Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6936772" data-attributes="member: 42582">I suggest you reread the OP. No one is trying to force any definitions onto anything.The OP identified two possible meanings of roleplaying, and conjectured that there might be others (via the paranthetical "at least"). It then asked people which one they primarily think of as roleplaying. On the way through it also offered some thoughts on the history of D&D:I didn't even say which one I thought of - whether I think that the "replacement" that I identified is something I favour or disfavour. (Though I did vote on the poll as soon as the thread was posted.)I have no idea - literally - why you think that asking people what they think equates to finding evidence to support an opinion. (The only opinion expressed is one about what Gygax though roleplaying involved. And as far as I can tell you don't even disagree with that - you just don't like his approach to RPGing, which is fair enough. I don't run or play Gygaxian D&D either, though I suspect for different reasons from yours.)Again, I suggest that you reread the OP. No such attribution is made. I simply talk about what Gygax meant by roleplaying, in order to elucidate one way of thinking about it. I also quote the 2nd ed AD&D PHB - presumably that is Zeb Cook - in order to elucidate what I believe to be a different way of thinking about it.I'm not saying that either Gygax or Cook invented roleplaying games. Though I think it's fair to say that Gygax had a big influence on the sort of roleplaying game that is typified by D&D and similar games.You can roleplay in the sense of engaging in some spontaneous characterisation and dialogue. But not in the sense of adopting a person who has distinct capacities and functions that matter to the content of an unfolding shared fiction. (To the extent that Clue has an unfolding shared fiction, it will unfold the same way regardless of whether or how I characterise Professor Plum.)The only RPG experiences I've personally had which resemble the Clue game that you describe are some CoC games run by GMs who are very skilled at narration and characterisation. Those were fun, but I wouldn't want that to be the main sort of RPGing that I engage in.But the functions of a pawns in a board game don't determine any shared fiction. Nor do the functions of team sports players.Maybe the OP should have been clearer about that, but I took for granted that we're all on the same page that RPGs differ from boardgames precisely in virtue of having a shared fiction which is shaped, at least in part, by the players' play of their characters. I certainly didn't intend, and nor did I assert, that is a pastime in which various participants occupy functionally-defined roles = is a RPG.</blockquote>

Verification