[MUD-Dev] Tabletop RPGs and Inspiration (was: no subject)

[Brian 'Psychochild' Green]

*crawls out from the rock under which he was hidden*

"Koster, Raph" wrote:

> Is it just me, or is tabletop RPGing basically dead? A corpse
> shambling along without any significant audience growth in a
> decade, low revenues (does an AD&D CRPG make more than the AD&D
> books do? I have no idea, but it wouldn't surprise me), and a
> terminally geeky image, and what's worse carried in part by
> another industry that is also teetering on bankruptcy, the comic
> shop.

One of the problems with tabletop RPGs is that they're a
self-defeating market. You need a good imagination to play RPGs in
the first place.  If I have such an imagination, why do I have to
buy the newest book filled with foozles, or even the next version of
the game?  For example, I have lots of 2nd edition D&D books, why
should I fork out more money for 3rd edition books when I can use
90% of my 2nd edition stuff with little effort?

Anyway, that industry has changed to adapt.  Tabletop RPGs gave way
to collectable card games (CCGs) just as wargames gave way to the
RPGs.  (I believe the more modern name for CCGs is now "trading card
games", or TCGs.)  CCGs basically addressed what people wanted; a
quick game with interesting rules, yet something that could spark
their imagination. Games like Magic: The Gathering had much of the
depth of a fleshed out RPG world.

What does this mean for us tabletop RPG fans?  Not much.  Sure, it's
tough to get new blood into the hobby, but there are enough of us
out there that we can possibly find each other.  My 2nd ed. AD&D
books don't need a server to run.  Plus, after attending GenCon the
past few years, it seems that there's enough of a following and
enough gaming geeks are bringing along their children that I think
we've just hit a lull.

Referring to the original post, however, I think that trying to make
an online version of the table RPG experience is just silly.  Most
of us have as vivid memories of the people and places we played as
in the games themselves.  While I certainly loved my dwarven
berzerker in the campaign I played in college, I also remember the
hyperactive red-headed GM that loved warm, flat Mountain Dew walking
along the tables in the college common room.  (I kid you not!)  You
lose almost all of this other sensory input when you move it to the
online medium.  The lesson here is: do your game in the right
medium.
 
> Don't get me wrong. I have great fondness for tabletop RPGing. I
> grew up on them. I love playing them. But I don't see "sweeping
> change to the world of online gaming" arising from them. Not from
> chat software, and in my cynical moments, not from Neverwinter
> Nights either (much as I look forward to that game, and much as I
> respect and like the guys making it).

I kinda agree with you, kinda disagree with you.  I think that all
these things will give us bits and pieces to think about and to
consider in our own works.  While I think "sweeping changes" are
unlikely, I wouldn't discount them.  Inspiration sometimes comes
from the funniest places.

For example, I've finally gotten around to reading the Harry Potter
books (actually, listening to the audio books).  (Yeah, yeah, I
know. I'm a trend-setter, eh?  Only several years too late.)
Anyway, the books really got me thinking about things.  No, not
"wow, a Harry Potter online game would be a cash cow!"  But rather,
how things are presented.  One thing the books do is present magic
in a way that's both strange and wonderous, yet vaguely familiar.
It gave me reason to consider how you could use something similar to
introduce magic in a game.

While I think there is a danger in clinging to the past blindly
("Tabletop RPGs can sell well to a mass market!  We just need to
develop the right one!"), I think there is similar danger in
becoming too blind to where we are going.  I can't count the number
of times people lamented the death of imagination right before CCGs
were introduced. People looked at slumping RPG sales and reasoned
that society was doomed to be stupid.  Of course, these same people
decried CCGs as "stupid entertainment", a pale shadow of the great
amount of imagination that RPGs require!  Some people felt their
hobby was too threatened to see CCGs for the intresting games they
were.
 
> Am I just too cynical at a young age?

C'mon, Raph.  You should know by now that the phrase "cynical
veteran game developer" is highly redundant.  If you breath in
during the GDC, you can almost always taste the bitterness in the
air. :)

--
"And I now wait / to shake the hand of fate...."  -"Defender", Manowar
     Brian Green, brian at psychochild.org  aka  Psychochild
       |\      _,,,---,,_      *=* Morpheus, my kitten, says "Hi!" *=*
 ZZzz  /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_   "They're not bugs, they're 'place-
      |,4-  ) )-,_..;\ (  `'-'    holders for code that works.'"
     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)         - Andrew Kirmse, Meridian 59 creator
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