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What is the "role" in roleplaying
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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 6935453" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>It's a pretty big leap to say "your character has a different mechanic than another character" to "your character has an entirely different function than other characters". </p><p></p><p>First, it varies too much to be a useful qualifier. It's too broad. It varies from something as concrete as 4e's "you're the controler and do AoEs and crowd control" to "you're the face and charm people" to "you're the rider whose good at anything related to horses".</p><p></p><p>Second, it overlaps too much with board games and (non-RPG) video games. Like entirely. </p><p></p><p>Third, not every game supports that; it'd be easy to make a Fate character whose aspects are unrelated to their role. And unless you make a party together, sometimes your function in the group is not always the function you designed your character for. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, I agree that roles can be important in the game. Because they're a big part of narrative conventions. Roles are all over TV tropes. The 5 Man Band trope. Ensemble dramas often used roles as a shorthand. <em>Leverage</em> is a textbook example. And character at the table very often fill certain roles - especially in D&D and D&D-esque games with hard coded classes. </p><p></p><p>But it's a stretch to say the "role" in "role-playing games" comes from filling a role/ function in the party.</p><p></p><p>(It's even more a stretch on the part of the OP to attribute the term "roleplaying game" to Gygax, just because they were used in the 1st Edition AD&D books, when the origins of the term are lost to time, don't appear in the OD&D books, and appear in use easily 15 years before D&D exists.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>Intent is a huge thing here. Intent and expectation. </p><p></p><p>You <strong><em>can</em></strong> play <em>Clue</em> and roleplay. You can adopt the persona of Professor Plum as you play. And you can RP your heart out in tactical miniature combat games like <em>Descent </em>or <em>BattleTech</em>. You could even protray your generally faceless wizard in <em>Magic the Gathering</em> (or trainer in <em>Pokemon</em>). But that's not the expectation, so they're not RPGs. That's not the baseline. </p><p></p><p>You <em><strong>can </strong></em>play bob the human fighter as a pog that is moved from battle to battle, or run D&D like a series of tactical battles. But that's not the norm or the baseline. Therefore it isn't useful in defining the game.</p><p></p><p>Similarly, LARPing also exists and overlaps with RPGs. But I wouldn't classify dressing up, moving around a real world space, or combat with foam weapons in the definition of RPGs either.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 6935453, member: 37579"] It's a pretty big leap to say "your character has a different mechanic than another character" to "your character has an entirely different function than other characters". First, it varies too much to be a useful qualifier. It's too broad. It varies from something as concrete as 4e's "you're the controler and do AoEs and crowd control" to "you're the face and charm people" to "you're the rider whose good at anything related to horses". Second, it overlaps too much with board games and (non-RPG) video games. Like entirely. Third, not every game supports that; it'd be easy to make a Fate character whose aspects are unrelated to their role. And unless you make a party together, sometimes your function in the group is not always the function you designed your character for. Yes, I agree that roles can be important in the game. Because they're a big part of narrative conventions. Roles are all over TV tropes. The 5 Man Band trope. Ensemble dramas often used roles as a shorthand. [I]Leverage[/I] is a textbook example. And character at the table very often fill certain roles - especially in D&D and D&D-esque games with hard coded classes. But it's a stretch to say the "role" in "role-playing games" comes from filling a role/ function in the party. (It's even more a stretch on the part of the OP to attribute the term "roleplaying game" to Gygax, just because they were used in the 1st Edition AD&D books, when the origins of the term are lost to time, don't appear in the OD&D books, and appear in use easily 15 years before D&D exists.) Intent is a huge thing here. Intent and expectation. You [B][I]can[/I][/B] play [I]Clue[/I] and roleplay. You can adopt the persona of Professor Plum as you play. And you can RP your heart out in tactical miniature combat games like [I]Descent [/I]or [I]BattleTech[/I]. You could even protray your generally faceless wizard in [I]Magic the Gathering[/I] (or trainer in [I]Pokemon[/I]). But that's not the expectation, so they're not RPGs. That's not the baseline. You [I][B]can [/B][/I]play bob the human fighter as a pog that is moved from battle to battle, or run D&D like a series of tactical battles. But that's not the norm or the baseline. Therefore it isn't useful in defining the game. Similarly, LARPing also exists and overlaps with RPGs. But I wouldn't classify dressing up, moving around a real world space, or combat with foam weapons in the definition of RPGs either. [/QUOTE]
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