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What is so unique about RPGs?

Started by trechriron, June 04, 2014, 08:10:34 PM

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Marleycat

#60
June 07, 2014, 09:46:19 PM
Quote from: Sommerjon;756314That my thought.

Well I was going to include 30 year olds also but I didn't want to get stoned to death like some women in the past.;)
Don\'t mess with cats we kill wizards in one blow.;)

Bedrockbrendan

#61
June 07, 2014, 11:36:46 PM
Quote from: Ravenswing;756404Emphasis mine.

So stipulated, but that's not the OP's question.  The OP's question was what unique features RPGs had that set them apart from other games.  Since one can plainly RP in many board games -- and indeed some games encourage you to do so -- RP alone is nothing unique.

Sure. I did answer earlier with what is unique for me about rpgs, and that is the ablity to act inside a setting as a character, with the ability to try anything amd go in which ever direction I choose. Perhaps some can achieve that level of agency and immersion in a video game, improv troupe or board game, but i sure can't...and that is definitely the thing that keeps me coming back to RPGs. For me there is something unique about the kind of immersion I get in table top RPGs.

jeff37923

#62
June 07, 2014, 11:41:13 PM
Quote from: Marleycat;756407Well I was going to include 30 year olds also but I didn't want to get stoned to death like some women in the past.;)

You moved to Denver?  :D
"Meh."

Marleycat

#63
June 07, 2014, 11:54:02 PM Last Edit: June 08, 2014, 12:03:45 AM by Marleycat
Quote from: jeff37923;756437You moved to Denver?  :D

I wish given I could smoke weed and troll Bronco fans simultaneously with it being legal.:)

I am thinking about getting a moped/scooter whatever it is..think about it Jeff....me driving something motorized that isn't 4-wheeled.......for impaired dummies like myself. Absolutely nothing will go wrong right?
Don\'t mess with cats we kill wizards in one blow.;)

dragoner

#64
June 07, 2014, 11:58:47 PM
I was gonna say, 1967 is long gone. :D
The most beautiful peonies I ever saw ... were grown in almost pure cat excrement.
-Vonnegut

Nexus

#65
June 08, 2014, 05:27:53 PM Last Edit: June 08, 2014, 05:30:55 PM by Nexus
Quote from: dragoner;756271Here is another question, do they need to be unique?

I don't think rpgs have a purely unique element, something you can't find anywhere else. Its the combination of elements that makes a special experience and their own venue.
Remember when Illinois Nazis where a joke in the Blue Brothers movie?

Democracy, meh? (538)

 "The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn't even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."

jeff37923

#66
June 08, 2014, 05:59:50 PM
Quote from: Marleycat;756441I wish given I could smoke weed and troll Bronco fans simultaneously with it being legal.:)

I am thinking about getting a moped/scooter whatever it is..think about it Jeff....me driving something motorized that isn't 4-wheeled.......for impaired dummies like myself. Absolutely nothing will go wrong right?

I'm imagining something like Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn....:D
"Meh."

Ravenswing

#67
June 08, 2014, 06:15:40 PM
Quote from: Nexus;756618I don't think rpgs have a purely unique element, something you can't find anywhere else. Its the combination of elements that makes a special experience and their own venue.
I think the continuity issue is unique.  I've been mulling it over, and I can't think of any other game that just doesn't end as a matter of course.  Most games, someone wins, loses or draws: there's a finite outcome.  Gambling games?  Sooner or later, all the contestants go broke or cash out.
This was a cool site, until it became an echo chamber for whiners screeching about how the "Evul SJWs are TAKING OVAH!!!" every time any RPG book included a non-"traditional" NPC or concept, or their MAGA peeners got in a twist. You're in luck, drama queens: the Taliban is hiring.

Simlasa

#68
June 08, 2014, 06:39:35 PM
Quote from: Ravenswing;756631I think the continuity issue is unique.  I've been mulling it over, and I can't think of any other game that just doesn't end as a matter of course.  Most games, someone wins, loses or draws: there's a finite outcome.  Gambling games?  Sooner or later, all the contestants go broke or cash out.
Lots of wargames can be part of larger campaigns. I've played smaller skirmish games like Necromunda where there was ongoing development of player gangs between games... vendettas and shifting power setting up new scenarios for battles. It could all happen in the course of an evening or be drawn out over a whole summer... just a couple of players or many... with developments from individual games affecting the whole.
I think GW has run similar ongoing world events using 40K and WFB.
A good campaign can be a lot of work to set up and manage but when it works it's my favorite way to play.

Nexus

#69
June 08, 2014, 06:56:34 PM
Quote from: Ravenswing;756631I think the continuity issue is unique.  I've been mulling it over, and I can't think of any other game that just doesn't end as a matter of course.  Most games, someone wins, loses or draws: there's a finite outcome.  Gambling games?  Sooner or later, all the contestants go broke or cash out.

War games can be played as campaigns very similar to rpg campaigns. There have been some computer games that don't end in the sense you can keep playing them though they encounters will be random, after the plot it wrapped up or ignored.
Remember when Illinois Nazis where a joke in the Blue Brothers movie?

Democracy, meh? (538)

 "The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn't even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."

dragoner

#70
June 08, 2014, 07:06:04 PM
Quote from: Nexus;756618I don't think rpgs have a purely unique element, something you can't find anywhere else. Its the combination of elements that makes a special experience and their own venue.

They are in many ways, they extended play version of the imaginary people and places we created as kids. I wouldn't call it unique in it's own way, but it is different.
The most beautiful peonies I ever saw ... were grown in almost pure cat excrement.
-Vonnegut

Nexus

#71
June 08, 2014, 07:14:56 PM
Quote from: dragoner;756645They are in many ways, they extended play version of the imaginary people and places we created as kids. I wouldn't call it unique in it's own way, but it is different.

I agree rpgs are unique medium  I meant that there isn't a single thing about them, any one element that sets them apart as it doesn't exist anywhere else. Its the combination of elements that does. IMO.
Remember when Illinois Nazis where a joke in the Blue Brothers movie?

Democracy, meh? (538)

 "The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn't even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."

RPGPundit

#72
June 13, 2014, 10:09:48 PM
RPGs let you create and/or exist in another world.
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