Deterministic or stochastic"This still leaves us needing a line between adventure and role-playing. Games in these two genres share many characteristics, although they usually lean in different directions on the emphasis thereof. Adventures usually stress on story and puzzle content. In contrast, Role-Playing Games emphasize interaction with a larger and more randomly behaving virtual world. These differences in emphasis are not definitional, however, since a game clearly in either genre can be designed with either or both of these elements.
Character development is a tempting characteristic to use to divide these two genres. Unfortunately, it falls a bit short. It is not unreasonable for an adventure protagonist to acquire new abilities, such as lock picking or increased dexterity, during the quest. The difference is not in whether character development is used, but in the reasons behind using it. In adventure, the development is needed to solve a particular problem. In role-playing, the development is needed to improve the character's chances to solve nonspecific problems that may arise randomly from the virtual world.
In essence, the fundamental distinction between role-playing and adventure games is the stochastic nature of the former s as opposed to the deterministic nature of the latter. It is the random presentation of obstacles that makes Role-Playing Games character statistics so important. Adventure games seldom play with a significant rolling of the die. In other words, an adventure game plays out the same every time you run through it if you take the same actions. Role-Playing Games rely heavily on rolling the die for determining combat and other event outcomes, whereby the player must court Lady Luck and develop stronger character statistics to improve the odds of survival."
"Drunk at the matinee" is a collection of candid poetry about stupid shit that we all experience from day to day.
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