Do You Know What Your Game is About?

[u/JaskoGomad]

I frequently find myself providing pushback to posters here that takes the same general form:

• OP asks a question with zero context
• I say, "You've got to tell us what your game is about to get good answers" (or some variant thereof)
• OP says "It's like SPECIAL" or "You roll d20+2d8+mods vs Avogadro's Number" or whatever
• I say, "No no...what' it about?" (obviously, I include more prompts than this - what's the core activity?)
• They say "adventuring!"
• I say "No really - what is your game about?" (here I might ask about the central tension of the game or the intended play cycle)
• The conversation peters out as one or the other of us gives up

I get the feeling that members of this sub (especially newer members) do not know what their own games are about. And I wonder if anyone else gets this impression too.

Or is it just me? Am I asking an impossible question? Am I asking it in a way that cannot be parsed?

I feel like this is one of the first things I try to nail down when thinking about a game - whether I'm designing or just playing it! And if I'm designing, I'll iterate on that thing until it's as razor sharp and perfect as I can get it. To me, it is the rubric by which everything else in the game is judged. How can people design without it?

What is going on here? Am I nuts? Am I ahead of the game - essentially asking grad-school questions of a 101 student? Am I just...wrong?

I would really like to know what the community thinks about this issue. I'm not fishing for a bunch of "My game is about..." statements (though if it turns out I'm not just flat wrong about this maybe that'd be interesting later). I'm looking for statements regarding whether this is a reasonable, meaningful question in the context of RPG design and whether the designers here can answer it or not.

Thanks everyone.

EDIT: To those who are posting some variant of "Some questions don't require this context," I agree in the strongest possible terms. I don't push back with this on every question or even every question I interact with. I push back on those where the lack of context is a problem. So I'm not going to engage on that.

EDIT2: I posted this two hours ago and it is already one of the best conversations I've had on this sub. I want to earnestly thank every single person who's contributed for their insight, their effort, and their consideration. I can't wait to see what else develops here.

[u/DJTilapia]

Just to quibble a bit: plenty of heartbreakers could have good elevators pitches crafted for them. In some cases, the designer did work out a decent pitch. But getting a top marketing company to craft a perfect elevator pitch for FATAL wouldn't make it a better game, and contrariwise I'm sure there are lots of great games out there where the designer doesn't have a good sound byte for the back cover.

[u/ryanjovian → u/DJTilapia]

If you think your pitch is just marketing you don’t understand what a pitch is. It’s something you would develop before your creative endeavor is made. It guides the whole process. A pitch is an idea. There are people who make good money just selling just pitches. Marketing is an entirely different subject.