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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9010442" data-attributes="member: 42582">So here's a question: is a person who purchases a jersey or hoodie that carries the logo of their favourite sports team participating in sport?From the point of view of an athletics association, or a public health bureaucracy, the answer seems to be no.From the point of view of the team's accountant, or a commercial league, the answer is probably yes. At least, the fan is contributing to their coffers.What's the real answer to the question? There isn't one. It depends on how we want to carve things up.Likewise for playing RPGs. Is a person who whiles away a few hours generating Traveller characters just for the fun of it, with no intention that they ever be used in play, playing a RPG? In some sense, yes - they're playing (in the sense of engaging themself in an amusing pastime), and they're using a RPG to do so.But clearly in an equally straightforward sense, they're not playing a RPG at all, because they're not sitting around with other people creating a shared imaginative space in which interesting things happen to participant-controlled protagonists.The OP, in asking Why do RPGs have rules?, was thinking more in line with that second sense of what it means to play a RPG.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9010442, member: 42582"] So here's a question: is a person who purchases a jersey or hoodie that carries the logo of their favourite sports team [I]participating in sport[/I]? From the point of view of an athletics association, or a public health bureaucracy, the answer seems to be [I]no[/I]. From the point of view of the team's accountant, or a commercial league, the answer is probably [I]yes[/I]. At least, the fan is contributing to their coffers. What's the [I]real[/I] answer to the question? There isn't one. It depends on how we want to carve things up. Likewise for playing RPGs. Is a person who whiles away a few hours generating Traveller characters just for the fun of it, with no intention that they ever be used in play, [I]playing a RPG[/I]? In some sense, yes - they're [I]playing[/I] (in the sense of engaging themself in an amusing pastime), and they're using a RPG to do so. But clearly in an equally straightforward sense, they're not playing a RPG at all, because they're not sitting around with other people creating a shared imaginative space in which interesting things happen to participant-controlled protagonists. The OP, in asking [I]Why do RPGs have rules?[/I], was thinking more in line with that second sense of what it means to play a RPG. [/QUOTE]

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