David Morgan-Mar hits it on the head

[ebenbrooks]

Today's Irregular Webcomic has a long discussion of tabletop role-playing games, their rules, and the different approaches to creating them that Morgan-Mar has encountered throughout the years. One part of this essay goes into the differences between computer "role-playing games" and their tabletop namesakes. In my opinion, Mr. Morgan-Mar's

Comments

[ebenbrooks]

You're quite welcome. :)

Role vs Roll

[niall_shapero]

I've always thought of computer "role playing" games as more "roll playing" (you have a "piece" -- your character -- and you're able to take some actions, and a "roll of the dice" determines success or failure, but there is little social interaction involved). With the computer, even if it's an MMO game with multiple human players behind the avatars, I've still typically seen little more than "tactical" discussions. The avatar/character is your wargaming piece, and you try to maximize its wins (and minimize its losses/deaths