A History Of Pen & Paper RPGs

Posted by simoniker on Thursday September 4, 2003 @10:53AM from the from-70's-geeks-to-00's-geeks dept.

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.")

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Rifts by zarthrag · 2003-09-04 11:29 · Score: 3, Interesting

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???

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Why can't all fpga/microcontroller manufacturers just release free optimizing compilers???
Make your own paper and pen RPG by MMaestro · 2003-09-04 12:28 · Score: 3, Interesting

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.