Homestuck incorporates influence from role-playing games in a variety of ways. For background information on RPGs, check out the wikipedia article. While Hussie likens himself to a text-parser in this interview, here he refers to himself as a Dungeon Master for his readers, which suggest there’s a good amount of RPG influence in the construction of Homestuck. Rather than having a direct impact on the form Homestuck takes, however, RPG influence is more present in the story. The game Sburb involves many elements common to RPGs: non-player characters, classes and aspects, fraymotifs (powerful attacks, mentioned here by Hussie the character and explained in more detail on the wiki), boss battles with powerful denizens, class-specific quests and puzzles, customizable weapons and items, experience-point based leveling (the echeladders), in-game currency, and the list goes on. On top of these elements of RPGs, which guided the creation of the fictional game Sburb, tabletop RPGs and LARPing also factor in the creation of the trolls. [S] Make her pay., an important conflict that greatly affected the plot, happened because of an incident related to LARPing, and several characters are also generally influenced by LARPing and tabletop RPGs. Without the tropes and conventions set by RPGs, both live and digital, Homestuck would be a significantly different narrative, one that probably would not be able to capture the complexity and richness that Homestuck possesses in terms of lore. And Homestuck would also probably be significantly less marketable and relatable to fans who obsess over their claspects.