Editing RPG (section)

==Rollplayan vs Roleplayan==
There has always been some controversy whether RPG means a [[Rollplaying|rollplaying]] game or a roleplaying game. Both categorizations are muddy, so what follows is a general overview of the two and should never be taken as final or completely accurate.

The advocates of rollplayan insist that RPGs are, all in all, games and thusly throwing dice and numbers around is their central point of existence. Because nobody really finds moving numbers around and doing calculus fun in and of itself, the crunching usually serves a purpose. Rollplayers are thus usually equated with hackan & slashan, [[Munchkin|munchkinism]] and optimization. All of these views focus on the game's mechanic and creation of characters that use them to their best advantages or even [[Powergamer|exploit them]]. This tends to be very unpopular with a lot of people, simply because it operates under the assumption that the game must be somehow "won", while the contrary is precisely what largely separates RPGs from most other tabletop games. Rollplayers tend to regard the [[GM]] as a source of challenges or even an enemy they must defeat by creating the most efficient characters possible. A less extreme view claims that rolling dice and crunching numbers to solve tactical problems can be fun, and shouldn't be confined to the scope of head-to-head wargames.

Roleplayers tend to put more emphasis on the narrative, and insist that the dice stay in the backstage, operating from behind the veil with minimal or no intrusion in the actual "story" being played. This is why they are often called dramafags. A popular distinction puts rollplayers in the [[D&D]] campus while roleplayers are supposed to be [[World of Darkness|WoD]] players, goths, wannabe "deep" etc. Roleplayers are also often ridiculed for writing extensive backgrounds for their characters, which "no one ever reads" and for falling too deep into the whole 'play pretend' aspect of RPGs. This also puts them closer to [[LARP]]fags whom nobody likes (except Scandinavian ones, that shit puts hair on your chest). As with the previous example, this view consists mostly of stereotypes and generalizations.

The truth is, as always, somewhere in the middle and there are always exceptions to the rules. Hardcore examples of both sides can often ruin the fun for the rest of the people at the table either by propagation of their [[Mary Sue]] fantasies, that nobody is interested in, or by creating characters that [[Powergamer|beat everything up before anyone else gets the chance to act]]. Neither side is able to see eye-to-eye with the other because they operate under different mindsets and arguments and they will never strike the right chords as they're hearing different frequencies.