Obviously, the point of all games, RPGs included, is enjoyment, & the best reason to analyze the myriad gaming options is to maximize that enjoyment.
As I covered in Beyond Bread & Water, what draws people together for RPGs is varied. How relevant the RPG experience, per se, is depends on our main motivations for playing. As with “movie night”, some don’t care at all, & others care deeply, about which movies are being played. And of course, there’s nothing right/wrong about any preferences here. The problem arises when people do care about the game, itself, & yet are not getting what they really want.
It’s vital to see that we need not be stuck in any one playstyle or system. We can transform our RPG Chimeras into monsters we thoroughly enjoy. We can alter the ingredients of our RPG stews to get the meals we most crave. This begins, I believe, by understanding the art of RPGs.
RPGs are Art; Art Requires Specificity
All professional writers, musicians, and visual artists know that methods & tools are paramount. All of the arts (and I do consider role playing a unique form of art) are affected by our tools and methods. In the same way that visual artists need very specific brushes, graphite, paper, software, the right compositions, etc. to achieve the exact outcome they want, role playing games need specific ‘systems’ (methods, mechanics, and settings) to effectively reach the exact experience they want.
But we cannot just “brute force” generate the specific RPG experiences we want; we must identify each element, observe their specific effects on the game, and find ways of altering them to reach towards each different goal. Again, as is (incorrectly) attributed to Einstein, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” Sticking with a system (methods, mechanics, and settings) that goes against your specific goals inevitably damages your “role playing art.”
If your current games feel too much like miniature wargaming for your tastes, you can alter your methods to eschew the elements contributing to that experience. Conversely, if they feel too much like “story time gaming” you can find/alter your group’s style. Along every spectrum, RPGs are malleable, and we can consistently move closer to what we most deeply want.
As Bruce Lee popularized with the proverb, "Be like water," we can learn to bend, adapt & evolve our gaming styles to get what we want. In the coming essays I’ll explore such elements in detail.