Relativity and perspective. What are described as changes to roleplaying have a lot to do, IMHO, with the personal circumstances and experiences of the player doing the describing. What is a change to one is really only a matter of perception and subjective opportunity to another.
“Doesn’t that cloud look like a dolphin?”
“Naw, reminds me of the endoplasmic-reticulum of a capi-barra in heat.”
From my point of view roleplaying has changed most in how it is perceived by those who don’t play, the over all age of player, its bloody price tag and in the loss of its, and I use this term loosely here, innocence.
A little bit of history here. I’ve been blessed with low player turn over in the games I’ve been involved in and predominantly have only really played with two groups of about 12 peeps collectively, some of whom sat in on both groups. In the first group I was more of a player than a GM and there I cut my teeth on RPGs. We had a GM who intended from early on to get involved with the gaming industry (he eventfully hooked up with Pondsmith and Talsorian games for a time). He had a good paying job too and consequently whenever we played in his games we were treated to a buffet of different systems and different worlds: Gamma World, Travellor, Tunnels and Trolls, D&D, CoC, SB, Hawkmoon, The Fantasy Trip, Star Wars RPG (D6), Cyberpunk, Chivalry and Sorcery, The Empire of the Petal Throne, etc., etc. He’d see a movie or read a book and we’d be off and running, riding with Wee-Hawk for the Land of Scorch or assaulting a tavern with the Rolling Stones’ caricatures from the Rodney Matthews’ calendar. Usually the setting or system would last a session or three and then we’d be off on to something new. We called it “world for a day.” At the time we bitched about the turn over, but looking back on it now, I’m thankful he was so driven to try everything (at the time) that was available.
And there was a lot available. We’d haunt the local game store and the RPG section like my daughter tells me today’s goth-types haunt the manga section of the Barnes and Noble where she works—in a word “obsessively”. Each month we were rewarded with a new system, scenario or chapter in a setting…Columbia Games, Fantasy Games Unlimited, I.C.E., FASA, Games Workshop…weird little pocket games and other bizarreness. It seemed anybody with the gumption and two dollars to rub together was publishing, little companies popping up like mushrooms with dreams of giving TSR a run for its money with games that, though they may have had a limited shelf-life, were fun to try on for size.
And we’d try anything…remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle RPG, or Steve Jackson’s Kung Fu 2100, Metagaming’s MicroGames: TFT Melee, TFT Wizard and the solo modules Death Test 1 and 2. Ram Speed anyone? How ‘bout the obscure “Treasure of Unicorn Gold” that for a time entertained a young gaming community with the possibility of finding a “…unicorn…hidden somewhere in the U.S.A….” and a “…$10,000 cash prize from Metagaming…” for the lucky one who deciphered the clues in the module and actually found the damn thing! I never did hear what came of that contest or the one involving a solid silver dragon they’d hid earlier. You just don’t see that kinda, fly-by-the-seat-of-yer-pants, wacko publishing or such gimmicky eclectic offerings. Now, that being said, remember this was before the rise of the Internet as the force for RPG good, justice, equalization and porn that it is today! The phenomenon of the .pdf file had yet to make its advent in a big way, which is presently the way for any swingin’ dick to go who wants to see his name in lights—albeit if only in the light of the computer monitor.
Naw, what I’m talkin’ about is the three-dimensional, hold-in-your hands, it’s-got-a-cover…kinda thing. The supplement you know someone might have risked every cent they had to get published. These things ran the gambit in quality, some were crap and to make them even remotely playable you had to come up with house-rules and additional material or they were completely overwhelming, almost god-like in proportion: the first edition of The Temple of Elemental Evil comes to mind (30 years of RPGin’ and I’ve yet to get through the whole thing and fight the bosses at the end!).
“Back-in-the-day” the whole scene was so new…rough and raw…edgy. The RPG world was still trying to define itself and decide if its face was, in fact, DnD…or was it something else: Arduin, M.A.A.R. Barker’s Tekumel, live action role-playing, golden unicorns, mutant amphibians or Elric and his sword? Were we simply “pretend games” gone mad, pseudo medieval nostalgia gone 3D, a plague that would soon pass, or something else? Though there were systems and settings to be had (cue the music: The City State of the Dread Overlord/World Emperor…by Odin’s Bronzed Balls, I miss those fun, and sometimes goofy, Judges Guild supplements!), most of the DM/GMs had to roll their own and come up with unique settings, a reason I love the conversations happening here about what worlds peeps would like to see developed for play. The group I gamed with at home and at the convention created like that all the time. Thankfully, it seems that has changed little.
But at the time we were rebels; we were geeks; we were odd-balls; son and daughters of darkness, disenfranchised mutants who couldn’t attempt to kick a soccer ball without tripping and falling, flashing our monster manuals at little old ladies to see them blanch and turn in horror. We played all night for days at a stretch, slept in convention hall ways and shook our head in pity at those how forgot to hydrate and got “dungeon fever.” We were a major nose tweak to the conservative community and that was all icing on the cake. We were having a blast playing the latest and weirdest pretending to be Conan, Arthur or Beowulf, Captain Kirk, Buck Rodgers or Captain Nemo. Now…it’s all old hat to the world. I swear, when my kids (both in the class room and in my family) either find out I game or talk to someone about my hobby, it’s with a sense of pity, as if they feel sorry for me, like I’m some sort of over sized puppy who had his paw slammed in the door. “Ahhh you poor thing, you.” When did that happen?! When did Role Playing become old hat and pen and pencil RPGs old school?
Now, it’s seems, IMHO, as if the RPG-world is trying to understand if there is “anything else”? Almost as if it were collectively bored. I mean, no one can deny that there’s a plethora of choices out there that dwarfs anything available during the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, setting after setting, game after game, but it’s all so blasé. The term “Dungeons and Dragons” is almost an antiquated household word…common place. For cryin’ out loud William Shatner and Mr. T. are adverting WoW on TV! It seems that every Scifi movie or TV series spawns it’s own RPG (Stargate, Buffy), “…based on the ever popular D20 system…”, but nothing truly “new” is happening in the pen and paper market, not like long ago. I sometimes wonder how much of the market is fueled by those of us who love the sport, always have and always will. When we don’t or can’t play anymore…? I realize I’m excluding a massive sub-culture by not including computer/internet gaming in my observations and rather focusing on the true play-it-in-yer-heed RPGs—maybe that’s fodder for another thread.
Today it seems different. For the most part, the dust has settled and the present incarnation of the “big boys” rules the roost. The companies in power today didn’t even exist back then. I mean, damn, even the once-upon-a-time almighty TSR has gone the way of the doh-doh. We’re more “sophisticated” and demand more from an RPG—equal to, I suppose, the demands of the gaming industry on our wallet. The price tag on games today blows me away. Like an earlier posting alluded to, you gotta shell out the casheesh to break in a new RPG. I remember the DnD DM’s Guide, Player’s Book and Monster Manual costing a whopping $45.00 altogether…LOL! I priced the essential rules book for the latest version of the Star Wars RPG, $40.00 alone :eek:
The age demographic has changed too. Back in the day there were few if any, adult players save the closed cadre of mover-and-shaker game authors, Gygax and Hargrave types, dudes who’d converted from the military strategy games that inspired the likes of Chainmail or the odd ball teacher (like me now…lol). Most players were young, young, young. I think that’s changed a lot…hell, I bet the average age of posters on this forum is around 45…LOL!…and is indicative of a sizable, for the most part mellow, majority with more mature tastes…the very same who as young gamers were condemned by the religious right as “imps of Satan” . Personally I think that lends itself to more quality in what does come out on the market. Like I mentioned above, we’re more discriminating in our choices and what we’re willing burn up our time on. I want to look back at the time I spend gaming or creating for gaming and feel it was worth not hanging out with my wife, practicing my bagpipes, writing, or playing with my granddaughter for a few hours once every so many weeks (this is probably the reason I gave up playing WoW and have been glad for it ever since). I want to feel it was time well spent, so I’m a little more wary than I was before about what I buy (On my honor, I have never owned Daughters of Darkness!).
I think that’s why I’m so excited about DBRP. Since the heady times of “world for a day,” I’ve stayed pretty true to Chaosium games and BRP: Rune Quest III sans Glorantha, Stormbringer first edition (that should date me hardcore), treasured Ring World, etc. and it warms the cockles of my heart to hear their echo in Jason’s work. It lends itself to that mentality which after seeing a movie on the Sci Fi channel that tickles the imagination can quickly whip up a game in that milieu without the need for slick and over-priced supplements. It’s a return to those gritty, fly-by-the-set-of-yer-kilts days when it was world-for-a-day and memories for life.
