What is an RPG?

[revenant]

A game is an RPG if Mobygames says it's an RPG.

[rusty_shackleford]

(I edit mobygames)

[Element]

The opposite of the immersive sim. Abstraction of the world and its encounters into explicit numbers that you alter for your character before, and during, the journey. Then we can simply argue on the nature of the journey and what elements (or their absence) bolster/dilute the RPG-ness.

[Humbaba]

Anything with a character sheet and combat is an rpg. This qualifies blobbers, disqualifies Disco Elysium, which I think is something that needs to be considered.



-Humbaba

[Emphyrio]

There are three types of RPG:

RPG Games (Terraria, Bethesda, Nethack, Diablo, Dungeon of Nahulebek)
Roleplaying RPGs (Planescape Tournament, Disco Elysium, Age of Decadence)
And RPGs that have neither roleplaying nor are they games (Eschalon, Underrail, Fallout 1 and 2, Arcanum)

[Sweeper]

There are three types of RPG:

RPG Games (Terraria, Bethesda, Nethack, Diablo, Dungeon of Nahulebek)
Roleplaying RPGs (Planescape Tournament, Disco Elysium, Age of Decadence)
And RPGs that have neither roleplaying nor are they games (Eschalon, Underrail, Fallout 1 and 2, Arcanum)

The most ******** post I've seen yet on the HQ, and mind you, you have some tough competition here.
Congrats.
And if this was some
>teehee I was merely pretending don't you like shitposting bro?
type thing, we DO NOT joke about such things here. RPGs are serious business.

[Emphyrio]

There are three types of RPG:

RPG Games (Terraria, Bethesda, Nethack, Diablo, Dungeon of Nahulebek)
Roleplaying RPGs (Planescape Tournament, Disco Elysium, Age of Decadence)
And RPGs that have neither roleplaying nor are they games (Eschalon, Underrail, Fallout 1 and 2, Arcanum)

The most ******** post I've seen yet on the HQ, and mind you, you have some tough competition here.
Congrats.
And if this was some
>teehee I was merely pretending don't you like shitposting bro?
type thing, we DO NOT joke about such things here. RPGs are serious business.

[rusty_shackleford]

In no particular order:

• Combat, specifically combat utilizing the statistics of the character(s).
• The outcome of most important events must involve, but not be entirely determined by, some form of a randomizer.
• Quests, including a comprehensive quest.
• Character advancement of its statistics in some form, including through better equipment.
• Being able to interact with NPCs and/or the environment in a meaningful way.
• The character(s) or party must have some form of an inventory to hold items they collect on their adventures.
• The character(s) must be customizable, either at character creation or through other means during the game itself.

Any attempt to define CRPG that excludes early RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima, or excludes tabletop RPGs such as AD&D or Traveller is inherently not valid.

[Rand]

In no particular order:

• Quests, including a comprehensive quest.

Any attempt to define CRPG that excludes early RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima, or excludes tabletop RPGs such as AD&D or Traveller is inherently not valid.

How loose are you being with this?
Take Mount & Blade. It fits into your list (especially Bannerlord) but nobody would call it an RPG.
The only "quest" is what you decide for yourself. Unless you want to include faction war commands or smithing orders.

[rusty_shackleford]

In no particular order:

• Quests, including a comprehensive quest.

Any attempt to define CRPG that excludes early RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima, or excludes tabletop RPGs such as AD&D or Traveller is inherently not valid.

How loose are you being with this?
Take Mount & Blade. It fits into your list (especially Bannerlord) but nobody would call it an RPG.
The only "quest" is what you decide for yourself. Unless you want to include faction war commands or smithing orders.

Mountain Blade does not have an overarching quest, it is a simulation.

[Rand]

In no particular order:

• Quests, including a comprehensive quest.

Any attempt to define CRPG that excludes early RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima, or excludes tabletop RPGs such as AD&D or Traveller is inherently not valid.

How loose are you being with this?
Take Mount & Blade. It fits into your list (especially Bannerlord) but nobody would call it an RPG.
The only "quest" is what you decide for yourself. Unless you want to include faction war commands or smithing orders.

Mountain Blade does not have an overarching quest, it is a simulation.

So we're not counting "Conqer Caladria" as a quest. Okay, good.
You DO know about the banner quest in that game, right?

[rusty_shackleford]

How loose are you being with this?
Take Mount & Blade. It fits into your list (especially Bannerlord) but nobody would call it an RPG.
The only "quest" is what you decide for yourself. Unless you want to include faction war commands or smithing orders.

Mountain Blade does not have an overarching quest, it is a simulation.

So we're not counting "Conqer Caladria" as a quest. Okay, good.
You DO know about the banner quest in that game, right?

Not a real overarching quest.

[rusty_shackleford]

In no particular order:

• Combat, specifically combat utilizing the statistics of the character(s).
• The outcome of most important events must involve, but not be entirely determined by, some form of a randomizer.
• Quests, including a comprehensive quest.
• Character advancement of its statistics in some form, including through better equipment.
• Being able to interact with NPCs and/or the environment in a meaningful way.
• The character(s) or party must have some form of an inventory to hold items they collect on their adventures.
• The character(s) must be customizable, either at character creation or through other means during the game itself.

Any attempt to define CRPG that excludes early RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima, or excludes tabletop RPGs such as AD&D or Traveller is inherently not valid.

If anyone could find some obvious gotchas that this doesn't(or does) cover, I'd be interested.
e.g., I consider Wizardry to have environment interactions covered through puzzles, traps, etc., The real enemy of Wizardry is, after all, the dungeon itself.

[Emphyrio]

In no particular order:

• Combat, specifically combat utilizing the statistics of the character(s).
• The outcome of most important events must involve, but not be entirely determined by, some form of a randomizer.
• Quests, including a comprehensive quest.
• Character advancement of its statistics in some form, including through better equipment.
• Being able to interact with NPCs and/or the environment in a meaningful way.
• The character(s) or party must have some form of an inventory to hold items they collect on their adventures.
• The character(s) must be customizable, either at character creation or through other means during the game itself.

Any attempt to define CRPG that excludes early RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima, or excludes tabletop RPGs such as AD&D or Traveller is inherently not valid.

If anyone could find some obvious gotchas that this doesn't(or does) cover, I'd be interested.
e.g., I consider Wizardry to have environment interactions covered through puzzles, traps, etc., The real enemy of Wizardry is, after all, the dungeon itself.

What do you mean by events being determined by a randomizer? What game would be disqualified?

[revenant]

In no particular order:

• Combat, specifically combat utilizing the statistics of the character(s).
• The outcome of most important events must involve, but not be entirely determined by, some form of a randomizer.
• Quests, including a comprehensive quest.
• Character advancement of its statistics in some form, including through better equipment.
• Being able to interact with NPCs and/or the environment in a meaningful way.
• The character(s) or party must have some form of an inventory to hold items they collect on their adventures.
• The character(s) must be customizable, either at character creation or through other means during the game itself.

Any attempt to define CRPG that excludes early RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima, or excludes tabletop RPGs such as AD&D or Traveller is inherently not valid.

If anyone could find some obvious gotchas that this doesn't(or does) cover, I'd be interested.
e.g., I consider Wizardry to have environment interactions covered through puzzles, traps, etc., The real enemy of Wizardry is, after all, the dungeon itself.

What do you mean by events being determined by a randomizer? What game would be disqualified?

Games without RNG, such as fighting games and possibly many FPS, RTS, adventure games and others.

[maidenhaver]

RPGs must be party-based. That's where role comes from; not from your avatar's role in a grand narative, but your party's composition. aRPGs are about an avatar's quest. They're narative-driven, because single-player combat mostly sucks, from all the muh balance, and heavily influenced by action games. They can have companions, like in Jade Empire, Ambermoon, and KoTOR, but they clearly only exist for narative reasons, or to give your avatar a boost, because arpgs suck at party combats, not because the game is about parties of heroes. aRPGs aren't true RPGs, but only bastards of action games with rpg elements.

[rusty_shackleford]

If anything, being able to control more than one party member makes it not an RPG

[maidenhaver]

Not on PCs.

[rusty_shackleford]

Unless you're a ****** you can only roleplay one character.

[Falksi]

I've never partaken in this endless debate before, but simply put I boil it down to 2 things as far as computer games go:

1. Progress and success has to be dependent on thought and considered decision making, not skill.
2. The game has to include various characters with distinct traits and/or personalities.

[Lich]

Unless you're a ****** you can only roleplay one character.

According to this line of reasoning you're already a ****** if you roleplay a character other than yourself

[Watser]

Unless you're a ****** you can only roleplay one character.

According to this line of reasoning you're already a ****** if you roleplay a character other than yourself

Rusty has self-inserted himself into every single tabletop session and now nobody wants to play with him.
Sad.

[rusty_shackleford]

It's why you can't control party members in Fallout btw, a proper RPG.

[maidenhaver]

Unless you're a ****** you can only roleplay one character.

If that's your cope.

[Boontaker]

Unless you're a ****** you can only roleplay one character.

If that's your cope.

Are you claiming you're NOT ******? In 2023? Are you a golem? You vaccinated buddy?

[Hauberk]

A role-playing game is the kind of game where you sit down around a table with a bunch of friends, some dice, paper and pencils. All of the guys, except one, imagine that they're on an adventure and engage in ultra-violent behavior, while the latter guy imagines he's murdering his buddies while staying as impartial as possible. No womyn™ or digital appliances allowed.


The computer programs labeled as "RPG games" may have something to do with this prestigious activity. Some more (Fallout 1, AoD), some less (Current year perv simulators), but ultimately they are something else entirely. The label RPG is just like the label roguelike: Empty buzzwords, almost completely bereft of the original meaning.

[WhiteShark]

The computer programs labeled as "RPG games" may have something to do with this prestigious activity. Some more (Fallout 1, AoD), some less (Current year perv simulators), but ultimately they are something else entirely. The label RPG is just like the label roguelike: Empty buzzwords, almost completely bereft of the original meaning.

Roguelike has a pretty solid definition. cRPG less so, but it's still there. The real crime is cRPGs being referred to as RPGs and thus displacing (TT)RPGs from their rightful initialism. (Also, the definition of (TT)RPG is fraught with more debate than you imply. There are plenty of storyames and other activities that involve sitting around a table with friends, rolling dice, and imagination, that nevertheless do not qualify as RPGs.)

[Hauberk]

Roguelike has a pretty solid definition.

It should be a solid definition. "Like Rogue". I agree. But check this out: Itch.io: Tag "Roguelike".

While you get quite a few games that are "Like Rogue", you also get stuff like Noita, 3d games etc. I also read somewhere that the definition of a roguelike was that "the difficulty was punishing and your character dies permanently". See what I mean?

I should probably have used less strong terms but as I'm sure we all know, there's a lot of fluidity regarding the "market definition" of roguelikes and RPGs. Sometimes I wonder if all the salesmen played the real deal once (Rogue and a table-top RPG such as D&D).

[WhiteShark]

Oh, I thought it was a given in these sorts of discussions that we ignore what the masses think lest you end up with absurdities like, "The Legend of Zelda is a roleplaying game because you play the role of Link." It's true that the terms 'roguelike' and 'RPG' are frequently abused, twisted, and mangled beyond all rational comprehension, but if we limit the debate to those who are informed and care, it's not nearly so bleak as all that; indeed, I think Rusty's definition for cRPGs above is pretty good.

[rusty_shackleford]

Zelda games primarily lack a randomizer and customization. They're action-adventure games with some RPG elements. Some of the entries might border upon reaching the bare minimum of being an RPG.