RPG Myths

rpg game-design realism mechanics tropes player-experience

Abstract

Problem: RPGs are built on conventions that players accept without question, but many of these mechanics and narrative tropes are complete fabrications when compared to reality. What are the biggest lies RPGs tell players?

Approach: Tim Cain catalogs RPG myths from small mechanical falsehoods to sweeping narrative lies, drawing on his decades of experience designing RPGs including Fallout.

Findings: RPGs routinely misrepresent physical skills (dexterity as a universal attribute), learning (repetition over failure), world simulation (frozen time), player identity (the chosen one), knowledge (omniscient item identification), and life outcomes (hard work always wins). These myths serve gameplay but create a distorted worldview.

Key insight: The biggest myth in RPGs is that perseverance guarantees success — every RPG tells you that if you work hard enough, you will win and the villain won't, which simply isn't how life works.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-438XTmFBE

Small Mechanical Myths

Crouching Improves Gun Accuracy

A staple of shooter-RPGs: crouch and your accuracy goes up. Tim looked into this across decades and found that experts have varying opinions on whether crouching helps. It depends on points of contact, surface, whether you're squatting or have a knee down. The one thing experts agree on: if you crouch and move, accuracy drops significantly. Yet most games let you move while crouched and keep the bonus.

Smart People Are More Perceptive

Games with intelligence stats frequently use them as a substitute for perception. Tim played a tabletop game that gave a gun skill bonus based on intelligence, justified by claiming "smart people shoot better." He's never seen a study supporting this.

Dexterity Covers Everything

The biggest attribute lie in RPGs. Dexterity/agility is made to cover proprioception (hand-eye coordination), gross motor control (full body coordination), and fine motor control (precise finger work). In reality, these are distinct capabilities — people can have one without the others. Yet RPGs also pile on movement speed, weapon speed, and recovery time. Tim admits Fallout's Agility covered far too many things, but it's an industry-wide problem.

Learning and Progression Myths

You Learn by Repetition and Success

Many RPGs teach that doing the same thing over and over makes you better at it, with no cap. Research shows the opposite: people learn from failure, not success. Repeating something you've already mastered teaches you nothing new — you need to be challenged to grow.

World Simulation Myths

Time Stops When You Leave

Nobody does anything when you're not around. Shopkeeper inventories might restock, but no one solves problems, leaves town, or changes in any way. Time is effectively suspended in your absence. Tim acknowledges this is done because timers aren't fun, but it creates a strange, static world.

Traps Never Decay

In fantasy and sci-fi settings alike, ancient traps work perfectly after thousands of years. Rope-based mechanisms haven't rotted, no animal has ever triggered them, and ancient alien technology still functions. Tim jokes about the "a wizard did it" explanation but notes it doesn't hold up in science fiction settings.

Identity and Knowledge Myths

You Are the Chosen One

In early RPGs (late 1970s–early 1980s), you were just a random person or group. Now nearly every RPG makes you special — the chosen one, a reincarnated god, from a famous lineage. "If you don't do this thing, the whole universe will be destroyed." It's become a pervasive lie: play this game, you're the special one.

You Know Everything About Yourself

RPGs present your character as having perfect self-knowledge: you know exactly what skills you have, how high you can jump, whether you can pick a lock just by glancing at it. You never have to try and fail to discover your limits.

You Can Identify Everything on Sight

Look at an item and instantly know its name, abilities, magical properties. Glance at a lock and know it's "Master Level." This omniscient knowledge extends to finding the objectively best equipment for your character, even as some games claim to discourage min-maxing while giving you all the tools to do it.

Companion Myths

Your Friends Will Never Leave

Once companions join your party, they're bonded forever. A few games have morale or loyalty systems, but even those usually warn you before a companion leaves. In real life, friends come and go, and very few give you a threshold warning.

The Biggest Myth: Perseverance Equals Success

The single biggest lie RPGs sell: if you work hard, try hard, and persevere, you will succeed and the villain won't. Every RPG does this. Tim notes that at least his games (like Fallout) don't also tell you that you're the hero — they let you be the bad guy and simply show you the consequences of your actions at the end. But even his games carry the myth that working hard enough will solve the problem. Sometimes, he says, all you get is "here's what happened."

References