Traits of RPGs

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Theory

Describing RPGs is hard. Often we fall into fuzzy metaphors. Generally, it is better to classify things by what they have than what they are. I’ll try here to make a list of binary attributes of RPGs. So they are either on or off. That should be easy to verify.

Those attributes should not itself contain RPG lingo in their definitions. For example when I say a game has Character Classes, what does that mean? I’d say Vampire has character classes, namely the clans, but others disagree. So I’ll try to limit such points of contention. The very first criterium says “GM” though, which certainly is RPG specific lingo. So doh.

The list will certainly be incomplete. If you have additions, feel free to comment. If you want to know about a game that sets a particular switch to yes or no, feel free to ask.

I tried to capture some of those fuzzy descriptions with criteria. I have not found anything that makes a game “narrative” by itself. Probably because that label has been applied to anything that isn’t D&D3.5/Pathfinder. I also feel unablte to differentiate this way between the differing experiences provided by playing PbtA or Fate. I kinda know what it is, but I feel unable to say it this way.

Role

This about general “jobs” at table. Answering yes to these, makes a traditional core kinda.

• Role1/GM: There is one and only one GM.
• Role1a/GMFrame: The GM is responsible for framing scenes, describing who and what is there.
• Role1b/GMDiff: The GM is free to set challenges, difficulties or the number and power of opponents.
• Role1c/GMReward: The GM is free to offer mechanical rewards to players.
• Role2/PCs: Every other player plays one character, henceforth called a PC.
• Role2a/Party: The PCs work together as a team.

Rand(omizers)

Again, “traditional” RPGs answer yes to all of these.

• Rand1/Fortune: There are randomizers in the game
• Rand2/dx: The game uses exclusively d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and/or d20.
• Rand3/NoFace: Everyone at the table uses these randomizers.

Char(acters)

“Traditional” is everything but Traits.

1. Char1/Stats: Protagonists feature several numeric stats describing their capabilities.
2. Char2/Formulas: Some stats are derived from other stats by applying tables or formulas.
3. Char3/Chargen: There is a codified process to make protagonists.
4. Char4/Trees: During chargen some choices lead to further choices, forming a decision tree (skill trees, class powers, playbook moves, sub splats)
5. Char5/Traits: Chargen requires freely naming certain mechanical elements for the character.

Advancement

The first two are very common. Capstone is built into D&D as the level progression ends, but not usually games that rely on point-buy. Gurps of course has no Tiers. You can in theory take anything at any point.

• Adv1/Experience: Protagonists get better throughout play.
• Adv2/Tiers: At least once throughout the advancement process protagonists can choose options that were not available at an earlier point.
• Adv3/Capstone: The built-in advancement process ends at a certain point.
• Adv4/Retirement: There are rules according to which a protagonist is supposed to retire.

Tact(ical)

Tact2/Targets might be surprising. Games like With Great Power have rounds, but as a player you always attack the GM in abstract, not indivdual opponents.

• Tact1/Combat: The game has a round- or turn-based combat system.
• Tact2/Targets: Players can choose a specific target to attack.
• Tact4/Resistances: The game has rules that make certain approaches more effiective against certain opponents.
• Tact5/Minis: The game uses formal positioning, either trough a grid, graph or measurement with a ruler.
• Tact6/DeathSpiral: The capability of combattants decreases as they get injured.
• Tact7/Ticks: A character’s choice of action influences when their action or next action will happen.
• Tact8/Teamwork: Allied characters influence each other’s actions through posititiong, state or previous actions.
• Tact9/Environment: Properties of the fictional environment formally influence combat actions.

Magic

This category is especially about a magic subsystem. If every action in the game is magic, like for the divine characters in Nobilis, this category does not apply. D&D 4th edition might have this category for the rituals. The Wizard’s class Powers are just like any other class’ Powers in the game and thus do not constitute magic rules for these purposes.

• Mag1/Magic: There are specialized rules for supernatural powers for the protagonists to use that differ from the general rules of the game or expand them.
• Mag2/NoMajs: Only some kinds of protagonists do use these magic rules.
• Mag3/Affinites: Magic protagonists differ in what kinds of magic they can access or have an easier time with some.
• Mag4/Spells: What can be achieved with these rules is described in a finite list of effects.
• Mag5/Reserves: A character is limited in how much magic they can use by some resource that is regularly refilled or reset.

Set(ting)

Setting is one of those vague terms in describing RPGs and related to those even vaguer terms of “universal” rpgs. People talking about “universal” games probably assume a kind of cut-off point in this category’s list. This category is about “official” information only. For things you make up as a group, see the next section.

• Set1/CoreStory: There is a core story, an idea of who the protagonists are, what they usually do and their role in the world.
• Set2/Start: The game includes a starting location / region / adventure that can be used for introducing the game.
• Set3/Regions: The game details several distinct regions/countries/worlds with individual features, flavors or plot hooks.
• Set4/Icons: The game details powers or organisations who work in the setting at large.
• Set5/Metaplot: The game has an ongoing history that is revealed in further publications.

Troupe

I had some trouble naming this category. It’s mainly taken to capture those games where preparation of play not only involves building characters but also building their shared background. I have taken the name from Ars Magica.

• Troup1/GroupGen: Completing a protagonist requires input from other players creating protagonists.
• Troup2/Home: The game includes a process to collectively create the protagonists’ hometown / base / faction / starship…
• Troup3/Companies: Factions in the world can interact with other such factions through specialized rules.

Struct(ure)

This is about structuring time and narrative in the game. There is a surprising variety in how games do this and it is rarely discussed. “Traditional” games may feature any, except for codified Acts and an explicit End.

• Struct1/FictSI: The game refers to real time units like minutes or days that passed in the fiction.
• Struct2/Tabletime: The game refers to table sessions or real time passed at the table.
• Struct3/Scenes: The game explicitely refers to scenes or encounters.
• Struct4/Adventures: The game explicitely refers to adventures / missions / episodes / …
• Struct4/Acts: The game has an explicit narrative structure within those episodes.
• Struct5/Downtime: The game includes rules for skipping periods of fictional time.
• Struct6/End: The game has an inevitable endgame after which play stops.

Subsystems

This category describes various subjects that received specialized rules in various games. Specialized means they are more specific than whatever the game uses to handle non-specialized actions. Many of these could be expanded like Tactical and Magic. I do not number them for this reason.

• Sub/Hazards: The game has specialized rules for enivronmental hazards like temperature, falling, drowning.
• Sub/Overland: The game has specialized rules for overland travel.
• Sub/Chases: The game has specialized rules chasing other characters on foot or other means.
• Sub/Ships: The game has specialized rules for maritime or space vessels.
• Sub/Psych: The game has specialized rules for depicting characters’ mental state.
• Sub/Relations: The game has specialized rules for personal or professional relationships.

Rebellion: Planes plainly

Tags

Rebellion, Worldbuilding

Taking a clue from D&D many fantasy worlds exhibit different planes of existence. What for?

In D&D, it’s places for the angels, demons and other critters to come from. But that is not very relevant in play. We do not usually study the lifecycle of Barbed Devil, we smite it. Of course, we can use it as locations for play, much like distinctive regions on a map. Doing so, we can use it to color our plot in ways, which might resonably be more exotic than normal places. But really, if we want a place with weird physics we could also put on the map and have a place with weird physics just right there. It’s fantasy after all. And it might arguably more interesting, too, as the neighbors then have to deal with sitting next to a weird physics place.

In urban fantasy other planes are often used differently from the D&D model. The other world is often somehow reflective of the real one. That has several functions. Firstly it can grant insight into what’s going on, which is useful in mystery plots. A place’s character and history can be shown in its reflection. Secondly it can allow for reaching places that are barred in the real world allowing the supernaturals to move in secretive ways. Urban fantasy also often has pocket places servicing the supernatural community so they can do their business apart from people.

A fourth kind of extradimensional space is travel space. You enter travel space to cross vast distances. This is done in scifi with hyperjumps or the like, in fantasy it is often depicted as a labyrinth or pathways that can be traversed. The fifth kind regularly used in fiction is more like a reflection of the inner thoughts of the people going there. They are often used to have the characters contend with their inner demons.

tl;dr

1. Oddly flavored adventuring areas
2. Backsides of reality, often showing a distorted and revealing image
3. Diagon Alleys for “special” people to meet
4. Tavel dimensions
5. Spaces that make the traveler’s subconscious explicit

For my Rebellion setting, I do not want a great variety of other worlds. The gods left enough strongholds abandoned to have all kinds of places on the map, so no need for D&D style planes. A way to get around quickly is useful though. Let’s have travel space.

To make one I have to figure out:

• How to get in?
• How to navigate it? / How to get out?
• How does it look?
• How did it come to be?

As for the history, that can solve another problem in the same shot. The gods, at least in the central region of the world, left. Where did they go? Some like the Forest Boy or the Earth Mother discorporated in a way. Some were killed by the rebels and turned into magic items. Some left to the far reaches of the earth. But those are all rather unattractive options. Meaning the gods who were really into these courses of action, likely already did so on their own intiative. (Except the dying perhaps.) It would be nice if the rebels could offer something to the gods.

Hey, Mr. Winter. You like the world frozen over, yes? How about you take those people who want to follow you and go to when that has totally happened already?

The travel space was created when several sympathetic gods discorparted to create it. It not only leads to other places but also into the deep past. The world is several billion years old and human civilisation has been around for 10k years at most. There is a lot real estate back there. The scheme relies on not positing groups too close to now, since that might mess up history. I’m totally ripping of that one Star Trek episode here.

But since those gods and their followers already went and nothing bad had had come of that… the plan totally worked, right? Right? Tune in next time.

Anyway, the main problem with teleportation in RPGs is that you do not want characters to appear anywhere (unless you do). So exiting the travel space is only possible at preinstalled gates, which also allow entring. Those gates are often close to the abandoned divine strongholds as they used them to leave. That is useful because you can totally come out next to those interesting adventuring locations. Gates may be closed but can be opened by anyone who is not soulscraped by mentally pushing it open. They might not be obvious in closed state, though.

Entering might also be possible anywhere with portable items, which can be handed out as quest goals.

There are also the Feuerbälger (fire brats), small red-skinned fire-resistant humanoids with horns, who have the ability to open a gate at any sufficiently big fire. The leading constructor of the tavels space was the god now known as the Lord of Ashes. The Feuerbälger are his servants still and can also navigate the tunnels reasonable well. These abilities are not public knowledge. The Feuerbälger are known to reside on Red And Cursed Isle of the coast and guard the tomb of the Rebellion’s mortal leader.

The traveling space consists of tunnels that are warm, close to 40°C. Walls and ground are covered in ash or soot. You want to bring food and especially water. There are way signs posted from time to time at intersections left by previous travelers. But mostly travelers have to work with trial and error which severely limits the usage of the system. There is no widespread use among the baseline population, though that might change if viable routes between interesting places can be found.

Many tunnels are broken and blocked. And I suppose tunnels into deep time have been demolished. Otherwise that would introduce those D&D planes through the backdoor.