want, which is telling a story in a world I created.
Game: fun, social, relaxed, easy-going. If it ain't fun, it ain't a game.
Role-playing: each player has their own character and plays them as a unique personality.
I have never enjoyed games where the RP was meant to be all-immersive. I've played in plenty of such games and have always been disappointed in the end. RP ain't acting.
Role-playing: each player has their own character and plays them as a unique personality.
I have never enjoyed games where the RP was meant to be all-immersive. I've played in plenty of such games and have always been disappointed in the end. RP ain't acting.
ThirdWizard
First Post
Roleplaying is cops and robbers without the arguments about who shot who.
...
Okay, we still have the arguments, but we have fancy rules to back up our claims.
...
Okay, we still have the arguments, but we have fancy rules to back up our claims.
Dark Jezter
First Post
Bullgrit said:
Kill things and take their stuff.
Kill things and take their stuff.
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