Let's play an RPG here in the forums: the surveys

Gotta get this conversation started, ne? Okay, I am going to post a series of polls in this thread, and we will use that to determine the game or games we will play (because we don’t have to be winner takes all, we can accommodate!).

How I see this going is we nominate through discussion, and then make a poll. This run will be messy, but we’ll have solid lists for next time. Okay, first poll:

What are cool ways to categorize tabletop RPGs, to decide what to play?

  • Genre/Theme
  • Decade/Year
  • System/Mechanics
  • Play type

0 voters

If you have other things, let me know of course! And start adding examples of each of those things, because those will be the next polls.

Sorry im late to this, my life has been a little crazy the past few days.

How are we defining play type? Is that the narrativist/simulationist spectrum sort of thing?

I kept it open for suggestions.

I didn’t know if GNS styles belonged in a separate category, or in System/Mechanics, because of how influential the theory to both game creation and categorization. I feel like it should be separate, so we can vote on broad and deep categories, to catch folks’ passions.

For instance, I’d like to play every version of D&D. Not a campaign each, but I’d like to play an adventure and make characters, to sate my own curiosity on how people played in a time and place. In a similar vein, I’d also like to play all the Classic World of Darkness games, to see how each splat-group compares mechanically, while also taking catalog of the art, writing and reference materials, as I particularly enjoyed that paracosm.

Those kinds of decisions get voted on in “system/mechanics”.

Over in this part of brain we have a different set of terms which could be loosely categorized as “play types”, and while GNS is sorta that and sorta not, I feel it fits in thematically for what a person would vote for. Combined examples mights be:

  • Gamist games
  • Narrative games
  • Simulation games
  • Collaborative storytelling
  • World-building
  • Non-violent
  • Serious Drama
  • Silly humor
  • Third-person
  • Tactical transparency

Ya know, I’m just rolling with it here, so suggestions on organizing this is welcome! :slight_smile: Eventually I could see this turning into a multi-faceted search form to help drill down which game a person or group should reach for. But to start we just need like, six peeps to take a few polls and then we can get our game on!

A post was split to a new topic: Building takes small steps and we all know it but gah anyhow amirite

I have great need to play a campaign where we get to challenge the Illithid.

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Hey, there we go! I can do something with that. By the way… what are mind flayers? :slight_smile:

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