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Message: <blockquote data-quote="R_Chance" data-source="post: 7728263" data-attributes="member: 55149">I agree, at least partially, but... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  There are areas within an RPG that are "loops". The classic dungeon with monsters, treasure and random encounters for example. PCs enter dungeon, explore, encounter monster, overcome monster, find treasure, wash, rinse, repeat until they leave it or die. I still have "dungeon" style areas in my 43 year old game. With thought, planning and history (of the setting) behind them, they work and are reasonable parts of the setting. I also have what I call "kernels" (sites for you). Go to location, find an adventure possibility, choose to follow it or not. If not, you move on. If you follow it you journey to other locations and pursue the adventure until you complete it or abandon it. Kernels can be found in any place, in a town, a village in the wilderness at a location or a dungeon. They might be specific to a location (or might be accessible from multiple locations) or to a specific NPC (or type of NPC). Combine the dungeon, the adventure kernel and ordinary interactions (shopping, worship, bar hopping, gambling, etc.) and you get a living, interesting, campaign.Comparisons of video games, movies, or books to tabletop RPGs always fall flat to me. There are, very rough, parallels, but tabletop games are far more complex and have more variations possible. Books and movies (and television) are static. Books  can bring more detail than movies or television, and television series can do more than movies, but, in the end, they are static. What happens, happens without choice. You are along for the ride. And how often have you said "you idiot, why didn't you..." during a movie, television show, or book? Your'e intervention and agency and the reaction of a "living" world make RPGs more complex, and interesting. Computer and video games have limited choice, just not at the level of tabletop RPGs. Tabletop RPGs are replete with a huge variety of choices and interactions. Somewhat less so in adventure paths, but even then, there are many ways forward. A good sandbox campaign is like the gift that keeps on giving. That's what makes it fun. And different, in degree anyway, from the others.</blockquote>

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