What are "essential" TTRPG mechanisms?

[GMMichael]

I wrote 13 essential rules for a DRPG. In the form of mechanisms, these are:

• A game master (GM) presents a setting and leads a discussion that the group forms into a story.
• The GM rolls a d20 against a player's d20 to determine if some situations go well or poorly. These results can receive bonuses.
• Rolls as "attacks" can be negated by "defenses," but defenses aren't allowed without the defender's prior knowledge of a threat.
• One table (to rule them all) of Difficulty is used as a guideline to help the GM add the aforementioned bonuses.
• A roll result that's too low always goes poorly, but the roller can choose to use half of the die's max result (the Halfmax) to avoid disaster.

That fifth mechanism/rule seems less than essential, so I'd say there are Four Essential Mechanisms. If one were curious, s/he could explore further mechanisms (as rules modules) that turn four mechanisms into something a bit more interesting.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Basically, all you need is some method of determining who the characters are, and some rules for basic interaction between characters. A basic setting is needed. This can however be extemely vague. In theory you could start with something as small as an empty room, or a formless void depending on who the characters are...

Take for example Good Society: a Jane Austen rpg. There are no stats, no skills, you don't roll dice (or use any other randomizers), and you don't need a gm as it can be played all collaboratively. It is definitely a rpg, but it is unlike most other games. So what do you have? Well, each character has a background, and a (unique) role, and a desire. You have a method for interaction between characters with the use of resolve tokens (which are negotiated), and monologue tokens.

Of course, you have metarules, that deals with how the actions of the characters will affect things in the setting. Like rumours. But they are not neccessary for it to be a game as such. Instead these rules help shape the setting by managing what is important for that type of play.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Buying the pizza for the DM.

 

[Clint_L]

An RPG needs a sense of genre/setting expectations, rules delineating the objectives and responsibilities of each participant, guidelines for character building, and some kind of randomizer. That's it.

 

[pemerton]

The only "essential" mechanic to a TTRPG is a predetermination of who has authority to make a narrative declaration "stick", and how that authority is transferred.

Every other mechanic in the game is just how to divvy that authority up in increasingly narrow narrative situations.

I'm probably a bit late to this party, but I wanted to respond to this.

I tend to agree with some others that, if there isn't such a thing as most participants taking on the "player" role, making moves in the game by declaring actions for their PCs, then it's not quite a RPG, as they are not playing a role.

The other things I wanted to add, which I'm not sure anyone else mentioned, is that simply transferring authority is in my view a bit thin. I think, for it to be a good RPG - and in particular, for it to produce results that are surprising to all participants - then I want the mechanics not only to allocate/transfer authority but also to constraint or direct it, so that sometimes people have to say stuff that otherwise they wouldn't have.

You don’t have to have any of that. The core of a TTRPG is “Let’s take turns telling a story.”

Here I do think we part ways a bit. The only non-RPG story-telling game I've played is A Penny for My Thoughts, and I enjoyed it and would recommend it. But I don't think it's a RPG, because it doesn't have that first personality of declaring actions for my PC.

As you said, maybe this is mostly semantics? I'm sure there are blurry boundaries in any event.

I agree with you that the OP's list is bizarrely specific and baroque when looked at as a putative list of essentials.