A History Of Pen & Paper RPGs

Thanks to Skotos.net for their column discussing a brief history of tabletop role-playing games, as the author, aided by resources such as the Pen & Paper RPG database, charts the evolution of the RPG from 'character modelling' in the earliest titles ("...the purpose was to create statistics, abilities, and rules which could be used to depict a character"), through 'character development' in the original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons ("Instead of having static characters, players were offered ways for their characters to evolve and change"), right up to the 'story telling' emphasis in the '80s and beyond ("player investment in individual characters was dramatically reduced in exchange for telling better stories.")

Comments

Rifts

[zarthrag]

Rifts is the supreme pizza with extra anchovies of the RPG world, period. *anything* can happen in Rifts. And how can you not love the magic versus technology theme???

Re:Rifts

[shadowcabbit]

Rifts is good-- but the massive amounts of arcane and complex rules turned me off after a while. d20 Modern's Urban Arcana is a pretty good take on the magic/technology thing as an alternative.

Re:Rifts

[Anonymous Coward]

Rifts is EXCELLENT.
Revenant vampire? Intelligent cockroach with driving and gun-firing skills? Mikado (super-huge mecha) pilot? Juicer (drugged-up super-soldier)? Half space-monkey with a prosthetic cyber-dong? You could be whatever you wanted to be.
I may not play more, but dang if I don't miss the campaigns we had in high school.

Re:Rifts

[Anonymous Coward]

GURPS ownz d20.

And there are those who insist that Rifts was better than GURPS.

If ya love the magic vs Technology theme....

[OtakuHawk]

You should check out Shadowrun. http://www.shadowrunrpg.com or, check out these Shadowrun forums: http://invision.dumpshock.com/

Re:If ya love the magic vs Technology theme....

[neglige]

Interesting to see that Germany is such a huge market for SR, as there seem to be no publication in languages other than english and german :)

Oh, yeah, that's why

[Boglin]

I've always wondered why it was that I never got into table top RPG's. After all, I'm an enormous geek (I'm here after all); how did I resist the lure of the twenty sided dice? Then I took a stroll over to the Pen & Paper RPG database to take a look around. The Army of Darkness RPG caught my eye. Clicked the link. They wanted $35! The movie only cost me ten bucks, and it had better acting. Taking a look at how much they get for books and dice, it all makes sense. I didn't get into RPGs because I wanted a less expensive hobby, like cocaine.

Re:Oh, yeah, that's why

[tommertron]

They wanted $35! The movie only cost me ten bucks, and it had better acting.

Dude, $35 for a tabletop set is a pretty good deal considering most PC or console games start at around $60, and those games only last 20 hours on average. Invest in a couple of books and dice and you've got basically infinite playing time.

Re:Oh, yeah, that's why

[Ondo]

Dude, $35 for a tabletop set is a pretty good deal considering most PC or console games start at around $60, and those games only last 20 hours on average.

Actually, new video games normally start at $50, and there are hundreds of them available for $20 or less. The average of 20 hours strikes me as extremely low, but it's the kind of stat that's pretty much impossible to know.

Invest in a couple of books and dice and you've got basically infinite playing time.

Quality of entertainment is much, much more important than length of entertainment.

Re:Oh, yeah, that's why

[Golias]

Quality of entertainment is much, much more important than length of entertainment

I agree wholeheartedly.

That's why I'd rather own any one version of D&D than every "Baldur's Gate" computer game ever made. No computer game can compare to the infinite variety of pencil-and-paper gaming.

Oh yea, and you can get more length of entertainment, as well as more quality of entertainment, out of any RPG than you can out of any existing computer game. Unless you are one of those people that think re-playing the same 10 hours of Diablo II over and over again to be the most fun thing ever.

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[gnovos]

And they encourage youths to delve into occultism and ultimately drive them to suicide.

Just thought I'd point that out in case you weren't aware.

Good thing video games and movies never have Satanic themes!

Make your own paper and pen RPG

[MMaestro]

I don't know if history will ever note or realize it, but people have been forming their own paper and pen RPGs privately and secretly for years now. A friend of mine has a DM who modified the rules of D&D to have new skills, spells and races complete with stats, rules and background information. Now if someone is willing to spend the time to do that, theres bound to be someone who wrote up an entire paper and pen game if paper and pen RPGs have been around that long.

Re:Make your own paper and pen RPG

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe GURPS is designed specifically to facilitate people doing that.

Don't forget Flying Buffalo

[TerryAtWork]

They were running PBM games back when computers were for the very few.

When the net came along I thought well there goes Flying Bufflo, but no - they're still around - and on the net.

Re:Don't forget Flying Buffalo

[secolactico]

You know... years ago, when I was young and careless, I took a look at PBeM and tought "what a bore... play a turn and wait forever for the next one". But now that I have to deal with REAL LIFE (read work) it looks like they just might fit the bill! I can't afford to play for hours in one sitting any more.

Flying Buffalo. I'll definitely will be checking them. Anyone has more PBM or non-realtime games recommendations? Heck, I'll probably take a look at that fantasy football again.

Those interested in seeing what PBEM is about, you can lurk here.

Re:Don't forget Flying Buffalo

[ShannonA]

I actually have discussed Flying Buffalo in a previous article. This one, part of a series on how to design strategy games, talks about the evolution of web games, and points toward Flying Buffalo and other PBMs as the first step: Strategic Introductions: Web Games

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[LWATCDR]

Umm no they don't I played them a lot and I am no longer a youth. I never deleved into the occult at all and I go to church every Sunday with my lovley wife.
The friends I played with are also all married and doing just fine thanks. I don't know of one person that I knew that played that has commited suicide.
I would say that your statment is flawed.

For myself and my friends it was all good clean fun.

Hackmaster!!

[rprime]

All kenzerco fans unite and tell these unwashed heathens to play Hackmaster! The best roleplaying game out there. Come on gaming geeks. . .this article should be burned in the flames of one game/author/company verus another. Down with Diceless! WOTC should burn!

Re:Hackmaster!!

[Hakubi_Washu]

Yay, KoDT-Fans unite! :-)

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[Anonymous Coward]

Paper RPGs were a scapegoat of whining mothers whose kids were both morons and who happened to play these games. But like everybody here always likes to bring up, correlation is not causation....

It's the same as with TV, video games, and the internet.

The handbooks are a good deal these days.

[IM6100]

I just looked, and all the old AD&D handbooks are a good deal these days on eBay. I don't have a complete set (actually, all I have is the 2nd ed. Player's Handbook) but I think I'll put together a set. When those fine books can be had for $6-8 each, it's time to spend fifty bucks or so and have a bit of history. It's the kind of material that's at bottom right now and probably won't ever be cheaper. And I looked a bit ago at what they're asking for the new edition handbooks that (apparently) just came out. Ouch!

Re:The handbooks are a good deal these days.

[shadowcabbit]

Don't always count on the advertised price being what you'll pay for the actual book. I recently picked up the 3.5 versions of the Monster Manual and Player's Handbook for just under $20 each; and I was surprised to find the Forgotten Realms 3rd edition setting book at EB for $20 (after pre-ordering FFTA, I had $9 credit left over, so I snagged it for $11-- bear in mind YMMV). Plus other outlets like Amazon et al may have discounts; or if you frequent a local hobby store (which, luckily, there is in my area) you could probably talk the clerk into a set of books at a reduced cost.

Re:The handbooks are a good deal these days.

[IM6100]

I was up visiting my folks in Northern Minnesota last month and we drove up to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and I noticed the new AD&D books were there in a mall bookstore. Cover price Fifty Bucks . That's Canadian dollars, I know, but... ummm... gee.

(OT) Pen and Paper DB - Does anyone use it?

[Embedded Geek]

About a year ago, I shoved my name into Google and was suprised to come across an entry for myself in the Pen and Paper RPG database from an article I wrote for Dragon Annual 5. I never bothered trying to update them with my bio or the other articles I wrote for Dragon because I figured no one ever read the thing.

Since this posting is the first reference I ever came across for the PPRPGDB, I'm wondering if perhaps I should take a couple of minutes and update the entry. Does anyone out there actually use the thing? Should I bother?

Re:(OT) Pen and Paper DB - Does anyone use it?

[AdamJ]

The Pen-Paper RPG Database is fairly extensive now, and probably the most widely read public database on the subject. Updating it with accurate information does benefit the RPG community.

Best,
Adam

Re:(OT) Pen and Paper DB - Does anyone use it?

[xoff00]

I recently had the exact same thing happen...I was "additional design assistance" (read: I edited the darn thing but got screwed because the author was friends with the listed editor) for what I now see was a lame-ass sourcebook.

The DB is wierd. Its got *lots* of my friends from my gaming days in it...

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[NiceGeek]

Tom Hanks! Is that you?

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[Serzen]

While I have made studies of the occult, I'm certainly neither Satanic, nor suicidal. Just curious.

Of course, it was reading the Bible and other Classical mythology (into which I include Norse and Egyptian mythology) that caused me to become curious about the occult, and reading the Illuminatus! Trilogy that prevented me from taking it too seriously.

Laser Squad Nemesis.

[jfisherwa]

If you're not completely bent on an RPG, I highly suggest Laser Squad Nemesis--a great PBEM from some of the people that brought you the classic "X-Com."

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[Anonymous Coward]

I got the reference. I hate myself.

Some interesting omissions

[Allen Varney]

I worked in the adventure gaming field from 1984 until 1997, and then sporadically thereafter. I started at Steve Jackson Games, editing Space Gamer magazine under Warren Spector, and later freelanced for many paper game companies. This article does a decent job, for its length, of conveying the broad development of "core game design" mechanics. But I notice some odd oversights:

• RuneQuest. The article's slighting of the first significant skill-based system (unless you count Ken St. Andre's Tunnels & Trolls) is a grave distortion. Steve Perrin's RQ is a landmark in RPG mechanical design, for many reasons beyond its "universal model" aspect.
• TOON and Paranoia. From the article: "Traditionally, since their advent in 1973, RPGs had offered up the idea that the rules were the ultimate authority in a game and couldn't be spontaneously added to on the spot. Ars Magica (1988) was one of the first games to change this." Not even! Greg Costikyan's TOON, The Cartoon Roleplaying Game (developed by Warren Spector and me) and Paranoia (which Greg developed with Eric Goldberg and Ken Rolston from a setting by Dan Gelber) both appeared in 1985. They completely blew away the "rules authority" attitude in a way Ars Magica never matched. Both sold tons more copies than Ars Magica, too, at least in its first couple of editions. This installment of the article glosses over Paranoia (calling it a "storytelling game" -- really?) and ignores TOON completely.
• Weird White Wolf views. Of all the reasons to single out Mark Rein-Hagen's breakthrough Vampire: The Masquerade as a "consistent model" pioneer, this article chooses how it "break down the artificial distinction between attribute and skill rankings." Uh, okay. I know the article focuses on "core game design," but trying to establish the state of the art in RPGs on the basis of "the exact same scale for skills, relationships, personality traits, magic, combat, and even items" is nearsighted and excessively reductionist. On that basis, the author should have discussed instead the one-table systems of the mid-'80s, such as Greg Gorden's DC Heroes and the Pacesetter line.
• "Character Modeling Games." From the article: "[T]he first branch of the RPG tree was a style of game that lasted only a couple of years as a serious design meme, and which was eventually totally overcome by character development games. These early character modeling games placed as their goal the accurate portrayal of some character in a game environment. There was no opportunity for growth or change, simply a static existence. There's very little to say about this branch, because it so quickly dead-ended." Insofar as this distinction has merit, I could argue that, functionally, all the GDW roleplaying games (Twilight: 2000, Dark Conspiracy, etc.) amounted to this kind of design, whatever arbitrary advancement mechanics the designers tacked on as afterthoughts.
  But even if you disagree, the field has always enjoyed a tremendous ongoing current of small-press one-shot RPGs, what you might call the "short stories" of the form. Nowadays you find many such designers active on the Forge, the Burgess Shale of modern small-press RPG design. See, for example, the much-praised Little Fears, Universalis, The Riddle of Steel, and Sorcerer, as well as curiosities like Bedlam, Courts & Corsets, octaNe, and Nicotine Girls. And for a twisted mix of horror, humor, and emotion both high and low, check out Paul Czege's My Life With Maste

Re:Some interesting omissions

[Kvorg]

I agree, omission of RuneQuest is a big mistake. Personally, I have been a game master from 1989 (with one game spawning 13 years), and most of my games and game systems had some RuneQuest influence.
(The one thing I consistenty hated was melee and strike rounds, they are too mechaninc and take too much time.)

For a longer history of Role Playing Games with a different approach, see RPG History by Astinus">. I was very much surprised by the quality (and length!) of these articles!

Re:Some interesting omissions

[Golias]

In college, I probably ran Paranoia campaigns more than any other game system. I loved it. One of my favorite elements of the rules was (Warning: Security Clearance Ultraviolet! If you ever intend to play Paranoia and have not game-mastered, reading further is treason!) the way the rule book specifically insisted that you should reward bravado. Any time somebody tries to do something suicidally stupid that just... might... work, the gamemaster was expected to throw the rules out the window, pretend to be rolling some dice to make it look official maybe, but ultimately let the plan to throw cream pies at the MegaBattloidDestroyer Robot work like a charm. :)

I had Paranoia games that killed off the entire party (all six clones of every player) before they even got out of the mission briefing room. Hell, one time I killed them off trying to get to the mission briefing, and a fun time was had by all.

Re:Some interesting omissions

[neglige]

I had Paranoia games that killed off the entire party

Oh yes, Paranoia was - in a way - more a "player killing game" than a "story telling game"... No other game had me spend more time on character creation.

Re:Some interesting omissions

[ShannonA]

RuneQuest: I've purposefully left the question of character modeling to the second article, and you should thus see it in about a week. RQ's skill-based mechanics are definitely an issue to bring up, but as far as I can tell they weren't the innovator. Traveller did it in 1977 while RuneQuest wasn't released until 1978. Granted, RQ took a step further back from class-based modeling, but the skills were all there in Traveller. Toon: I'll definitely cop to leaving out Toon due to lack of familiarity and would love to hear more about how you think it really expanded the genre. Paranoia: I don't see a similarity at all between Paranoia's gamemaster fiat and the issue of spontaneous rules that I discussed for Ars Magica. Perhaps that just means that I should clarify what I'm saying when I revise all the articles for a second printing. White Wolf: Honestly, I don't think the WW games offered much breakthrough from a game design point of view other than the simplified statistics. Yes, they tapped into a market that other people hadn't & yes they developed new ways to sell supplements to players. Those are all exciting for the industry as a whole, but not part of the game design history I'm writing.

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[LWATCDR]

And even religon. Look at the Branch Dividins or the people at Jonestown. No one ever said that going to church made you want to, over throw the goverment, commite suicide, or murder. I do consider myself to be a religious person and frankly I find paper RPGs far less harmful than say the TV show Friends. Talk about bad role models. Besides that it really is not all that funny.

Steve Jackson Beat us to it!

[jbarr]

After playing various forms of D&D for several years, two of my friends and I spent many, many, many months writing, play-testing, hoaning, and re-writing our own revised game system. We had a couple hundred pages of rules, tables, etc. all nicely formatted and printed off of an old TRS-80 computer on an imapct printer (weren't the 80's fun?!?) We created a system that made sense, was easy to use, yet provided for great realism and believability. We were very close to wanting to market it when Steve Jackson Games released G.U.R.P.S.!!! His new system was so clean, flexible, and easy that we simply gave up. We're definatly not calaiming "prior art", just lots and lots of fun and challenges!

Paranoia!

[gumpish]

Paranoia! is still being played on the net, thanks to a nifty little Java program named (oddly enough) JParanoia.

You can look for games/players that use JParanoia on paranoia-live.net or paranoia-rpg.com

(Paranoia-Live.net being the better of the two sites.)

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm the AC above.

I am a person of faith who does NOT consider himself religious, but who identifies and believes very strongly in the core beliefs and value system that my religion teaches. I couldn't agree with you more about religion being seen as a scapegoat all so often, particularly when faith has been a positive influence for countless people over the history of mankind.

What I said in the post above could easily be applied to people who blame religion for their own failings: Correlation is not causation. If a person identifies as a Christian or a Buddhist or whatever, and he is also stupid, he is still likely to find himself doing stupid things. (Of course - nobody is perfect, and everybody at least deserves guidance.)

Oh, I agree with you about Friends, too. :) They're just whining, overgrown brats who wonder why life doesn't go their way by default, despite practicing self-destructive behavior.

Eh, at least that's the way I see things.

Everwars

[blah1019]

Check it out, on-line RPG. I've managed thru two tournaments and the beta test and I can assure you, I worship Satan no more than I did before I started playing the game ;)

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[LWATCDR]

I think friend glorifies self destructive behavior. When is one of them going to get VD? Or how about Ross not paying his child support so Rachel can not afford a nanny and looses her job because she can not child care and ends up a welfair mom?
Or Ross paying too much child support so he has to move in with Joey?
This could be fun.

Re:RPGs are Satanic

[dacarr]

Yes, and the capital of Texas is Detroit, MI, you schmuck.