Role-Playing Game

''This article refers chiefly to video games. See Tabletop RPG for old-fashioned pen and paper games.''

A type of Games in which the player controls a character or party of characters in a statistically abstracted way. Most are based around one or more quests, items, stats, Character Customization, and experience points, as characters grow in power over time.

Roleplaying games (commonly known as "RPG") have their origin not as video games but pen-and-paper systems with dice-based combat and character generation, descended from a combination of tabletop wargaming and collaborative theater. Dungeons and Dragons was the first such system to be sold, followed by other early systems such as Traveller and Tunnels & Trolls. These type of roleplaying games are all now known as Tabletop RPGs.

The early video game RPGs focused mostly on simulating the combat aspects of Tabletop games, with other aspects following after. Video game RPGs can be divided in a number of ways, which are elaborated below.


 * Western RPGs (WRPGs) often focus on greater character customization and free-roaming exploration. The main character in this genre tend to have little predefined personality, allowing the player to decide the personality and characterization of the main character via interactive dialogue. Western RPGs tend to bear a great resemblance to Tabletop RPGs. Examples of this genre include the Baldur's Gate series, Mass Effect, and The Elder Scrolls series.
 * Early Western RPGs bore much similarity to Turn-Based Strategy and Tactical RPGs as their roots came from tabletop gaming, but the genre has since largely distanced itself from those days. Many modern Western RPGs seem to go against their roots by emphasizing real-time combat with the player having full control of only one PC at a time. If the RPG gives you other characters they are often fully or partially controlled by an AI, potentially allowing you to select special abilities for allies to use. The decreased lack of control of party members in this style of modern Western RPGs tends to remove some of the tactical qualities of the original western RPG's and can lead to the AI controlled allies proving far less useful then the player controlled main character due to Artificial Stupidity. However as of late Western RPGs are quickly blurring together with Wide Open Sandbox games, and may cease to be a truly separate genre.
 * Eastern RPGs (ERPGs) often focus on cinematic narratives and memorable characters, usually (but not always) with more linear gameplay and less direct customization than Western RPGs; Eastern RPGs typically feel like visual novels, movies or Anime. Until recently, most such games came from Japan, and are thus nicknamed JRPGs. A good point of distinction is that WRPGs typically have some Character Customization, whereas an ERPG will more likely have a preformed Player Character, who might have some customization applied to their abilities but always looks the same. Eastern RPGs tend to use a turn based or pseudo turn based system where the player individually inputs actions for every character in the team each turn. Good examples of this genre are the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Pokémon franchises.
 * Action RPGs (ARPGs) use the combat interface of an Action Game (usually Fighting Game or Third-Person Shooter combat), incorporating the experience and item systems of a traditional RPG. Action RPGs often overlap or are related to games with RPG Elements, as Action RPGs are essentially an in-between, or RPGs with Shooter Elements. As such, distinguishing between Action RPGs and games that simply have RPG Elements is hard, but typically Action RPGs have all skills be viable options for winning the game, whereas games with RPG Elements focus more extensively on action. The best example of this genre is the original Deus Ex.
 * Tactical RPGs are related to Eastern RPGs but with a high focus on moving around a gridlike system, often with abilities that take advantage of this to attack multiple people at once, or to fight from a distance
 * However, what seperates the Tactical RPG subgenre from other RPGs is that they tend to greatly resemble Strategy Games, but with RPG Elements. On TV Tropes, this type of game is thus lumped in with Turn-Based Strategy, as the two genres are very close. More recent examples of Eastern Tactical RPGs, however, have also incorporated Real Time Strategy elements.
 * A further subdivision is a Strategy RPG (SRPGs) which more closely resemble Real Time Strategy or TabletopRPGs. The distinction separates games that are on a grid system with standard Eastern RPG characters (with abilities, more attack options, and so on) and games that are on a grid system but characters are more properly units (they typically have only base attacks, may not have equipment, and so on). A good comparison would be Final Fantasy Tactics to the Fire Emblem series. The former is a "Tactical RPG" and the latter is a "Strategy RPG"..
 * The Growlanser series is an example of a real-time "Tactical RPG" that does not use a grid-based system. A character's movement range is represented by a circular area in which the character can move anywhere within its confines, avoiding obstacles along the way. The movement speed is based on the amount of MOV points each character has in the game.
 * Roguelikes take their name from the early 1980s ASCII graphics game Rogue. They are defined by the combination of randomly generated worlds and permanent death, meaning that every time time your character dies you have to start completely over in a different set of levels. The focus also tends to be much more on very complex Nintendo Hard gameplay than story.
 * The best known example is Nethack, an open source game widely held in high regard. Interestingly, these can be both Eastern or Western in origin, though the Trope Namer and Trope Codifier are both Western, and the genre is laced with Western influences.
 * Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) can be any of the above genres, though they gravitate around a fusion of Action and Western RPGs (as the Trope Maker Ultima Online arose out of a Western RPG series). They also have their own distinct elements, mainly focusing around large boss battles known as "raids" and Player Versus Player interactions, as well as more tedious grinding such as fetching Twenty Bear Asses.

Whether any actual "Role Playing" is involved in many RPGs is often debatable. See also How to Play a Console RPG and PC vs. Console.

For the trope about assuming roles in order to practice something, see Comic Role Play.

This genre is home to many specific tropes.

Types of Role Playing Games:
"For Dungeons and Dragons etc. see:"


 * Tabletop RPG

"Official Subgenres:"


 * Eastern RPG
 * Action RPG
 * Strategy RPG
 * Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)
 * Roguelike
 * Western RPG

"Related Genres:"


 * Multi User Dungeon (MUD)
 * MUSH or Multi User Shared Hallucination
 * MUCK, a traditional roleplay-oriented MUD
 * Text Adventure / Choose Your Own Adventure
 * Turn Based Tactics
 * LARP

Tropes that are commonly found in Role Playing Games:
An enemy appears as a single sprite, but turns out to be a whole party of baddies in actual combat. The farther you get in a game, the more expensive stuff will be. Getting the in-game factions to like or hate you The party follows behind the leader like a lot of little ducklings. A description of the class-based systems common to many Role Playing Games. You get to buy a house, basically just because. All weapons of a specific type look and play exactly the same. Video game guns don't kill instantly, they do HP damage. Arbitrary requirement that stops you from having too many characters in a party or unit. If you're only allowed to take three out of eighteen party members into battle, you get a Game Over if those three are killed, even if the other characters are nearby and could logically step in to finish the job. Let's keep the Crowning Music of Awesome going through this sequence's battles instead of the Battle Theme Music. An object capable of holding other objects in Hammerspace. There are many characters but they share one inventory. Said sharing most likely won't happen between sequels. Feel those awesome riffs, man! The game prevents you from going to places out of order by putting very tough enemies in the way. Let's pause our quest to play craps! Hmm, do I get to roast the bad guys or heal the good guys? Prefers his bad guys extra cripsy. Keeps the good guys from becoming extra crispy; may also stock a Holy Hand Grenade for emergencies. A dialogue tree where your choices are irrelevant, because the game will not proceed until you pick the 'intended' option (or ignore your decision altogether). The biggest city in the game, the center of everything. You level up as you gain Experience Points. A special attack that occurs when two or more characters use certain attacks at the same time or in rapid succession. Your next destination will be the closest area that you haven't been able to get to before. You're perfectly fine with 87 pounds of weight, but add one more item and you'll collapse in a heap. An attack randomly does extra (often double) damage. A negative status ailment which in some way increases the damage its subject takes. A unit receives a negative status that inflicts a small amount of damage at regular intervals. A command that lets you take less damage, but you don't get to do anything else in the meantime. As you increase your stats, each increase has less effect, forcing you to balance your stats more. A dungeon that pretends to be the last one in the game, but is nowhere near it. An exploit where a powerful item or technique is achieved early on in the game. When annoying NPCs get in your way and prevent you from getting where you need to go. You've saved the world, but durnit, you're not too good to deliver my apples to the baker! Game mechanics may be a given to the players, but they're a lot of work for the locals. Before you start the adventure properly, you'll be shown cavorting around your tiny home town. All stores in a city are centered around selling things you in particular will need. The most important aspect of a piece of armor? What material it's made from! Finding an unusable piece of equipment means that someone able to use it will join the party at some point. Your attacks and skills can Level Up on their own, if you use them enough. You get them by killing enemies (or possibly completing other tasks or objectives), and when you get enough your Character Level or abilities increase. You get more Experience Points when this is in effect. Like Experience Points, but they're only good for unlocking abilities. As you level up, you get so many spells that gameplay starts getting confusing. Something that looks like a normal random encounter, but isn't. Things that pad out a game's length so they can brag about having "100 hours of gameplay!" A massive, terrifying monster that is surprisingly easy to defeat. The most common character classes in a medieval fantasy setting. A subquest unimportant to the actual plot which must be completed to continue. Any arbitrary obstacle that blocks your progress until you finish a Fetch Quest or something. Graphic effect that happens when you go into a Random Encounter. You somehow always end up where the plot says you should be, no matter how little sense it makes that you should be there. At some point, you will have to fight in an arena in gladiatorial combat. Either as part of the main quest or as a subquest. In an RPG, at some point you will have to cross the ocean to reach another continent. A mode of transport that lets you reach any part of the world map easily. The main character starts the game in bed, as his mother or friend wakes him up. You are asked to wait outside while something is finished; even if you come back in immediately, it's already done. Someone who joins your party temporarily as a "guest". In RPG systems, guns are generally weaker than swords. Playable characters have low health, high damage output, while monsters have high health, low damage output. In an RPG, the main character always uses a sword. A number attributed to your health that indicates how close to death you are. Enemies drop weapons that they could not plausibly have. Enemies are given statistics based on how powerful you are expected to be at that point, not how strong that enemy would be based on common sense. If there is a fighting tournament held somewhere in the game, chances are 99% that you will compete in it. Where did they come from? Who put them there? Why does nobody else but you ever open them? The absolute most awesome weapon EVER! You must collect twenty thousand bear asses first. Characters' equipment won't show up visually on their character model; they may be wearing Diamond Armor, but it looks like the same old Stripperiffic costume to me... Whenever the plot requires a stay at the inn, you will always wake up in the middle of the night for a plot event. Everyone seems to constantly ask you to do sidequests that have absolutely nothing to do with your main objective. Creating your own items and equipment out of handy-dandy ingredients. Items can generally be created by just sticking two or three things together and hitting "MIX". Eastern RPG system whereby classes have distinct equipment and abilities but can be changed at any time. You now have 18 party members! Good luck figuring out which ones to use. Where it's impossible to make money because everything always costs the same, so you can never sell at a profit. Looting is a very important aspect of RPG. Everything that's not nailed down is yours to take. In Eastern RPGs, although magic is usually less efficient than melee attacks, a spell or set of spells later in the game will be much better than the rest. Land masses will never extend across the edge of the (usually square) World Map. Characters not in the active party will get some percentage of the experience that the active party gets. At some point your party will be split up into two or more independent groups. You gain statistics and abilities by killing monsters over and over again. As you level up, so do your enemies. As you build an emotional (or sexual) relationship with an in-game NPC, your character gets physically stronger or gains skills because of it. Games where the best result can be gotten by seducing or wooing every single person who seems even remotely interested in you. Melee classes are better at lower levels, while wizards are better at higher ones. Don't level up as much as possible for optimal advantage. Annoying quest to kill X number of a specific enemy, frequently randomly encountered enemies. A Quest where the player helps an NPC win over their true love. A monster that appears and runs away very quickly, is hard to kill, but gives very good reward if you do kill it. A player character whose role is to create many, many NPC minions. A collection of classes or class-equivalents for non-fantasy RPG-settings. Even monsters need to carry money. (What do they spend it on?) Where monsters fight alongside the party instead of against it. Certain characters will refuse to join you if other characters are already in the party, or will leave when someone else joins. Sometimes controlled by the plot, but other times it's just that the two simply can't be in the party together. As soon as something important happens in the plot, everyone in the world will know about it. Want to defeat that Bonus Boss? Get ready for a long and brutally hard battle. Even though you're out there saving the world and their lives, shopkeepers will still charge you full price. Only people that are relevant to the plot or a Sidequest will be blessed with names. Everyone else will be Nameless Narrative or be referred to with generic or descriptive titles. Only killing nets a character rewards, healing and defending don't. Once you raise a stat, it will never go down again. OK, I saved my game three months ago and I'm picking the game up again... so where was I supposed to go? An RPG where one character can easily become far stronger than the rest of his party. Clothing and armour can be worn by anyone, regardless of its source or the wearer's size or gender. When a town you pass through only has one shop for buying and selling weapons and armour. The point in a game where you're finally able to do all the sidequests, go anywhere on the map, and so on. Someone who may not join your party, if you don't fulfil the requirements to get them. Certain enemies are weak to tactics that are bizarre or otherwise not intuitive at first glance. An animation attack in which the Rule of Cool is applied in excess, making it just too long. Whenever you see a bookshelf, there will never be more than one book (and often one line) that you can read. A situation where, as your character gains levels, they begin getting less effective in certain tasks. Only the main character is shown walking around; other party members will appear when needed, or even walk out of his body. Rules in an MMORPG that prevents the game from being changed unduly by the players. A set of characters whom you control together throughout the game. A quiz during character creation that determines your alignment or statistics. Frequently referred to as 'loot', and like Experience Points, it's rewards (but of a physical manner) from defeating your enemies, from money to useful equipment. Arguably, stuff you get from other people as a reward for completing tasks from them count as well (the tasks of which may involve collecting Twenty Bear Asses.). Linear plot sequence that forces you to put your usual sidequests on hold while important plot events develop. There is no turning back once you cross this line near the end of the game -- you can only finish the game or die trying. The more powerful an item/Mon/etc. is in a game, the harder it is to find. Encounters with enemies which you can see coming (as opposed to Random Encounters). A character can choose to advance from a basic starting class to a more powerful, but more specialised class. An NPC designated somehow as someone who will give you a sidequest. When players equip their characters with gear solely based on stat bonuses without consideration to how it will look on them. Encounters with monsters that occur randomly as the player travels. You have a 1 in 128,983,234 chance of getting the Infinity+1 Sword from that Metal Slime. Happy grinding! Rats - the ultimate noob enemy. A usually hidden meter that measures the depth of your relationship to other characters. Someone who you have to have in your group, usually due to plot reasons. The main hero of an RPG can never be taken out of the active party. When a powerful character is given a plot-powered "level down" so he isn't statistically overpowered. A sidequest which has the player character enter a romantic relationship with a party member or NPC. Where a non-RPG is given some aspects of one (menu battles, equipment, levels). The only way to get equipment, skills and levels is to fight things. A specific spot where the player is allowed to save their game and restart it should they get a Game Over. All successful attacks must inflict some damage, no matter how little. Any part of a video game that is not required to complete the game. A sequence of optional sidequests reference/join up to each other to create a seperate story. The six attributes that help or hinder you in gameplay. Optional reset of a Player Character's skill and ability scores, allowing you to redistribute them. In the entire in-game world, there is only one kind of entertainment or only one city where you can find it. A party member leaves the party for some part of the game, taking whatever you equipped them with in the process. Hope it wasn't anything you needed! When you're separated from your party, they will join up with you in the course of one or more random encounters. Villains must appear in strictly ascending order by menace. We got potions, ethers, remedies, and revives, and dangit if they aren't all the same color! If you're poisoned, blinded, mute, and confused... better take it easy on the magic mushrooms. The equipment you're given by default at the begining of the game. As you do specific actions, your statistics related to those actions will increase. No matter how high your strength, speed, etc. goes, you still will not be able to, for example, just smash that Insurmountable Waist High Fence to pieces. The only time you actually need to hurry is if there's an onscreen timer counting down. It's the only way to get that sneaky clue about the dinosaurs! Where you are given a strong character or ability early on, but lose it quickly. Shopkeepers in video games sell powerful equipment, but you won't be able to afford them until later. When a character lies down on a bed, they will never get into sheets or blankets, but just lie on top of it. You can only rest the night at an inn; you can't just set up camp somewhere. Cities and towns are much, much smaller than they should be for sustainability. You spent all that time going through the dungeon and beating all the puzzles, so how the heck did these guys get here first? Got killed in combat? Just spend a night at the inn, and you'll be healed up by morning! The person who sends you off to kill the Big Bad is actually manipulating you for their own unsavory ends. Annoying Fetch Quest where you have to collect a certain number of whatever item, usually dropped by randomly encountered enemies. You wear your armor everywhere. You eat with it, you sleep with it, you take baths in it. Enemy types get recycled from one area to another, with stronger stats. There is only one type of poison, and generally one type of antidote for it. An item that's useless for anything but selling for cash. The Final Boss lives here; you'll know it when you see it. The world map is square and wraps around on both edges. How exactly does that work? Who cares? Common attributes for weapons. Where the villain is still at the same level he was at ten hours ago, but the heroes are ten levels higher and therefore beat him handily. Where you can collect millions of gold coins and not have your pants fall down. Instantaneously teleport to any location you've been to before. Want to sell that rusty suit of armor at a grocery store? They'll take it, no questions asked! You get a Game Over when the main character is killed, regardless of how many of his companions are still alive or whether they can quickly revive him. NPCs keep saying the same thing over and over again. There are only a few NPC models; you'll see it repeated over and over again. A subtype known as Dash Mode is extremely popular: holding a button will make the party run. May increase the chance of Random Encounters
 * Actually Four Mooks
 * Adam Smith Hates Your Guts
 * Alliance Meter
 * All in a Row
 * An Adventurer Is You
 * A Homeowner Is You
 * All Swords Are the Same
 * Arbitrary Gun Power
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit
 * Lazy Backup
 * Background Music Override
 * Bag of Holding
 * Bag of Sharing
 * Bag of Spilling
 * Battle Theme Music
 * Beef Gate
 * Betting Minigame
 * Black and White Magic
 * Black Mage
 * White Mage
 * But Thou Must!
 * Capital City
 * Character Level
 * Combination Attack
 * Convenient Questing
 * Critical Encumbrance Failure
 * Critical Hit
 * Damage Increasing Debuff
 * Damage Over Time
 * Defend Command
 * Diminishing Returns for Balance
 * Disc One Final Dungeon
 * Disc One Nuke
 * Dronejam
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?
 * Dungeon Maintenance
 * Easing Into the Adventure
 * An Economy Is You
 * Elemental Crafting
 * Equipment Spoiler
 * Evolving Attack
 * Experience Points
 * Experience Booster
 * Tech Points
 * Exponential Potential
 * Fairy Battle
 * Fake Longevity
 * Fake Ultimate Mook
 * Fantasy Character Classes
 * Fetch Quest
 * Broken Bridge
 * Fight Woosh
 * Follow the Plotted Line
 * Game System
 * Point Build System
 * Character Class System
 * Class and Level System
 * Common Character Classes
 * Fighter, Mage, Thief
 * Gladiator Subquest
 * Get on the Boat
 * Global Airship
 * Good Morning, Crono
 * Go Wait Outside
 * Guest Star Party Member
 * Guns Are Worthless
 * Health Damage Asymmetry
 * Heroes Prefer Swords
 * Hit Points
 * Impossible Item Drop
 * Improbable Power Discrepancy
 * Inevitable Tournament
 * Inexplicable Treasure Chests
 * Infinity+1 Sword
 * Informed Equipment
 * Inn Security
 * Irrelevant Sidequest
 * Item Crafting
 * Just Add Water
 * Job System
 * Joined Your Party
 * Karl Marx Hates Your Guts
 * Kleptomaniac Hero
 * Last-Disc Magic
 * Law of Cartographical Elegance
 * Leaked Experience
 * Let's Split Up, Gang!
 * Level Grinding
 * Level Scaling
 * Level Up At Intimacy 5
 * More Friends More Benefits
 * Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
 * Low Level Advantage
 * Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest
 * Match Maker Quest
 * Metal Slime
 * The Minion Master
 * Modern Day Sci Fi RPG Class Equivalents
 * Money Spider
 * Monster Allies
 * Mutually Exclusive Party Members
 * News Travels Fast
 * Nintendo Hard
 * No Hero Discount
 * Nominal Importance
 * No Experience Points for Medic
 * No Stat Atrophy
 * Now Where Was I Going Again?
 * One Man Party
 * One Size Fits All
 * Only Shop in Town
 * Opening the Sandbox
 * Optional Party Member
 * Outside the Box Tactic
 * Overly-Long Fighting Animation
 * Pamphlet Shelf
 * Parabolic Power Curve
 * Party in My Pocket
 * Perpetually Static
 * Player Party
 * Player Personality Quiz
 * Plunder
 * Plot Tunnel
 * Point of No Return
 * Power Equals Rarity
 * Preexisting Encounters
 * Prestige Class
 * Quest Giver
 * Rainbow Pimp Gear
 * Random Encounters
 * Randomly Drops
 * Rat Stomp
 * Relationship Values
 * Required Party Member
 * Can't Drop the Hero
 * Restart At Level One
 * Romance Sidequest
 * RPG Elements
 * RPGs Equal Combat
 * Resources Management Gameplay
 * Save Point
 * Scratch Damage
 * Sidequest
 * Sidequest Sidestory
 * The Six Stats
 * Skill Point Reset
 * Sole Entertainment Option
 * So Long and Thanks For All the Gear
 * Sorry I'm Late
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil
 * Standard RPG Items
 * Standard Status Effects
 * Starter Equipment
 * Stat Grinding
 * Statistically Speaking
 * Take Your Time
 * Talk to Everyone
 * A Taste of Power
 * Teaser Equipment
 * There Are No Bedsheets
 * There Are No Tents
 * Thriving Ghost Town
 * Took a Shortcut
 * Trauma Inn
 * Treacherous Quest-Giver
 * Twenty Bear Asses
 * 24-Hour Armor
 * Underground Monkey
 * Universal Poison
 * Vendor Trash
 * The Very Definitely Final Dungeon
 * Video Game Geography
 * Video Game Weapon Stats
 * Villain Forgot to Level Grind
 * Wallet of Holding
 * Warp Whistle
 * We Buy Anything
 * We Cannot Go on Without You
 * Welcome to Corneria
 * You All Look Familiar
 * Zip Mode