193: Internet Killed the Tabletop Star

[Alex_P]

Problem was that most tabletops weren't roleplaying games at all, but more focused around mechanics. If you open a pen and paper rpg manual, most of it will be things like encounter tables, experience tables, charts of armor, weapons, creature data, etc.

Well, it's not so much that the books are chock full of game mechanics as it is what the mechanics themselves focus on.

Just making game-mechanical stuff the centerpiece of play doesn't make a game suck. It just makes it strongly structured -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing in an RPG, as long as the structure the game mechanics create is worthwhile, e.g. when it provides momentum for the fiction or pushes interesting choices. The real problem is that many people write games with game mechanics that don't do that at all.

-- Alex

 

[dweomermaster]

*sigh* I miss playing AD&D. And magic the gathering.

 

[Figrut]

All this talk of D&D is giving me an itch.... would anybody be interested in running through the "worlds largest dungeon" via online post? It has been converted into 3.5 already. I figure, it even be done on one of these just to be lazy. I'll run it if I can get ahold of enthusiastic participipants. It will all be done thru individual posts, and no like enforced "grouping" or any of that sillyness. It is open gaming license as far as it is known.

 

[lewpuls]

In the early 80s I thought RPGs and computers would kill boardgames, but it hasn't quite happened. Odd that now computers have helped "kill" RPGs, though I'd qualify that. Lots of people play, but they no longer buy lots of products. So many fanboys (and girls) are willing to write material for free, or cheap, that publishers cannot afford to compete with the "crowdsourcing". The market is moribund, but there are still lots of players.

Unfortunately, tabletop RPGs require imagination and thinking, while conmputer RPGs require much less of both. In a way we're doomed by the "Easy Button".

 

[WrongSprite]

i loved warhammer 40k, aparently the games workshop stores are a little bare now that warhammer online has come out... i wouldnt know tho... i havnt been since... :|

(i wish 40k wasnt such a ***** to get into.. u gota buy $500+ worth of gear, spend FOREVER painting stuff just so you can play proper games... i mean.. its freaken great but cmon lol)

I enjoy the painting more than the playing XD

Plus you don't really have to spend $500, the small scale games are more fun anyway.