I was thinking about how I usually fumble when trying to explain RPGs to non-players.
It got me thinking about what the most basic qualities of an RPG should be. I figured it was pretty personal, so an explanation of RPGs was always going to be just the perspective of whoever was describing them.
The most basic description I came up with was that it's a game involving a group of people telling a character-driven story, and setting their own personal win conditions.
Is there anything I'm leaving out?
What do you think makes a game an RPG?
>>43980030
A bunch of people gather together to tell an interactive story. One person controls the world of the story, the other people control one main character each. The players describe what their characters do, and the GM describes how the world reacts. To ensure that the main characters are not infallible, when a character attempts an action that may fail, their player rolls some assortment of dice, according to a system agreed upon prior to starting. The GM also rolls dice under this system.
>>43980120
See, this already contains a lot of subjective preferences as well.
The division between a game master and players isn't strictly necessary. The most ubiquitous RPGs have it, but you limit yourself if you consider it a Universal Thing That Should Be Done.
The same goes for the reference to dice. There are diceless games that you might still consider RPGs. Mentioning them in your 'starting bid' of a general description of RPGs already starts to limit the listener's ability to form a fairly objective picture.
A game in which you make decisions as a character appearing in the game.
>>43980296
"What do you mean, anon? What decisions? How is this a game?"
>>43980273
Well first of all, I am of the opinion that if there are no dice, you remove the game part and turn it into just an RP, but let's shoulder that debate.
It doesn't matter if they come into the hobby with a subjective view of it because everyone comes into it with a subjective view. Doesn't matter if you started when you were 5 or you were 20, you'll have been introduced to it in a subjective way. Does that somehow lessen your experiences with RPGs? Does it limit the ways you can expand your perception of the concept, into territory you've never explored before?
I argue that it does not! Most RPGs that break away from the common perception of the medium and the status quo are made by people with that aim in mind. They're using the "standard" of RPGs as a starting point in there effort to be creative in expanding the medium.
If you go too broad and undefined with your explanations in order to accommodate the depth of the entire medium, you may find that you fail to present a clear image for the listener to visualize.
I'm just spitballing here, and I don't have much professional experience with explaining things, but I believe that that's the way to go.
>>43980347
>Well first of all, I am of the opinion that if there are no dice, you remove the game part and turn it into just an RP, but let's shoulder that debate.
Playing cards, betting from pools of points, et cetera.
>If you go too broad and undefined with your explanations in order to accommodate the depth of the entire medium, you may find that you fail to present a clear image for the listener to visualize.
True, but it's a bit disheartening that the basic description of 'an RPG' tends to be geared so much towards D&D. Especially now that several 'generations' of players have spent some time sussing out rulesets for RPGs, and D&D isn't necessarily the best system available anymore.
>>43980370
To be fair, with most of my experiences explaining RPGs to people, I find that the quickest and easiest route is to say "like D&D". It's the most well known outside of gaming culture, and it's not hard to branch out and explain how other RPGs differ from it. D&D is used as a base because of its notoriety, not because of its quality. If you take some time to establish a clear, solid picture of a typical D&D game, you can explain other RPGs by simply explain how they are different.
>>43980343
To see if you how well you do at difficult tasks, you roll dice to see if you succeed.
So for example, if a vampire to move in close and stare into your eyes with a hypnotizing gazelike this- you might have to roll to see if you can resist his otherworldly charms.Care to roll the dice-?
>>43980030
>Dangit John, our house is turning into trees!
>This is what happens when you dont pay the Druid's protection bracket!
>>43980434
Thanks for the plothook.
