What’s a role-playing game (RPG)?

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A role-playing game (RPG) is a genre of videogame where the gamer controls a fictional character (or characters) that undertakes a quest in an imaginary world.

Defining RPGs is very challenging due to the range of hybrid genres that have RPG elements. Traditional role-playing video games shared three basic elements:

  • Levels or character statistics that could be improved over the course of the game
  • A menu-based combat system
  • A central quest that runs throughout the game as a storyline

Modern and hybrid RPGs do not necessarily have all of these elements, but usually feature one or two in combination with elements from another genre.

The Origin

Video game RPGs have their origins in the paper and pen role-playing games pioneered by Dungeons & Dragons. These were defined games with clear rules. The video game RPGs started out very similar to paper-and-pen games, minus the dice and with the addition of animated battles, but with the turn-based menu combat intact. Since then, the genre has been broadened to include:

  • Action/RPG: Games where battles are real-time, button mashing affairs (for examples, Diablo, Sacred, etc.)
  • Strategy/RPG: Games where battles take place on a map and character units are deployed against opponents.
  • Adventure/RPGs: Games where the action elements are combined with items and special weapons the character collects along the way.
  • Online RPGs: These are multiplayer games that mix many elements and players over a shared world in what is essentially an endless RPG.

The popularity of the role-playing concept – becoming someone else, somewhere else – assures that many more variations on the theme have yet to emerge.

The Magic

In nearly every Role-Playing Game, whether it be eastern, western, or tabletop, there's magic. And because there's magic, the first thing you need is a set of combat-oriented spells that help your party of playable characters win battles.

The Mana

Mana is a word in several Austronesian languages which has many meanings,
which generally means supernatural strength, spiritual power, and symbolic efficacy can be translated as life force.

The concept is especially important in Polynesian cultures, and is a major part of contemporary Pacific Islander culture. The term has also entered the Western academy, where scholars of anthropology and comparative religion have written about it extensively.

Finally, modern fantasy fiction, computer and role-playing games have adopted mana as a term for magic points, an expendable (and most often rechargeable) resource out of which magic users form their magical spells.

Offensive

Offensive spells, in these games, tend to be elemental in nature, with one of the most common setups being Fire, Ice, Lightning, Earth, or at least including that set among a collection of other elements.

What's a role-playing game (RPG)?

Many games often give Fire as the initial elemental spell, with the player gradually gaining the other elements along the way. Several RPGs also have Non-Elemental spells, which are often acquired late-game and more powerful than the elemental spells.

Most RPGs have offensive magic come in multiple "levels" of strength. In general, higher-level magic tends to deal more damage per casting than lower-level magic, but at an increasing cost of Mana/MP. Higher-level magic is sometimes less MP-efficient in terms of Damage per MP than lower-level magic.

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Several games also have offensive magic as being the most effective way to hit all enemies at once, and some include the ability to choose whether to attack a single target or multiple targets, with the multiple targets option generally splitting the damage between them.

Typical Offensive Spells

  • Fire, Ice, Holy, Shadow, Thunder, Water, Aero, Quake - Elemental spells.
  • Dispel/Erase/Cancel - Status Buff Dispel. Most commonly categorized as healing magic.
  • Bio/Poison - A skill that affects status ailments in some way, either by causing them, worsening them, or making them more likely.
  • Drain - A spell for sucking HP, MP, or both. Sometimes there will be two spells - one for HP, one for MP.
  • Flare/Meteor/Ultima/Nuke etc. - Non-Elemental spells. Occasionally, you will get spells like this earlier (such as in Lost Odyssey).
  • Death/Raze - One-Hit KO.

Curative/Restorative

The first type of curative magic seen across all RPGs is the type that simply restores HP. Much like offensive magic, this type of spell often comes in multiple levels, with higher levels restoring more HP than lower levels but at a higher MP cost.

The second type is the revival spell. When a character is KO'd in battle, revival spells allow another character bring the first out of the KO'd state so that he can keep fighting.

In most games, however, they often only revive a character with only a portion of their full HP restored. Several games have an Auto-Revive variation that automatically revives a character when he or she is KO'd.

The third type is the spell that removes status ailments. Depending on the game, one spell can remove all ailments, or each spell is specialized to remove a specific status ailment.

Typical Curative Spells

  • Cure - The basic healing spell.
  • Heal - Removes all status ailments.
  • Life - Revives a KO'd character.
  • Regen - Restores a character's HP each turn.

Status Buffs and debuffs

Status buffs and debuffs directly affect the parameters that calculate damage done (attack and defense), evasion, or priority. They temporarily increase or decrease the numerical values of the stats, with the new numerical value being used as in damage calculations until the end of the battle.

These types of buffs and debuffs generally have the ability to stack on top of one another, but there is often a cap above which or below which stats can't go higher or lower respectively. Games with this type of buff often have a "neutralizer" that returns the stats of all characters in battle to normal.

Positive Status Effects

Similar to status buffs, they affect the various stats that affect gameplay, but they tend to be simpler in their calculation, usually doubling or halving damage done or outright completely nullifying damage, for example. The most common type is the shield, which most often halves the amount of damage you take.

In some cases there could be more powerful shields that completely nullify the damage taken. In many games, there are two types of shields: one that shields from physical attacks and one that shields magical attacks.

Another common type of positive status effect is the "brave" or "valor" spell, which increases, (most often, doubles) the amount of damage dealt, often only applied to physical attacks. These types of spells tend to wear off after the first use.

Games with this type of magic tend to classify it in the same boat as Status Ailments to make one pool of Status Effects. Often, these can be removed by the opponent with a spell that specializes in removing status effects.

Single-player

Single player role-playing video games form a loosely defined genre of computer and console games with origins in role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, on which they base much of their terminology, settings, and game mechanics. This translation changes the experience of the game, providing a visual representation of the world but emphasizing statistical character development over collaborative, interactive storytelling.

Multi-player

Online text-based role-playing games involve many players using some type of text-based interface and an Internet connection to play an RPG. Games played in a real-time way include MUDs, [[MUSHes, and other varieties of MU*. Games played in a turn-based fashion include play-by-mail games and play-by-post games.

Massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) combine the large-scale social interaction and persistent world of MUDs with graphic interfaces. Most MMORPGs do not actively promote in-character role-playing, however players can use the games' communication functions to role-play so long as other players cooperate.

Computer-assisted gaming can be used to add elements of computer gaming to in-person tabletop role-playing, where computers are used for record-keeping and sometimes to resolve combat, while the participants generally make decisions concerning character interaction.