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| Mnementh said: So, I watched this video and it brings also a definition at the beginning (of a long and interesting journey throught RPG-history). In the definitions it mentions the things we in the thread and I in my attempt mentioned, but one more, and I could smack myself for not getting it: world building. Sure, not every RPG has good world building, but so has not every RPG deep statistical mechanics or a deep story. But if I think of RPGs, many of them have detailed worlds and that is a thing many non-RPGs actually lack. So if you're interested, here is the video: |
It's always fun to watch NeverKnowsBest's essays *though they can be really long at times).
As for world building - yeah, prior to Hickman Manifesto, that was the main focus, playing in the world built by your DM, with stories that emerge from those gameplay sessions. As Tolkien himself said, "I wisely started with the map". It is around '83 and Hickman's Castle Ravenloft (though you could see beginnings of it in their previous module, Pharaoh) that "story first" approach began to (unfortutanely) dominate D&D.
