Role-Playing Games - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 456

ROLE-PLAYING GAME A role-playing game is one in which the player controls one or more
characters, typically designed by the player, and guides them through a series of quests
managed by the computer. Victory consists of completing these quests. Character
growth in power and abilities is a key feature of the genre. Typical challenges include
tactical combat, logistics, economic growth, exploration, and puzzle solving. Physical
coordination challenges are rare except in RPG-action hybrids.
CRPGs have elements in common with many other genres; it is the way in which
they implement them, and the combinations in which they occur, that set them
apart. Because CRPGs include so many types of challenges, it's not unusual for peo-
ple to make hybrids.
War Games
CRPGs and war games both include combat and a set of rules for determining how
it takes place. However, CRPGs differ from war games in that CRPGs are about a
small group of heterogeneous characters (and sometimes only one), almost always
implemented as living humanoids, rather than a large group of often identical
units such as tanks or airplanes. Unlike CRPGs, war games seldom keep track of the
growth of individual units, and role-playing games don't normally have factories
that can produce more units.
The Heroes of Might and Magic series crosses the CRPG and war game genres. The
games include both individual heroes and troops who have to be managed in large
battles.
Action Games
Action games frequently test the player's physical skills; CRPGs never used to, but
physical challenges are becoming more common in CRPGs. The Elder Scrolls games,
Morrowind and Oblivion , are both action-CRPG hybrids. They feature a single avatar
and a user interface much simplified from the traditional party-based model.
CRPGs include a lot of non-action-related activities such as buying and selling, as
well as conversations with other characters in which the player has a choice of dia-
log. These activities are rare in action games.
Adventure Games
Like adventure games, CRPGs often have rich storylines with highly detailed char-
acters. Both types of games also involve a lot of exploration. However, in modern
adventure games the player's avatar is a highly specific character provided by the
game, whereas most CRPGs allow the player to define his own avatar or party of
characters. Adventure games also tend to concentrate on one character, not a party
of them. Adventure games traditionally offer puzzles rather than combat chal-
lenges, and their characters are seldom defined by numeric attributes as in CRPGs.