Do RPGs' Wargaming Aspects Overshadow RPing?

[Mark]

Do RPGs' Wargaming Aspects Overshadow RPing?



Don't forget to chime in on the entire RPG Survey Round-Up!

 

[Aesthetic Monk]

An exceptionally broad question, I think. If we're talking about D&D 3.5, as I suspect that we might be, then ... well, even then, my answer would still probably be "no," at least not inherently. D&D 3.5 is more concrete and wargame-y than previous versions of D&D and probably more wargame-y than most other RPGs, but I don't find it inhibits my RPing--it just makes abstract ideas of position and movement more tangible (for me, anyway).

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Absolutely not.

It's like saying "does a mega-rules lite game inhibit combat?"

The only thing that I've noticed that influences roleplay in a given player is:
1) options available to the PC
2) rate of character death, too much and they treat their players like video game quarters(*)

-BG

* Kids: ages ago, before the internet was born, gamers had to go to specialty stores to play video games. Each one of these cost a "quarter" to play. However, the graphics were quite poor and there were no 3D video cards. These were dark and dangerous times for gamers.

 

[Nomad4life]

Kids: ages ago, before the internet was born, gamers had to go to specialty stores to play video games. Each one of these cost a "quarter" to play. However, the graphics were quite poor and there were no 3D video cards. These were dark and dangerous times for gamers.

Meh. Video games died when they were terminally infected with graphics. ZORK FOREVER!!!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Well, the poll says "overshadow" not inhibit.

I think that in most game systems the wargame aspect does overshadow the roleplaying. More of the pages are devoted to the rules of the wargame aspect. When we teach new people how to play RPGs, people often focus on teaching the rules first and letting them develop their own roleplaying.

Of course roleplaying isn't something that can be easily codified into a book, and the individual roleplaying doesn't usually set one RPG system apart from another (you may play your D&D Fighter differently than your L5R Fighter, but the way you actually go about roleplaying isn't different). As a result it only makes sense, from a publisher's perpective, that it is the crunchy, wargamey rules that are in the forefront.

 

[Piratecat]

Definitely not. I do roleplay less while hip deep in a fight, though, but since our campaigns are 80-90% role playing to 10-20% fighting, it doesn't particularly matter.

 

[hong]

since our campaigns are 80-90% role playing to 10-20% fighting,

I don't like you anymore.

 

[buzz]

Do RPGs' Wargaming Aspects Overshadow RPing?

Which RPG, what wargaming aspects, and what do you mean by "RPing"? I mean, it's all "RPing"; you're sitting around a table playing an RPG, you're "RPing".

I would say that there are many RPGs that are so strongly rooted in RPGs' wargaming prehistory that their systems are fundamentally at odds with their stated goals. I've seen more than few "lite" RPGs that are basically extremely simple, nigh-uninteresting, combat and task systems wedded to admonitions to "roleplay" and "tell stories". A default assumption is made that since it's an RPG, you need have mechanics for lifting boulders and fighting people, even if these mechanics do nothing to support what the game is supposed to be about.

D&D, IMO, does not fall into this trap. For the most part, it's a game about challenege, action and combat; and most all of the rules support and reward this. Ergo, the tactical nature of the combat system is there to make all of this action interesting to play out. Attempts I've seen to "simplify" d20 tend to result, IMO, in just making it very boring. The mechanics are still all about combat and action, but now the means of playing it out is incredibly blah. Or worse, left up to the determination of the GM.

 

[Tsillanabor]

We've had quite a few sessions of pure role-playing without a single rolled die, so I'd say no.

 

[buzz]

We've had quite a few sessions of pure role-playing without a single rolled die, so I'd say no.

Isn't the fact that you didn't use any of the rules an indicator that they do overshadow "roleplaying"? I mean, you would have used them otherwise, right?