NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6887462" data-attributes="member: 177">Ladies and gentlemen,Let us be clear about something - EN World does not generally support "One True Way" gaming discussion.  And nobody on these boards really has the authority or clout to define for others what is, or is not, a role playing game.  As a practical matter, no such definition will fly if made by personal assertion.  If you're trying to do so by anything other than consensus building, you would probably be well-served to rethink your approach.Moreover, we've seen more than enough attempts to do this in edition wars, old vs new school wars, and other arguments over arbitrary and constructed dichotomies.  While the purveyors of definitions make claim for some technical need for a definition, frequently their actual goal, and almost always their effective result, is to draw lines between people - creating an Us vs Them - those who are Roleplaying and those who are Not Roleplaying. You all know that when you create exclusionary definitions, and define someone out of a group they identify with, they will push back.  If you claim a right to exclude them, you're being rude, and generating argument, and may eventually get called on that by a moderator.  So, be wary where you tread - "But it is The TRVTH about RPGs!!!1!" will not be taken as an applicable excuse.Not a moderator directive, but a bit of advice:  You are apt to find it more constructive to think of the definition of "role playing game" like a genre definition (it being a genre of game).  Genre definitions are not exact, and are done by way of inclusion, rather than by exclusion.  A thing is considered part of a genre if it includes enough of the tropes and elements thought to be characteristics of the genre.  Having things that are not characteristic of the genre does *not* exclude the thing from inclusion.  You can have a Western movie with science fiction elements, but it is still a Western.  And, you can have an RPG that includes elements that are not directly about playing roles.</blockquote>

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