A Universal Definition of RPGs

Telepath RPG developer Sinister Design tackles the difficult topic of creating a universally applicable definition of the RPG genre in their latest developer rant. Good stuff:

So RPGs are character-centric they are about progression of characters. Based on that fact, maybe you think I’m going to conclude that RPGs are therefore really all about the story. But I won’t, because they aren’t. Not exactly.

While it is true that story is important to the RPG genre, it’s a particular kind of story that ultimately proves central. It’s about the character/party as your avatar, and your quest to shape that avatar. (That doesn’t have to be the game’s central plot, mind you it just has to be part of the arc of the story, as told by you playing the game.)

Consider this idea for an RPG: you play an elderly man, an alchemist living in a small town. One day, a band of thugs visits the town and demands tribute. Your town, being poor and small, cannot afford to give the thieves the tribute they demand. Under cover of night, they retaliate by secretly poisoning the town’s well with a flavorless, colorless, slow-acting toxin. As the game begins, every last person in your town including your character has ingested a lethal dose of this poison.

Realizing what has happened, the player character scrambles desperately to concoct a serum to counteract the effects of the poison. He does so in time to save his own life. However, he only has enough ingredients to save himself. Even then, the best he can manage is to ward off the poison’s effects for a few months, buying himself time to either achieve revenge or find a cure.

Over the rest of the game, your character grows steadily weaker. Combat is exhausting far from making him stronger, each encounter saps his vitality further. He lacks the energy to learn any new skills. Your character is clearly dying from the poison; the only question is whether he will successfully achieve his objectives before that happens.

Now, ask yourself: fully apart from whether this is a satisfying story or not, is this an RPG story? Here we have a persistent character with unique skills starring in a straightforward revenge tale set in a fantasy setting. We even have the classic trope of the protagonist leaving behind his wrecked hometown and setting forth into a dangerous world, which serves its usual purpose of allowing us to play the character in a way inconsistent with his backstory.