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Even though there was a grog flipping out about Fiasco not being an RPG, grog's got a point. It's not, by certain definitions. This definition separates an RPG from a storytelling game or a board game. Or at least it stretches out the spectrum, and I'm stealing it from over here so if you've read some lumpley you probably know what I'm going to say. There are two parts at work here, and we'll call them the plot and the props. The plot is the fictional sweep of things. The props are everything physical, the representation of the game on paper, board, tokens, and dice. Rules connect these things, either to themselves or to each others. Rules that connect plot to plot govern who has narrative control and what they can say. Rules that connect props to props govern how they affect each other in the course of play. The interconnections are what make an RPG though. When the events in the plot affect the props, and when manipulation of props affects the plot. My go-to example for this is a camp of bandits with archers in a watchtower. That's a plot thing, but being in a watchtower gives them props advantages like being distant from adjacent squares on the battlemap (because they're off the ground) and having advantages to rain arrows down on anyone on the ground. But somebody can do a props thing to change the plot. Like make a Might roll against some difficulty to push the tower over. That's going to cause some prop changes from it, but it's also a change in the plot -- there's now the wreckage of a tower on the ground and anyone can hang the plot on it. If you, say, play Monopoly "in character", all you've got is still props rules. There is nothing to tie the game to what you believe about how "your character" should be acting, and nothing that will tie you to expressing it in gameplay. If you play an RPG you get all the rules. If you play a storytelling game, you get the rules... except for the part that goes from the plot to the props. If it's not gone entirely it's very weak. You look to the props to determine how the story goes, and generally storytelling games don't factor in anything about the plot as it's already happened. They just give you a twist to work with further. Glazius fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Mar 18, 2015 04:55
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 21:10 |
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