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Coding and Roleplaying - Is There a Connection?

Posted by Cliff on from the dice-and-keyboards dept.

TossCobble asks: "With table-top roleplaying giant Wizards of the Coast (makers of Dungeons & Dragons, for those not in the know) broadcasting an open call for adventure designers and developers (including an entertaining developer test to gauge your own game-design talent and knowledge), I found myself once again considering the odd appeal of gaming for us programming types. It's interesting that something so free-form-ishly creative, socially dynamic, and utterly fantastical be fun for folks so grounded in logical programming. Of course, my theory is that gaming and programming actually have more in common than we might think. Tabletop roleplaying involves coming up with creative solutions to problems set in a clearly-defined ruleset, involve constant data-tracking and minor mathematical equations, and involve working together with small groups of people toward like-minded goals. Conversely, love of roleplaying can illustrate how important creativity is to good programming. What do you think?"

9 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wizards of the Coast? by VGPowerlord · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, the grandparent is wrong. Wizards of the Coast bought the entirety of TSR, not just Dungeons and Dragons, as shown on the page that the parent linked to.

    --
    GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  2. WotC wtf? by zephris · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wizards of the Coast did NOT make Dungeons and Dragons. It was made by Gary Gygax, sold originally by TSR and then TSR was bought by WotC. When will people start recognizing this????

    1. Re:WotC wtf? by Arivia · · Score: 2, Informative

      Except that WotC's owned and been distributing the game for over 5 years now.

      Hence, it's their game, argue as you may about their treatment of it since then.

      Makers=the people who make the current game.

      Sure, Gygax was responsible for part of the 1e AD&D and Original D&D rules, but the person with the greatest connection from those days to what's going on these days is Ed Bonny, of all folk, who ended up on the design team for the 3e MMII and Lost Empires of Faerun(and who posted some excellent Jhaamdathan material for the latter at candlekeep.com).

      --
      The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
  3. Re:I... by tasadar24 · · Score: 0, Informative

    D100's exist, some people choose to use them over two D10's for percentile chances.

  4. Re:(Mod Parent Informative) Re:What do I think? by Arivia · · Score: 2, Informative

    The glory days were Gygax, and everything's gone down since then? O.o

    That might have been when the game was the most popular, but the common consensus among most people deeply into D&D itself as a hobby is that 2e was the halcyon days everyone wishes we could return to...or rather, 2e content with the 3e ruleset.

    Oh, and the slow and painstaking process of creating the most detailed fantasy world out there(The Forgotten Realms) has really only been happening since Gygax left...and if you're going to say that the Realms' framework restricts DMs from being creative, then I seriously invite you to look at a supplement again, which are dripping in unresolved mysteries for DMs to pick up and run with(like the Sorceress in Grey, or just what Nchaser's up to, or just what 1374's Roll of Years' name is alluding to, or what the Lady Penitent is doing, or why Khelben spun off the Moonstars(Tel'kiira) from the Harpers, although Stephen Schend's likely going to deal with that one in Blackstaff...)

    --
    The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
  5. Re:A connection? Yes... by Arivia · · Score: 3, Informative

    Oddly enough, every important-enough-to-affect-the-product-line D&D campaign has had at least one female in it, without fail.

    Take it as you may.

    We women *do* play D&D too.

    --
    The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
  6. Re:mod parent up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You can't be serious! What you describe is the last few years of TSR, not the current state of D&D under Wotc. Do some research and read up on how TSR conducted business!

    1. In the end days, TSR was notorious for coming out with horribly edited material month after month. Nearly all of the quality checking was gone. It was just pages upon pages of junk. Do a search and you'll find several testimonials from former TSR employees that speak of the money grubbing TSR execs.
    2. Prices have only marginally gone up and the quality of the average WotC book is much higher than that of the TSR books.
    3. This was another famous TSR problem: Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Birthright, Planescape, Al-Qadim, Darksun, Ravenloft, Mystara, Spelljammer, Kara-tur, Maztica, etc. There were a huge number of neglected and abandoned campaign settings in the TSR days. So far, WotC has only really touched Greyhawk (adopting a bit of it as the generic D&D setting) and the Forgotten Realms. And, now they've added Eberron. In a similar time period TSR had gone through a half-dozen campaign settings.
    4. Nearly all of the 3e rules can easily be converted to 3.5. And, as someone else has already stated, WotC provides a free conversion guide on their website.

    Like it or not, WotC saved D&D. And, so far their management of it appears to be way better.

  7. Re:mod parent up... by Wavicle · · Score: 4, Informative

    a company that was full of innovative ideas and actually seemed to want to please its customers.

    What? Are we thinking the same TSR? The TSR that put itself into bankruptcy by alienating itself from its customers - threatening any who dared post a module they made themselves with legal action citing the module as a derivative product of their IP?

    Is this how one pleases one's customers?

    --
    Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
    Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
  8. Re:A connection? Yes... by Arivia · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, I mean a player.

    The two campaigns that immediately come to mind with that definition are:

    -Arneson's original Blackmoor game
    -Greenwood's Knights of Myth Drannor.

    --
    The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin