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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ST" data-source="post: 4908742" data-attributes="member: 14053">Okay, let me try that one from the side.Here's a roleplaying game. THE RULESCreate a character. You start with 10 Hit Points, no other stats. They refresh to full at the beginning of each session.The GM will describe the world, and you roleplay your character to portray them. If you get in a conflict, play Hungry Hungry Hippos to determine who wins the conflict. At the end of the fight, take the winner's # of marbles, subtract yours from the total. Take that much damage to your Hit Points. (If you won, you don't take any damage.)----There you go, is that actually a roleplaying game or not?I'm confused because first the conversation was about what rules you could not include for something to be a roleplaying game. Now it seems to also be about what rules the game must have?I mean, there's tons of games out there that are roleplaying games because they tell you "In this game, you roleplay a character", but then the rules are about swinging a sword or how much damage you take from falling off a cliff or whatnot. Isn't replacing all those resolution mechancis with "Play Hippos" just changing the mechanics, meaning they'd still be a roleplaying game?How about freeform roleplaying? No mechanics, but the central rules of "You're GMing, we're the players" still apply -- so is it still a game despite having no written mechanics? How can you differentiate "freeform roleplaying game" from "freeform storytelling game" if neither have mechanics, just an agreed sense of "how we'll play"?Finally, how does stuff in the book like "This is a roleplaying game" or GM's advice sections affect the picture? Personally, I consider that stuff to be part of the rules without being actual mechanics, because they set a default assumption as to how to play. Other people might just ignore those sections entirely and look only at the mechanics.</blockquote>

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