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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 3698778" data-attributes="member: 30001">It's strange that a lot of us have been playing for decades and we still can't solidly define what RPGs really are.  I don't like "story telling game" - reminds me too much of railroading, and if I wanted railroading and limited options I'd go with a MMORPG.  I play RPGs because it's a chance to explore an imaginary setting with a limitless set of options (hopefully).  And you're not just exploring physical terrain - you explore (and interact with) magic systems, political systems, social systems, ecological sytems, etc.  Plus you can roll dice, level up, manage resources, make jokes, see what NPCs will do in response to what you do.  I don't want the DM to have an agenda when he's adjucating all of this.So my character could, for example, come across a dragon in charge of a band of wizards (social system) who have developed a network of portals (magic system) to try to dominate the local region (political system).  My character gets to talk to rulers, fight the monsters, figure out how the portal system works.  He can kill all the monsters, take over the thing, and use it as a base for further exploration - or just blow the thing up, marry the local duchess, and outfit a ship for further exploration.  Or find an alternate dimension within the portal system.  Or whatever - the ideal situation IMO is the flexibility I have to define the events.  The basic problem with MMORPGs IMO is that even a bad DM is nearly infinitely more intelligent and creative than a computer.  IMO a good DM reacts to the situations and allows players to choose their own actions.  This makes story telling pretty much impossible because there's no story to tell until after the action is over and at that point folks are probably to busy declaring actions for the next round of events.  If any story telling goes on, it's after the game, not a part of it.MMORPGs also have too many PCs, AFAICT.  And those PCs aren't immersed in the setting at all - they're obviously just metagaming and building up their characters (except for a few crackpots that are too used to RPGs).  Large hordes of people meandering about, clubbing things.  No one seems to have any investment in the world other than accumulating stuff and becoming more powerful.   To me, it doesn't resemble any sort of real fantasy world in the least.</blockquote>

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