The Characteristics of RPGs: Misbehavior

My notes on this section begin with "the inherently social nature of RPGs" but as I sat down to write, it occurred to me that I haven't exactly explored the distinction between one type of game and another, in regard to their nature as a social activity. In other words, how exactly is a tabletop...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Game Customization

We should take care when examining this particular characteristic of games, in regard to roleplaying games, because the hobby as a whole has . . . a bit of a reputation. It's one of the defining characteristics of RPGs, one of the things that people mention almost immediately when describing the game to an outsider:...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Spectation

This next section has been giving me some trouble because, as I've discussed in the past, I struggle to grasp the appeal of games as sport. That is to say, I don't understand why people want to watch others play games. I can sort of wrap my head around sports, as a spectator activity, but...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Conceit & Motif

When we speak of a game's conceit, we take conceit in the sense of an extended metaphor. Some games are purely abstract, such as go, Tetris, or poker, but most nonsports games are at least metaphorically "about" something. Games with a conceit might have a very light one, in the sense that chess is vaguely...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Superstructure – The Metagame

A great deal of what matters in a game takes place outside of or alongside the gameplay proper. There may be preparation before the game, crowds of people watching it, stories told about it, modifications made to it, or behavior that goes against the official or accepted practices of the game. (p.203) This is critical...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Sensory Feedback

I was meaning to hold off on a separate post for this topic, mainly due to my prior assertion that RPGs offer very little in terms of sensory feedback, but a recent conversation on Twitter has me thinking about the details: https://twitter.com/MrPuddins/status/1265275295675944961 https://twitter.com/SimonTVesper/status/1265278654264688641 https://twitter.com/SimonTVesper/status/1265279090262790145 so let's discuss . . . Sensory Feedback in RPGs Recall...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Player Effort

We'll be coming around to the conclusion drawn from our last article in due time ~ these things need a moment to coalesce, after all ~ for today, we're looking at the chapter on player effort, specifically: Costs Characteristics of Games defines cost as: every possible obstruction to your playing the game, including how long...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Indeterminacy

In this chapter, we discuss one of the more critical elements to games (in general) and to role-playing games (in particular): the "uncertainty in outcome." (p.138) While Characteristics of Games tries to approach the overall topic from an "agnostic" point of view ~ not committing to a definition of "game" ~ preferring to accept the...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Games as Systems

With the first few chapters under our belt, we progress into a higher level of ludology. First, however, we should make an observation about definitions: Characteristics of Games recognizes the difficult in pinning down a definition of the term "game:" Words (and the concepts they represent) as people actually use them do not possess necessary...

The Characteristics of RPGs: Infrastructure

Rules . . . instructions telling players what actions they can take and what the outcome (immediately, in terms of changed game state; ultimately, in terms of winning or losing) of various actions will be. Rules may be enforced by the players themselves (common in casual paper games), enforced by judges (common in formal sporting...