In a previous post I talked about my preference for the term Adventure Game over OSR. In some ways I like it better than the term RPG as well. I was gratified to find that the person who invented the whole genre (David Wesely) felt the same way.
Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for instances of RPGs being called Adventure Games. Some of the first examples were in D&D. The Moldvay/Cook boxed sets put it right on their covers, and subsequent beginners boxes used it as well. It even ended up on the spines of AD&D books.
Since then, it has mostly be used to refer to beginner boxed sets, I assume because Adventure Game is much easier to grasp than Roleplaying Game if you’re a parent looking to buy something for your kid.
However, in recent years it’s begun to show up more frequently on games where it isn’t code for RPG-lite. This is especially true in the Old-School Sphere.
What other examples of RPGs being labelled “Adventure Games” are out there? How do you feel about this trend?