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

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/

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!

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."

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