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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8656561" data-attributes="member: 82106">But it most certainly wasn't the origination point of the RPG concept, as far as I experienced it. That came from a combination of open-ended adjudication and the focus on single characters. While we were certainly aware of role play as an element of game, as in Actor Stance RP, we didn't consider that to be pivotal to the idea of an RPG at all. Instead it was the directing the character through a scenario where we selected actions from an unlimited palette of possibilities. In a board game you climbed the ropes, slid down the chutes, moved down the road and landed on Atlantic Avenue and paid rent, etc. Even in classic war games you still only had limited options, move or reload your muskets (or whatever the rules said you could do). All of a sudden we could decide to open the door, nail it shut, listen at it, leave it alone, burn it down, knock on it, or ANY OTHER THING we could describe in words, as long as we could explain how it could be accomplished. So, the focus on playing in character, on driving the game via character motives and needs, etc. wasn't really part of that at first. MUCH of this play was pretty much pawn stance, challenge-oriented play. It was not relevant who Bongo the Dwarf was, you were playing a dwarf, with certain abilities, and you could declare things based on that. That was it. I won't claim nobody did something else right there from day one in 1974 or so, but D&amp;D itself didn't really talk about it like that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8656561, member: 82106"] But it most certainly wasn't the origination point of the RPG concept, as far as I experienced it. That came from a combination of open-ended adjudication and the focus on single characters. While we were certainly aware of role play as an element of game, as in Actor Stance RP, we didn't consider that to be pivotal to the idea of an RPG at all. Instead it was the directing the character through a scenario where we selected actions from an unlimited palette of possibilities. In a board game you climbed the ropes, slid down the chutes, moved down the road and landed on Atlantic Avenue and paid rent, etc. Even in classic war games you still only had limited options, move or reload your muskets (or whatever the rules said you could do). All of a sudden we could decide to open the door, nail it shut, listen at it, leave it alone, burn it down, knock on it, or ANY OTHER THING we could describe in words, as long as we could explain how it could be accomplished. So, the focus on playing in character, on driving the game via character motives and needs, etc. wasn't really part of that at first. MUCH of this play was pretty much pawn stance, challenge-oriented play. It was not relevant who Bongo the Dwarf was, you were playing a dwarf, with certain abilities, and you could declare things based on that. That was it. I won't claim nobody did something else right there from day one in 1974 or so, but D&D itself didn't really talk about it like that. [/QUOTE]

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