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<blockquote data-quote="Puddles" data-source="post: 8180076" data-attributes="member: 7026093">I've been trying to refine my own definition of an RPG after thinking about this thread over the past few days and am leaning towards:&quot;A game with resolution mechanics that can cope with any player input&quot;.So, essentially any game that allows a player to attempt anything - and then has a mechanic that determines what happens as a result of that input.This would stop wargames such an Inquistor from being RPGs, (because while it has a GM that can adjudicate unique actions, it has no resolution mechanic for actions such as &quot;I move off the battlefield&quot;). And also hack'n'slash boardgames like Heroquest and its descendants, (where an input such as &quot;we wish to leave the dungeon, search for trees, chop them down, and use the wood to make a fire to smoke out the inhabitants of the dungeon&quot; has no resolution mechanic).I think this is similar to [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] 's definition, (If I am mistaken, I apologise). With the distinction between fiction and mechanics. Although rather than needing to say one takes the lead before the other, it's just that the mechanics need to be able to cope with all and any fiction.Now this would preclude all CRPGs from being an RPG under that definition*, but I think that's needed because I think if you coded Heroquest or Gloomhaven into a computer game, I'm not sure how it would be different from Skyrim or any other CRPG except in scope. Instead CRPGs try to emulate the experience of a tabletop RPG rather than being a true RPG, (much like dungeon-delving boardgames do).It also means 'games in which you role-play' such as murder mysteries wouldn't be RPGs because there is no resolution for say, grappling the suspect on the kitchen floor so they can't get away, (except for not getting invited to the next one).*When I was very young, my dad had an old Amstrad computer with the 'Guild of Thieves' computer game, as a text based game, this game theoretically allowed for all player inputs, however if you typed in anything it had not accounted for, the computer simply replied with &quot;so?&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Puddles, post: 8180076, member: 7026093"] I've been trying to refine my own definition of an RPG after thinking about this thread over the past few days and am leaning towards: "A game with resolution mechanics that can cope with any player input". So, essentially any game that allows a player to attempt anything - and then has a mechanic that determines what happens as a result of that input. This would stop wargames such an Inquistor from being RPGs, (because while it has a GM that can adjudicate unique actions, it has no resolution mechanic for actions such as "I move off the battlefield"). And also hack'n'slash boardgames like Heroquest and its descendants, (where an input such as "we wish to leave the dungeon, search for trees, chop them down, and use the wood to make a fire to smoke out the inhabitants of the dungeon" has no resolution mechanic). I think this is similar to [USER=42582]@pemerton[/USER] 's definition, (If I am mistaken, I apologise). With the distinction between fiction and mechanics. Although rather than needing to say one takes the lead before the other, it's just that the mechanics need to be able to cope with all and any fiction. Now this would preclude all CRPGs from being an RPG under that definition*, but I think that's needed because I think if you coded Heroquest or Gloomhaven into a computer game, I'm not sure how it would be different from Skyrim or any other CRPG except in scope. Instead CRPGs try to emulate the experience of a tabletop RPG rather than being a true RPG, (much like dungeon-delving boardgames do). It also means '[I]games in which you role-play' [/I]such as murder mysteries wouldn't be RPGs because there is no resolution for say, grappling the suspect on the kitchen floor so they can't get away, (except for not getting invited to the next one). *When I was very young, my dad had an old Amstrad computer with the 'Guild of Thieves' computer game, as a text based game, this game theoretically allowed for all player inputs, however if you typed in anything it had not accounted for, the computer simply replied with "so?". [/QUOTE]

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