Note to WotC: They're not TRPGs. They're just RPGs.

[Morrus]

concensus? No rules depend on superior marketing. unfortunately WoTC does not have the marketing budget nor reach to match WoW

That's part of the consensus. And sometimes no matter how much money you throw at something, you still can't control it.

 

[Morlock]

I just know I find the "pnp rpgs" and "ttrpg" stuff to be absurd. First of all, "tabletop" RPGs are the only real RPGs. The rest are all pseudo-RPGs. The whole gd point of "tabletop" RPGs is that you aren't limited - at all - by the number of plastic toys or digital models you can afford. Second, "tabletop" RPGs came first, they invented the term. You don't re-classify the Original just because you're making more money from your digital knock-offs.

And no, I don't hate pseudo-RPGs. On the contrary, I've enjoyed a few myself.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think they use that construction because the co-opting has largely already happened, whatever WotC may want - more folks now play computer RPGs than tabletop, I expect.

This. It would be nice if a google "RPG" search always turned up stuff like D&D, but RPG seems to have taken on the meaning of video game RPG these days. I can see the need to add the T.

 

[RedShirtNo5.1]

I just know I find the "pnp rpgs" and "ttrpg" stuff to be absurd. First of all, "tabletop" RPGs are the only real RPGs. The rest are all pseudo-RPGs.

How do you enjoy typing on your mechanical calculating machine? You can't type on a human, it's just absurd.

 

[Morlock]

How do you enjoy typing on your mechanical calculating machine? You can't type on a human, it's just absurd.

I'm not. I stopped typing and started punching him in the face.

This. It would be nice if a google "RPG" search always turned up stuff like D&D, but RPG seems to have taken on the meaning of video game RPG these days. I can see the need to add the T.

Man has a point. I was just looking for some post-apocalyptic resources, and was inundated with useless info about pseudo-RPGs.

 

[Jhaelen]

Man has a point. I was just looking for some post-apocalyptic resources, and was inundated with useless info about pseudo-RPGs.

Damn all those wrong-way drivers!

 

[aramis erak]

I don't visit the WotC site that often so only just noticed they've started calling D&D a "TRPG". The 'T' for "tabletop" is superfluous. D&D is an RPG. No specification is required.

Any related class of game such as so-called computer RPGs or live action RPGs, CRPGs and LARPs respectively, require elaboration but the version played with paper, pencil and dice doesn't.

The danger of specifying the 'T' is that it provides a licence to related classes of games to co-opt the term "RPG" without specification. For example, I saw a poster for a CRPG on public transport around the time the LotR films were in the cinema claiming to be "the first RPG set in Tolkien's Middle Earth". What they really meant was the first CRPG. I believe the first published RPG officially set in Middle Earth was MERP.

Wizards shouldn't encourage that way of thinking.

Apologies if this has been discussed before in the forum. I couldn't find an existing thread.

You're 20 years to late to make a meaningful objection to the term RPG being coopted by computer games, and about 10 years to late to be able to gain any traction against the T...

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

"Tabletop" seems to be a word that attracts a bit of attention judging by the success of Wil Wheaton's show of the same name. But if this is about search optimisation, they definitely need to build a better website... which, of course, is another topic.

Yeah, I feel the same when people refer to "British English". It's simply "English"!

Or real English.

 

[Zhaleskra]

At least in and around Michigan, there are a lot of tabletop gamers of all kinds. Whether that is more or less than computer gamers, I don't know, I deliberately avoid such polls: not important enough for my time.

Although I prefer brevity, spending a few extra words to say "book and dice", "pen and paper", or "tabletop" makes my intention clear from the beginning, thus avoiding anyone needing to ask the question assumptions mentioned earlier. It's one or three more words. Takes two seconds.

And on the British/Real English v. American English: I understand why and how we use different words to mean the same thing or the same words to mean different things, but I've never understood either "Truck v. Lorrie" or why a "Trunk v. Boot", shouldn't it be "bum" if you're think about the car as a body? Also, I've apparently been pronouncing "scone" wrong.

 

[Umbran]

... I've never understood either "Truck v. Lorrie"

A little poking around suggests that "lorry" comes to us from the English railroad. Might have its roots in "lurry", which back in the 1500s meant "to drag about".

or why a "Trunk v. Boot", shouldn't it be "bum" if you're think about the car as a body?

A car afficionado may correct me if I am wrong, but back in the day, often the engine of the car was in the back, and the storage compartment in the front, like a classic VW Bug. So, it isn't thinking about the car as a body.

As far as I can tell, the term "boot" comes from the times of horse and carriage. The best statement of it I have seen is thus:

"In the case of the English "boot", the origin is that in the 18th and 19th centuries, the coachman used to sit on a locker where he could store, among other things, his boots. For this reason, this was termed the "boot locker" and after a while an additional compartment situated at the rear of the coach was used, also called for the same reason the "boot" (for short).
...
As for the American "trunk", well it should suffice to look at all the classic cars designed in the post WWI era, for which trunks were mounted at the rear end."