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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 4900156" data-attributes="member: 11821">I think that any classification system that says the Buffy RPG is closer to the card game Once Upon A Time than it is to D&D is flawed at the outset. <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=":)" />  Or, for that matter, any classification system which has Arcana Evolved - which has metagame Hero Point mechanics - as somehow not being an RPG is missing something.People know what Roleplaying Games are.  Very few people playing Buffy would say it's not an RPG, or say it's a completely different kind of game than D&D.  I think EW is a lot more interested in appropriating the term than discussing the issue, so I don't know how much further that can go. <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=":)" />I think it is reasonable, though, to talk about a continuum of player involvement in RPGs.  AD&D has essentially zero metagame mechanics, as does a default 3.5.  Eberron 3.5, Marvel Superheroes, Star Wars Saga Edition, and so on involve metagame mechanics wherein the player can influence their character's success, but never influence the world outside their own character except through action of their character.  RPGs like BtVS, Spirit of the Century, and FATE have metagame mechanics wherein the player can influence the game's setting and narrative by, say, adding a ladder in a convenient place.  It's still a mechanic, though, and the player's narrative control is much less than the GM's, which in my mind makes it a very different beast from freeform group storytelling.  Arcana Evolved is an odd duck in that its Hero Points are insanely powerful, but also quite rare in most cases.Saying RPGs with metagame mechanics aren't actually RPGs strikes me as unusually argumentative.  With that said, I think there's a useful distinction to be made within the umbrella category of RPGs.-O</blockquote>

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