Every RPG subgenre acronym, decoded

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨atomicpoet@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

For people unaware of all the role-playing game (RPG) subgenres, here’s a brief explainer:

TTRPG – Tabletop RPG. The original RPG. Played on a literal table. Dice, paper, friends, arguments. Everything else evolved from here.

Examples:

Dungeons & Dragons
Pathfinder
Shadowrun

LARP / LARPG – Live Action Role-Playing Game. The version where people physically dress as their characters and act things out in person. Foam weapons, costumes, fake accents, and enough in-character drama to power three soap operas. LARPing as a concept goes back to the 1970s, right alongside early tabletop like D&D, but it didn’t get the “LARP” acronym until the 1980s.

Examples:

Vampire: The Masquerade LARP events
Amtgard
Dagorhir

CRPG – Computer RPG. Born from tabletop, moved onto computers. The CPU handles all the dice rolls you don’t want to argue about.

Examples:

Baldur’s Gate
Fallout (1997)
Planescape: Torment

TBRPG – Turn-Based RPG. Everyone takes turns. This is the “classic” RPG format, so people often just call it an RPG.

Examples:

Divinity: Original Sin II
Wasteland 3
Trails in the Sky

SRPG / TRPG – Strategy (or Tactical) RPG. Same turn-based idea, but on grids—squares or hexes—with multiple units to command.

Examples:

Fire Emblem
Final Fantasy Tactics
Tactics Ogre

RTwPRPG – Real-Time with Pause RPG. You pause to assign orders, unpause to watch them happen. Baldur’s Gate fans still swear by this.

Examples:

Baldur’s Gate II
Pillars of Eternity
Dragon Age: Origins

ARPG – Action RPG. Real-time combat. No turns, no waiting—just swing when you feel like it.

Examples:

Diablo II
Dark Souls
Kingdom Hearts

IRPG – Idle RPG. The game mostly plays itself. Perfect for people who like progression bars but don’t like playing.

Examples:

Clicker Heroes
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
AFK Arena

JRPG – Japanese RPG. Made in Japan or heavily inspired by Japan’s approach. Console-heavy. Drama-heavy. Usually turn-based or action hybrid.

Examples:

Final Fantasy VII
Persona 5
Dragon Quest XI

KRPG – Korean RPG. Similar to JRPGs but usually more PC-oriented. Often online.

Examples:

Lost Ark
MapleStory
Vindictus

WRPG – Western RPG. Pretty much any RPG from the West that isn’t imitating JRPGs.

Examples:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Mass Effect
Fallout: New Vegas

RPG – Polish RPG. Technically a WRPG branch, but with its own personality. Darker tone, folkloric influences, and PC-first mentality.

Examples:

The Witcher series
Seven: The Days Long Gone
The Thaumaturge

LatRPG – Latin American RPG. RPGs from Latin America, often mixing local folklore, indigenous mythology, and JRPG/ARPG elements. “LARPG” isn’t used because Live Action Role-Playing already took it.

Examples:

Mulaka
Tunche
Cris Tales

MORPG – Multiplayer Online RPG. Small-scale online RPGs, often instanced or lobby-based.

Examples:

Phantasy Star Online 2
Monster Hunter: World,
Dauntless

MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online RPG. Persistent worlds, thousands of players, endless grinds.

Examples:

World of Warcraft
Final Fantasy XIV
Guild Wars 2

MOORPG – Massive Online Open-World RPG. Marketing term for the “bigger” MMOs. You’ve seen the ads.

Examples:

Black Desert Online
ArcheAge
EVE Online

MRPG – Mobile RPG. Made for phones. Often gacha-heavy, session-based, or both.

Examples:

Honkai: Star Rail
Raid: Shadow Legends
Summoners War

BRPG – Browser RPG. Runs in your web browser. Lightweight, accessible, usually free-to-play.

Examples:

Kingdom of Loathing
AdventureQuest Worlds
Urban Dead

VRRPG – Virtual Reality RPG. Built for VR platforms. Often more about immersion than traditional RPG mechanics.

Examples:

Zenith: The Last City
OrbusVR
The Mage’s Tale

BBRPG – Bulletin Board RPG. Forum- or post-based roleplay. Writing-heavy, rules-light.

Examples:

Gaia Online RP forums
NationStates roleplay boards
Myth-Weavers

So yeah, there’s a lot of alphabet in the RPG soup. Some of it’s legit, some of it’s marketing garbage, and some of it’s just fans inventing labels because that’s what fans do.

But they’re all chasing the same dopamine hit: numbers go up, loot gets shinier, and suddenly your “quick session” has eaten the entire weekend.

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Comments

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eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Everybody’s talkin’ 'bout the new massively open-world online multiplayer virtual mobile browser bulletin board tabletop Japanese Western Polish Latin American Korean idle action real-time turn-based strategic role playing game, funny, but it’s still RPG to me 🎶

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Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Quick correction, even though the A in ARPG stands for action, action RPGs and ARPGs are not the same genre and you cant (well you can, but you shouldnt bc then youre purposefully being obtuse) just abbreviate it. I dont really like this list for other reasons, but I can see that you did put some effort into it so I dont want to be super critical.

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- atomicpoet@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The ARPGs you’re probably referring to, I call them Diablo-likes to distinguish them from all the other action RPGs.
  
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  - SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I still remember someone saying that Diablo was a beat-em up, not a RPG 😁. We probably didn't know the term "hack'n'slash", but still makes me chuckle.
    
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  - fushuan@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    That term was coined way too late, it's exilelike now.
    
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bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Nice. Didn’t know thag PRPGs are a thing. I take it that Gothic would qualify although it is German?

What about dungeon crawlers, like Ultima, Lands of Lore or Might & Magic? To me they seem to be very distinct from isometric CRPGs.

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- atomicpoet@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  There’s a lot of subgenres I wanted to include, but I felt this document was already too long. Here’s more of them:
  
  DBRPG = Deck-building RPG
  
  SurRPG = Survival RPG
  
  RLRPG = Rogue-like RPG
  
  SoRPG = Souls-like RPG
  
  I don’t know why I overlooked GRPGs since Germany has some pretty important ones. You mentioned Gothic, but there’s also the Sacred series and ELEX series.
  
  I’d say that while both GRPGs and PRPGs are releated to each other, there’s some big differences that go beyond nationality. I’d say GRPGs are more like a muddy Renaissance faire going on while PRPGs have more of a storybook style.
  
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RedStrider@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What do you refer to the eg Mario & Luigi games as, where they’re turn based but rely on timed button presses and minigames for combat 🤔

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- Ashtear@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Mario & Luigi games are still JRPGs, which is a genre that’s more of a vibe than something easily defined. Here it’s a little easier because the series traces back to a major JRPG developer in the 1990s.
  
  Even Expedition 33, another one with timed gameplay, is frequently getting lumped into the category (though that might change in coming years). That’s why I prefer the term Japanese-style role-playing games, as the genre is increasingly seeing game dev outside of Japan.
  
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jimerson@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
MUDs, I think, have a place on this list.

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oce@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Guild Wars 1 made its own little style called CORPG.

A competitive online role-playing game (CORPG) differs from the standard massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in that they are less focused on the massive group experience. All outside areas are instanced, meaning that a player and his group are the only ones there, so that every player gets his or her own unique version of the game’s story without the headache of killstealers or people disrupting the fun.

In Guild Wars, as opposed to one of NCSoft’s other offerings, like City of Heroes, a player might roam the countryside with a group of 1 to 11 other heroes. In an MMORPG like City of Heroes, the group would be surrounded by other similar groups, all wishing to kill the same mobs and achieve the same goals, at the same time, in the same space. Guild Wars eliminates this scramble, letting players take the game at their own pace while playing player versus environment.

The competitive aspect of the name derives from the player versus player, guild versus guild, and an international war called the War of Worlds. In many respects, the PvP version of the game is a very different experience from PvE, using different strategies and playing styles to battle human opponents instead of the computer AI. …fandom.com/…/Competitive_online_role-playing_gam…

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ramble81@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Some VRMMORPG examples are Sword Art Online or Shangri-La Frontier!

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AlexisFR@jlai.lu ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Idle RPGs makes me curious. What’s the best one, SP first, without MTX?

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- donnywholovedbowling@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Itrtg and ngu idle are great examples of the genre. I think they both have mtx but you don’t need to spend any money to progress. These games also last literally years to get to the end game! Very fun imo
  
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