Tabletop roleplaying began as an imaginative leap from miniatures gaming, and yet in many ways, particularly in its modern indie RPG form, it's closer in heart and ethos to theatrical improv. Improv is, of course, a form of finger exercise for actors, a way to hone their chops but not (usually) viewed as an end in itself; and similarly, there's a class of tabletop RPGs which can best be viewed not as full games in themselves, but as finger-exercises for gamemasters and/or players. To me, at least, the classic example is The Files Mr. Freitag, which perhaps I'll try to dig up the rules for at some point -- but Apocalypse Girl also falls into this category.
