So, I'm helping a friend with getting her kids talked about into RPGs and we have talked about them a lot. She plays in another friend's AD&D game, so that is her base familiarity with RPGs. She asks a lot of interesting questions that have made me think.
One of the first was, "What is the goal of a roleplaying game?"
My response was, "To have fun."
What responses would you have given?
Play a character of your imagining, in a world of the GM's imagining, doing interesting and adventurous things to see what happens.
To act out and make decisions like a person in a movie, but a movie of the group's imagination.
To marry the princess or the prince, defeat the dragon, win the tournament, discover the bad guy behind the mask, solve the mystery, stop the disaster, exorcise the demon, build a kingdom, tame the wild-lands, start a cult, fight the gods, explore strange new worlds, or really anything that strikes your fancy.
Basically, to have fun. :-)
No different than yours, Jeff.
In the large boffer fantasy LARP I was in for many years, the very first thing said at the ritualistic Reading of the Rules which began each and every event was "We should all be doing this to have fun."
That's the first and foremost goal, and it should be for every gamer. If it's not fun, then something's badly wrong.
The problem with the idea that an RPG is supposed to be fun is, that, as an answer is so incredibly obvious and generic that it doesn't actually answer that much. Of course it is supposed to be fun. There is no point to argue about that. But: what is actually fun in a game is an essentially subjective term, and a very vague one, too. For me, a statement like this is not a satisfying answer and basically requires a follow-up question (e.g. "How do you achieve thatan RPG is fun?") so for me at least it is a lot more poignant to directly mention the various elements which are enjoyable for me in an RPG (meeting friends, playing a role, experiencing adventures, worlds and stories, interacting with other characters, explore exotic or spooky locations, influence the events in the game, make meaningful decisions, face chalenges and adversity without direly negative consequences for failure and so on).
Fun?
Um, it might be something lost in translation, but I tend to define "fun" as something more to the funny definition, and I would not call the tension during a battle or other decisive actions to be "funny".
I would clearly admit to it being entertaining, though.
Are you sure the question was not intended as "What are the victory conditions in the roleplaying game" rather than "Why do people play roleplaying games"? I mean if someone were to ask what is the goal of basketball I'd say it's to score more baskets than the opposition. People may do it for fun, for money or to stay fit, but the goal of the game is to score points.
All of which is particularly pertinent because absence of a clear, unambiguous and universal set of victory conditions could be said to a defining trait of roleplaying games. Sure individual characters many have one or more goals or varying which might drift over time, some of which might never be achieved, but that is different from saying the game has a goal.
"To see your enemies driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their [significant others]."
This is something that I have tackled in my game design lectures.
RPGs are a special case of games in that they do not have a clear victory condition as a game end. They do have loss conditions (total party kill and also player team can give up pursuing the adventure).
However, RPGs do have goals which usually revolve around intended goal of the player group in the setting. For instance in Call of Cthulhu the goal is to prevent total annihilation of Earth by monstrous beings. In Warhammer 40000 it is to participate in a war of annihilation against enemies of Imperium of Man. Other games may have less ambitious or less stark contrasts. For example cyberpunk games are essentially about surviving and thriving and even changing a dystopian society.
Tip to game designers: You will always get these kinds of questions if you do not think beforehand what the goals of your game are and make them clear to players. A good place to do that is in introduction so players know what to do before they start making their characters. The goal should also tie to your theme.
Quote from: jeff37923;805267So, I'm helping a friend with getting her kids talked about into RPGs and we have talked about them a lot. She plays in another friend's AD&D game, so that is her base familiarity with RPGs. She asks a lot of interesting questions that have made me think.
One of the first was, "What is the goal of a roleplaying game?"
My response was, "To have fun."
What responses would you have given?
My 5-words-or-less take (for traditional RPGs) is "Have adventures of your own."
Quote from: Catelf;805294Fun?
Um, it might be something lost in translation, but I tend to define "fun" as something more to the funny definition, and I would not call the tension during a battle or other decisive actions to be "funny".
I would clearly admit to it being entertaining, though.
Some people have fun jumping off bridges with a rubber band tied to their ankle... :eek:
Quote from: Omega;805338Some people have fun jumping off bridges with a rubber band tied to their ankle... :eek:
Or jumping out of perfectly functional planes while they are in mid-air. People they are funny. And usually not in the funny ha-ha way.
Quote from: Catelf;805294Fun?
Um, it might be something lost in translation, but I tend to define "fun" as something more to the funny definition, and I would not call the tension during a battle or other decisive actions to be "funny".
Well, there's your problem. Mistranslation. "Fun" means exciting and enjoyable, not humorous.
Quote from: jeff37923;805267My response was, "To have fun."
What responses would you have given?
I cannot think of a better response, and in fact I wish people would remember this before embarking on Internet hobby culture wars.
Quote from: cranebump;805301"To see your enemies driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their [significant others]."
This^
And to see "that look" on your GM's face when the Big Bad goes down in one round because you are on fire and even your d12 is turning out 20s.
Walking out the Temple of Elemental Horrors with so much loot even your Dwarven war goat is going to have armor of gold.
And then grabbing a last slice of pizza as the last notes of "Ramble On" guide your dice in leveling up your character.
There is a such thing as terms of victory in a RPG.
Quote from: jeff37923;805267One of the first was, "What is the goal of a roleplaying game?"
My response was, "To have fun."
What responses would you have given?
To have fun . But not at the expense of the other players.
Play a character of your creation based on the rolls and allowances of chargen. Explore, adventure and interact with the game world and the denezins therein - be they friend, foe or neither.
Though of course every table will be different in some respects. Some may focus more on the dungeon delve. Others may focus on the overland, others on city intrigue, etc. Some may be totally random "stuff happens" and others may follow a loose sort of chain of events, and others may follow a specific plot, etc.
The purpose of RPGs is to connect, to create, to experience, to explore and to have fun.
Quote from: Natty Bodak;805311... "Have adventures of your own."
Not only is that a wonderful answer it NEEDS to be printed on t-shirts. and TV commercials. and coffee mugs.
Can I steel that for a cafe press store? :-D
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (front)
Have Adventures of Your Own (back)
To tell stories and deprotagonise the GM. No? Boy, tough crowd. :-)
I'm not sure there really is one answer for 'roleplaying games' beyond something fairly generic like fun, just like there wouldn't be just one answer for the goal of sports or the goal of seeing movies. I think once you start talking about specific games, or even campaigns, that's when you can get a meaningful answer. Even leaving aside storygames and the like, AD&D is different from MERP which is different from CoC or CP2020.
Quote from: trechriron;805455Not only is that a wonderful answer it NEEDS to be printed on t-shirts. and TV commercials. and coffee mugs.
Can I steel that for a cafe press store? :-D
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (front)
Have Adventures of Your Own (back)
Donate my share of the millions to charity!
In one sense, it's like asking, "What's the goal of a board game?"
Answer in both cases: It depends on the game.
In another sense, the implication is that the inquirer sees no point in a game that has no clear victory condition or even end-of-game condition. (I've encountered this regarding the old dungeon-expedition arcade game Gauntlet.)
"To have fun" is a good answer. Some others:
A leading question: "What's the goal of the common childhood game Let's Pretend?"
"Whatever you choose to pursue, within the scope of what interests your fellow participants."
"To pretend for a while to be someone who has adventures that are a diverting change from one's real life."
Quote from: Catelf;805294Fun?
Um, it might be something lost in translation,
Yes. Used as a noun, 'fun' can mean a comedic activity - usually mockery as in "to make fun of." Apart from variations on that particular phrase, though, that sense is becoming rather archaic. Most often, it means an experience of pleasure associated with a playful activity, or is an adjective signifying that, as in the pop song lyrics: "Sex is natural, sex is fun, sex is best when it's one on one."
Quotebut I tend to define "fun" as something more to the funny definition, and I would not call the tension during a battle or other decisive actions to be "funny".
I would clearly admit to it being entertaining, though.
Roleplaying is pretending to be someone. A game is where rules are added. The only general goal of a roleplaying game is to pretend to be someone while using rules to govern how one pretends. This generic goal is pretty useless to even so
much as mention.
Any given campaign almost certainly has defined goals, which is how I would have answered the question. My current campaign has the very specific goal of stopping the Cult of the Dragon from summoning Tiamat.
And just like how real life carries on whether goals are met or failed, the campaign can likewise carry on.
Quote from: cranebump;805301"To see your enemies driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their [significant others]."
Have even barbarians become PC?
The goal of a role playing game, 'why' we play them (like many games), is to FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS. After that, it's all down to the specifics of the setting and group of characters.
I like RPGs because it is a game form that generates a narrative (quantified outcome), the players of the game are emotionally invested in the characters and they are the audience of the story being generated. Each game session you get to 'find out what happens' to the stuff in the game world you care about, while directly influencing that outcome with the strategies you choose while playing that session.
Quote from: Telarus;805906The goal of a role playing game, 'why' we play them (like many games), is to FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS. After that, it's all down to the specifics of the setting and group of characters.
I like RPGs because it is a game form that generates a narrative (quantified outcome), the players of the game are emotionally invested in the characters and they are the audience of the story being generated. Each game session you get to 'find out what happens' to the stuff in the game world you care about, while directly influencing that outcome with the strategies you choose while playing that session.
Fnding out what happens is a goal of every sporting event ever. It is one of the reasons we watch films and read books.
Such a generic goal says absolutely nothing. For the goal to have any meaning, it must be tailored to the specific game. The goal of a Shadowrun game may be to perform industrial espionage with extreme violence. That has meaning.