Game Informer's recent issue featured a new ranking, the Top 100 RPGs, but the list was really about role-playing video games. Tabletop gamers know that there's at least one game that should be #1.
[h=3]The Family Tree[/h]Dungeons & Dragons has been strongly influential in a wide variety of gaming mediums, from gamebooks to live action role-playing games to video games. Despite their shared ancestry, video games' popularity has largely eclipsed the tabletop industry, such that they are often cited as a "role-playing game" -- even though at this point, being a computer or console RPG (CRPG) doesn't necessarily have a player actually roleplay. Phil Hartup explains on NewsStatesman:
So what exactly did tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons bequeath upon its video game descendants?
[h=3]What Makes a RPG a RPG?[/h]Dungeons & Dragons codified fantasy into a system and hierarchy that lends itself to programming. Jon Peterson laid out the three mini-games that make up D&D in Playing at the World:
Wikipedia breaks down just what distinguishes video game RPGs from other types of games: story & setting, exploration & quests, items & inventory, character actions & abilities, experience & levels, combat, and interface & graphics. Aligning these with what constitutes the core of D&D play, they can be categorized as exploration (story & setting, exploration & quests, interface & graphics), combat (combat), and logistics (items & inventory, character actions & abilities, experience & levels).
Hexcrawl-style tabletop exploration has come back into fashion, but only recently has computing power reached a point where the illusion of limitless exploration can be feasibly portrayed. Prior to that, storytelling in a walled-off setting discouraged too much exploration, a challenge massive multi-players face even today.
Combat has always been part of D&D, going back to its wargaming roots. As such, this is perhaps the easiest to simulate with CRPGs but at times the least creative. Players are hedged in by what the game allows; admittedly, those choices have expanded exponentially as CRPGs have become more complex.
Logistics in particular is where video games excel, managing inventory, magic items, and character advancement so that players don't have to (or, as can sometimes happen in tabletop play, they forget). This shift tends to emphasize certain aspects of tabletop play over others. In a theater of the mind style game, where imagination takes precedence, onerous tasks like inventory management and mapping a dungeon are de-emphasized. In a video game, these elements can be automated and much more accessible. In fact, character advancement and customization has come to define what constitutes a RPG in the video game medium.
Additionally, CRPGs have been strongly influenced by two divergent styles:
There are other differences too, like the design of characters and the relative seriousness of the character ( Japanese RPGs sometimes have "kawaisa" or "cute" characters). The distinction is largely artificial at this point, as both genres have borrowed from each other, with Western RPGs using more linear plots and JRPGs becoming more cinematic like their Western counterparts.
The one thing both of these classifications lack is a player's limitless imagination in which "anything can be attempted." CRPGs still can't reach that level of immersion, which brings us back to Game Informer's Top 100 list.
[h=3]Get Off My Lawn![/h]So what game claimed the title of "#1 RPG"? Skyrim. But Game Informer had one more surprise in store.
There was an additional entry, #0 -- Dungeons & Dragons:
D&D has finally gotten a respectful nod from the grandchildren it sired. You could easily write an entire book about this topic -- so I did: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
[h=3]The Family Tree[/h]Dungeons & Dragons has been strongly influential in a wide variety of gaming mediums, from gamebooks to live action role-playing games to video games. Despite their shared ancestry, video games' popularity has largely eclipsed the tabletop industry, such that they are often cited as a "role-playing game" -- even though at this point, being a computer or console RPG (CRPG) doesn't necessarily have a player actually roleplay. Phil Hartup explains on NewsStatesman:
The difference is such now that when people talk about a video game having RPG elements they will typically be referring to persistent stats and the gradual improvement of abilities and items for the character. This speaks to how distant video game and table top philosophies have become - you could easily have a table top RPG with none of those elements yet be in no doubt it was an RPG. In video games the sine qua non of the role-playing game - taking on the role of a character who is not you - is such a given that it no longer defines the genre.
So what exactly did tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons bequeath upon its video game descendants?
[h=3]What Makes a RPG a RPG?[/h]Dungeons & Dragons codified fantasy into a system and hierarchy that lends itself to programming. Jon Peterson laid out the three mini-games that make up D&D in Playing at the World:
Another key ingredient in Dungeons & Dragons is dramatic pacing, achieved by transitioning between three different game modes: a mode of exploration, a mode of combat and a mode of logistics. Time flows differently in each of these modes, and by rationing the modes carefully a referee guides the players through satisfying cycles of tension, catharsis and banality that mimic the ebb and flow of powerful events.
Wikipedia breaks down just what distinguishes video game RPGs from other types of games: story & setting, exploration & quests, items & inventory, character actions & abilities, experience & levels, combat, and interface & graphics. Aligning these with what constitutes the core of D&D play, they can be categorized as exploration (story & setting, exploration & quests, interface & graphics), combat (combat), and logistics (items & inventory, character actions & abilities, experience & levels).
Hexcrawl-style tabletop exploration has come back into fashion, but only recently has computing power reached a point where the illusion of limitless exploration can be feasibly portrayed. Prior to that, storytelling in a walled-off setting discouraged too much exploration, a challenge massive multi-players face even today.
Combat has always been part of D&D, going back to its wargaming roots. As such, this is perhaps the easiest to simulate with CRPGs but at times the least creative. Players are hedged in by what the game allows; admittedly, those choices have expanded exponentially as CRPGs have become more complex.
Logistics in particular is where video games excel, managing inventory, magic items, and character advancement so that players don't have to (or, as can sometimes happen in tabletop play, they forget). This shift tends to emphasize certain aspects of tabletop play over others. In a theater of the mind style game, where imagination takes precedence, onerous tasks like inventory management and mapping a dungeon are de-emphasized. In a video game, these elements can be automated and much more accessible. In fact, character advancement and customization has come to define what constitutes a RPG in the video game medium.
Additionally, CRPGs have been strongly influenced by two divergent styles:
Though sharing fundamental premises, Western RPGs tend to feature darker graphics, older characters, and a greater focus on roaming freedom, realism, and the underlying game mechanics (e.g. "rules-based" or "system-based"); whereas Eastern RPGs tend to feature brighter, anime-like or chibi graphics, younger characters, turn-based or faster-paced action gameplay, and a greater focus on tightly-orchestrated, linear storylines with intricate plots (e.g. "action-based" or "story-based"). Further, Western RPGs are more likely to allow players to create and customize characters from scratch, and since the late 1990s have had a stronger focus on extensive dialog tree systems (e.g. Planescape: Torment). On the other hand, Japanese RPGs tend to limit players to developing pre-defined player characters, and often do not allow the option to create or choose one's own playable characters or make decisions that alter the plot.
There are other differences too, like the design of characters and the relative seriousness of the character ( Japanese RPGs sometimes have "kawaisa" or "cute" characters). The distinction is largely artificial at this point, as both genres have borrowed from each other, with Western RPGs using more linear plots and JRPGs becoming more cinematic like their Western counterparts.
The one thing both of these classifications lack is a player's limitless imagination in which "anything can be attempted." CRPGs still can't reach that level of immersion, which brings us back to Game Informer's Top 100 list.
[h=3]Get Off My Lawn![/h]So what game claimed the title of "#1 RPG"? Skyrim. But Game Informer had one more surprise in store.
There was an additional entry, #0 -- Dungeons & Dragons:
The gaming world owes a great debt to Dungeons & Dragons, from the character-driven video games of the last four decades to the countless sprawling tabletop role-playing games it spawned. Co-created by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, this seminal game was born from the miniatures wargaming scene, but introduced the idea of singular characters that moved through a dangerous world while a dungeon master controlled the flow of action, giving structure to imaginative narrative play in a brand-new way. The game captured the imaginations of player around the world. Its many subsequent editions, offshoots, and descendants continue to do to this day. Dungeons & Dragons' influence and impact is hard to overstate. Most early video game RPGs were direct attempts to emulate the D&D concept in digital form. The fantasy milieu of D&D, itself inspired by works like J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and Robert E. Howard's Conan tales, practically defined computer RPGs in the early years. Character leveling and progression, exploration and questing, a defined statistical ruleset, randomness through dice rolls or number generation, and narrative player choice all trace their roots here. Our ranking of RPG is focused on video games, but it's impossible to know if any of these games would exist without the root experience that D&D introduced: friends gathered around a table, laughing, and sharing in an adventure.
D&D has finally gotten a respectful nod from the grandchildren it sired. You could easily write an entire book about this topic -- so I did: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games.
Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, communicator, and a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to http://amazon.com. You can follow him at Patreon.
