The minimal RPG

[- Aërendyll -]

A common beginner mistake I've seen many, many people make is that they are overambitious with their games - especially when it comes to RPGs. I started to wonder: what would be the absolute minimum to make a game an RPG? Which features do you think are essential to the genre?

Also, which things do you consider optional, regardless of whether you like them or not?

Whether we're talking battles, exploration, story, characters, environments, etc., I'd love to hear your opinion!

 

[atasuke10]

For me a story and well presented and worked out characters is the only real essential. Combat or puzzles are features as well, but if they exist within the game, they have to support it.
I've read a long time ago somewhere that the more unnecessary features there are in a game, the more of a chore it can become to beat it, so for me I guess the balance between the
story and it's features is key.
You can't have too much combat in a story driven game about a war for example(cliche but still xd) nor too little.
or if its a detective game, it wouldnt be a detective game without searching clues and solving "puzzles".

 

[RibbonP]

Absolute minimum? Well for me, it's a game that works.

They may not be fancy, decorated by ribbons, and their battle might not be the best out there, but somehow, it just works.

Mapping : Functional

Optional : Functional, AND Pretty.

Remember, 'pretty' is just an option! A map doesn't have to be pretty, as long as it works! But of course, people would like to see a functional, and at the same time, pretty map. But also note that no one would want to see a pretty, but annoying map. I mean, it's a map that's pretty, but once you look at it, you go something like this :

"Wait, does this make sense?"

or something like
"Why can I something on this map? This is not right."

Characters : Well-Developed characters.

Optional : BADLY DEVELOPED CHARACTERS.

At least for me, a character that's good is one that is well-developed, balanced, blah blah. I mean, who would want to play/fight against a Mary Sue? No one, right?i would love to be a Mary Sue . Almost no one thinks that perfect characters are interesting. So, make your chars less-perfect. It might just work.

Maybe your character's able to control fire. Maybe they're able to control wind. Maybe even control other people. But what MOST people want to see is how they develop their abilities, how they progress through the story. They want to see how your characters react to situations, in the way that their eyes perceive it. Imagine if a little boy saw his mom getting killed in front of his eyes. I, certainly wouldn't like it if the boy just goes "eh whatever i'll forgive you" since it doesn't make sense! Unless of course he has quite the history with his mother. So like, by 'well-developed', I mean this:

"How did they get there?"

"What have they accomplished during that span of time?"

Story : Well-written, acceptable pace.

Optional : BAD STORY.

No one wants to play a game that has a horrendous story. Last time when I checked, someone had a status like "Tell me if you're going to kill my favorite characters, at least put a 'Game of Thrones' tag." Whether or not this was a joke, I think this quite well enough expresses the hate if your game has too many cliches. Or a bad-written story. Like, who wants to play a game where the main character was suuper weak. But after like, let's say, A DAY, they become horrendously strong just because?! okay that was probably not a good example but still.

A good story, for me, is :

A story that's not too fast, or too slow, meaning it has an acceptable pace.

A clear plot.

Good story structure.

edit: also i probably have no right to be saying this but who cares, i just did. hope this helsp

 

[Sharm]

If it's an RPG I expect to be able to have some freedom to explore, fight some battles, get usable items, talk to random people, have some story, level up, and end with a larger fight.  Take out those elements and I may still enjoy the game but it's not really an RPG for me anymore.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

This is a tough question. Especially since most games that get labelled as RPGs don't even have what every definition of an RPG tends to start with - and that's the role playing aspect.

I think there's a few key things that we associate with RPGs and if a game hits enough of those key points, we'll categorize it as such. For me those key things tend to be:

* Some sort of character customization and growth

* Systems that involve menus (whether it be battle, the aforementioned character growth, some form of micromanagement that takes place in a suspended place outside of the game's 'world')

* Battles

* Story with a start and finish

* Sidequests

* Items and Equipment

* Freedom of Travel (not necessarily a whole open world, but enough room to decide where you want to go first)

The more of those it has, the more likely I'm going to categorize it as an RPG. Again though, the definition has gone so far beyond what Role-Playing Game actually means that just telling me "This is an RPG" is enough to make me go "Oh, oaky. It's an RPG." at this point.

For making your first game, I think you should take the thing off the list that you are strongest at. You have interesting battle mechanics in mind? Start there. Then pick a few more things that you think you can handle and build those around your first thing. Leave out or minimize what you're not the best at yet.

So let's say you have an interesting battle mechanic and you know how to built it and implement it well. Start there. Perhaps it lends itself easily into character customization/growth and it also leads easily into menu systems. Great! You have your starting points. Perhaps you know you aren't so great with story, so you want to keep that on the down-low. So instead of a strong story, you decide to jump on the freedom and exploration bit and make a job based dungeon crawler game. It's still an RPG, but you've put what you are best at at the front, and put your weakness in a spot that's less of a big deal for the way your game works.

 

[- Aërendyll -]

If it's an RPG I expect to be able to have some freedom to explore, fight some battles, get usable items, talk to random people, have some story, level up, and end with a larger fight.  Take out those elements and I may still enjoy the game but it's not really an RPG for me anymore.

I wonder: do you consider random battles (whether they are steps-based or visible enemies you have to touch) to be essential or would a game that only has boss battles count as an RPG for you too?

 

[Sharm]

The type of battle doesn't matter too much to me.  Scripted or random or on map or some other variation I haven't thought of, it's all acceptable.