Designing the new RuneQuest - part 12

[Rick Meints]

If I may digress slightly with a true story: I am the scoutmaster of a Boy Scout troop in the US. It has about 40 young men in it, mainly between the ages of 11 and 17. Sooner or later one of them is bound to ask me about my "day job". I tell them I work for a game company that publishes roleplaying games and board games. Board Games they instantly understand. When they hear "roleplaying games" they almost always take that to mean "computer games". I then start explaining that Chaosium publishes paper game books for games sort of like "Dungeons & Dragons", which is almost universally met with a blank stare of recognition (half of the adults do likewise).

Somewhat oddly, a number of the boys in the troop run verbal "scenarios" as games with other boys. You'll see a group of them sit around the table doing a "role-play". One of the guys is a "dungeon master" who guides the action by asking the guys what they are doing in the story. There are no character sheets, no books, no paper, nothing ever rolled up or written down. When a "fight" or some other conflict happens the DM will say "roll a die" and the player calls out a number between 1 and 20. I have no idea (after playing RPGs since 1977) how the DM determines failure or success, but it isn't by referring to any charts or any rules, let alone any stats or skills used for gauging difficulty.

For those scouts that seem interested, I have handed them a Call of Cthulhu QuickStart, or told them they can download some stuff from our website. One of the older guys who was pretty good at being the DM I gifted with a CoC 7th ed rulebook from our "dinged and dented" bin. He mainly plays Pathfinder now, but at least he is gaming with books and dice...

Thus, after interacting with a large number of young people over the last 15 years as a parent and scout leader, I can say a wide cross section of young (and older people) have no real clue as to what pen and paper roleplaying games are all about. To be fair, some of the dads say "I played that a couple of times when i was in school", but that is far from the majority, and sometimes I think they are humoring me so the conversation is less awkward. Lastly, the people who visit me at home and spot my game library pretty much glance at it with total indifference, like you would at somebody's set of silver spoons from each of the 50 states, or your gran's salt and pepper shaker collection (not that there is anything wrong with any of those things).

That's why I feel a booklet like the original Chaosium "Basic Roleplaying" is needed now at least as much as it was in the 80s.

ps: at least it's encouraging to no longer get asked if RPGs are all about Satan worship or being a witch any more. That seems to have ended when the 80s ended...

[g33k]

1 hour ago, Rick Meints said:

If I may digress slightly with a true story...

A digression???  On an internet forum????!?  Ghood Ghods, man... have you no decency?

1 hour ago, Rick Meints said:

ps: at least it's encouraging to no longer get asked if RPGs are all about Satan worship or being a witch any more. That seems to have ended when the 80s ended...

My oldest (now 27, first pen&paper PC was when she was 6-7 years old (after some years of playing "character games" (her name, from the games the adults played using "characters") with dolls-and-toys) reports from a Pathfinder table:

• Conservative-religious Grandmother: "You kids aren't playing Dungeons&Dragons, are you???!?"
• Kid at table, waving rulebook:  "No, Grandma, we're playing Pathfinder!  See?"

The public hysteria is less; the prejudice isn't gone, just less-visible; a brief Google finds (for example):

• http://family.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26245/~/teen-questions-about-“dungeons-and-dragons”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnjY4Nn44f8

Both -- alas! -- dated 2015.

Edited February 13, 2017 by g33k

[Richard S.]

31 minutes ago, Rick Meints said:

For those scouts that seem interested, I have handed them a Call of Cthulhu QuickStart, or told them they can download some stuff from our website. One of the older guys who was pretty good at being the DM I gifted with a CoC 7th ed rulebook from our "dinged and dented" bin. He mainly plays Pathfinder now, but at least he is gaming with books and dice...

I did a similar thing in my own troop, albeit with HQ, though it's been a while since all my players have gone on a campout together.

[Mankcam]

At the height of the RPG devil-worshipping hysteria in Australia in the 1980s, I totally loved the fact that most people didn't know an RPG from their elbow. We used to play once a week in the library and the teachers would eye us suspiciously, asking "Is that Dungeons & Dragons?".

We were always happy to show them that we had Game books with series names like 'Fighting Fantasy' or 'Lone Wolf'; and later on we had box sets with titles like 'Rolemaster' and 'RuneQuest' proudly emblazoned on the covers!

No one knew what they were, just as long as we weren't playing D&D, at least until the authorities figured out what it was all about.

Yes the times have changed, and still no one seems to know what RPGs are all about. The name comes up, but it's often in relation to a board game or computer game (such as an MMO). Sometimes it can be confused with something entirely different...

I still think there is definitely a need for an explanation regarding 'What Is Roleplaying?' in regards to pen'n'paper RPGs. This hobby may have matured into a fully fledged industry, but it is still off the grid for many people.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Mankcam

[styopa]

19 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

I can say a wide cross section of young (and older people) have no real clue as to what pen and paper roleplaying games are all about.

Having DM'd my sons and their peers for the last 15 years or so, since they were about 7-8, I've recognized that, generally speaking: they know what "D&D" is conceptually.  RQ is simply a 'flavor' of D&D to most.  But in application?

- growing up with video games, these young people really need a strong storyline and a linear plot.  Deception is *way* too easy, and should be avoided: in video games, people rarely lie to the player.  PERSONALLY, I've found their visualization skills generally surprisingly weak.  When I have a very new group, I try to overplay that by encouraging collaborative descriptions - "It's a roadside tavern in a small farming village, with a fireplace, a couple of tables and benches, while the only worker is behind the short bar.  What else would you expect would be there?  Describe how you imagine it looks, sounds, smells..." letting them 'fill in the details" for each other. (I have a reminder on my DM screen top edge to *constantly* refer to sense-based descriptions other than visual.)

- attention spans are short; plots need to be engaging and active; I've found the most productive model would be the tv-drama style: each adventure has its own micro-arc, but they're often sprinkled with references to a larger story arc to which  they may or may not be related.  Gone, I believe, are the old days where we (as teens/college age) would spend marathon 12+ hour sessions.  I'm lucky if we can lock in 4-5 hours at a span.

- there's a strong community of gamers in high schools and colleges, but this description is no longer as narrow as it used to be, now it includes CCGs, FPS-gamers, MOBA players, etc.  I daresay their lives are more constantly interesting: There are so MANY other entertainments competing for their time and dollars, it's hard to convince them that spending that time sitting in a room doing X is worth it.  I used to spend 2 hours setting up a board wargame and then 6 hours playing it.  Almost never happens today.  Once they do it, it's easy to get them to come back...but that initial investment is sometimes a hard sell. 

- I *love* DMing for younger people.  Walking away from a gaming session, listening to them excitedly recapping what they did and how cool that encounter was, it's invigorating for someone who sometimes verges on cynicism.  Plus, most of my DM tricks and gimmicks still work on them.  

These are of course only generalizations; we've found kids that are exceptions to all of these.

 

FWIW when I was in high school (1984ish) we got detention for playing D&D during study hall in one of the separate study rooms not because of what it was, but because the librarian and school administration couldn't conceive of a game using all those dice that wasn't gambling.  So yes, D&D got me in trouble for 'gambling'.  Even my parents laughed at that.

[g33k]

5 hours ago, styopa said:

- growing up with video games ...

Among my lessons-learned & lessons-taught GM'ing for middle-school kids is that high-action is nearly mandatory to keep engagement with the majority of kids (sure, a few will go deep with the RP or the puzzle-solving; but most want action).

Also, that the modern videogame mentality tends to run sharply toward "hit it first, and see if it XP's you or drops a treasure; THEN try other interactions"     Also, many of them expect easy re-spawns as part of the game...  

Edited February 14, 2017 by g33k
added detail

[RMS]

On 2/13/2017 at 7:48 PM, Mankcam said:

At the height of the RPG devil-worshipping hysteria in Australia in the 1980s, I totally loved the fact that most people didn't know an RPG from their elbow. We used to play once a week in the library and the teachers would eye us suspiciously, asking "Is that Dungeons & Dragons?".

We were always happy to show them that we had Game books with series names like 'Fighting Fantasy' or 'Lone Wolf'; and later on we had box sets with titles like 'Rolemaster' and 'RuneQuest' proudly emblazoned on the covers!

Anecdote from my youth:

Much of my extended family got caught up in the anti-D&D hysteria - at least enough to not allow my cousins to play games with me.  Anyhow, one day I was upstairs playing Stormbringer with my friends.  My aunt stopped to visit with my mom.  She came upstairs to say hello to me, saw we were playing games and asked if it was D&D.  I told her it wasn't, and she commented, "That's ok.  As long as it isn't Dungeons and Dragons."  Then she left.  Everyone broke down laughing when she left.

When she walked in, the player with the Pan Tangian sorcerer had just finished purchasing a bunch of sacrifices to summon up a demon to bind.  If there was ever a game that really should have bugged them, it was Stormbringer and the detail to which we went in "fleshing out" all the summoning and binding stuff!   But it was ok because it was D&D!

Note:  the detail I added was mostly to make such a central portion of the game more part of the game, and to help control the amount of summonings going on a bit.