"hack and slash", "role playing game"

Quasqueton · Jul 15, 2005

"We like both kinds of adventure: hack *and* slash."

How/where/whom did the term "hack and slash" originate?

Where was it first used to describe a gaming style?

How about "role playing game"? When was this word coined? Or when was it first used in the sense that we use it here?

Quasqueton

kenobi65 · Jul 15, 2005

I remember a mass-murderer character in Frank Miller's Batman comic series "The Dark Knight Returns", in the mid-1980s, who muttered "hack and slash, hack and slash". I have no idea if that's where it originated (heck, I'd be stunned if that's where it came from).

Henry · Jul 15, 2005

I'm unclear on "hack and slash", but I did do a bit of digging into Role Playing Game or RPG -- TSR products did not use it until the ealry 1980's, and the term wasn't in common use in the 70's, because Andre Norton in "Quag Keep" used the term "War Game", and Mazes and Monsters used "fantasy game." So I'm betting the term RPG didn't show up until after 1982 or so.

francisca · Jul 15, 2005

Players, players, and more players - that's what comprises the D&D phenomenon. And phenomenal is what it is, as the audience for this, the granddaddy of all role-playing games, continues to expand.

That was from the forward to the 1e PHB, penned my Mike Carr, dated: 2 June 1978

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantastic, exciting and imaginative game of role playing for adults 12 years and up.

From the Introduction section of the Holmes "Bluebook" D&D Basic Rulebook, copywrite 1977, by J. Eric Holmes. In addition, the cover says: The Original Adult Fantasy Role-Playing Game.

So, 1977, at the latest, for "Role-Playing"

francisca · Jul 15, 2005

THIS IS A THINKING PERSON'S MODULE, AND IF YOUR GROUP IS A HACK AND SLAY GATHERING, THEY WILL BE UNHAPPY!

--Gary Gygax, from the "Notes for the Dungeon Master" section of S1: Tomb of Horrors, 1978.

Close, but no cigar. Certainly on the right track. We should ask Col. Pladoh.

Henry · Jul 15, 2005

francisca said:
So, 1977, at the latest, for "Role-Playing"

Cool! Thanks! Is it likely Carr or Holmes coined the phrase? Sounds like this is a good one for Gary's retrograde steel trap.

(Gary once said that as he gets older, he remembers stuff from years ago with more clarity than more recent experiences.)

Joshua Randall · Jul 15, 2005

I believe the phrase "role playing" was originally used in a psychological context, but I can't in a brief 5 minutes of searching find a reference for that.

"Role playing game" being used to refer to D&D and its ilk is almost certainly more recent.

francisca · Jul 15, 2005

Joshua Randall said:
I believe the phrase "role playing" was originally used in a psychological context, but I can't in a brief 5 minutes of searching find a reference for that.

"Role playing game" being used to refer to D&D and its ilk is almost certainly more recent.

That's correct. I bet if we find an old interview with Gary, we'd find an earlier occurence of "roleplay" used in the D&D context.

Henry · Jul 15, 2005

Here are Gary's recollections on the subject.

Wombat · Jul 15, 2005

Then again, both terms (hack and slash, role playing) were in place before gaming was, albeit in slightly different contexts. Several fantasy novels were referred to as "hack and slash" and "role playing" has been used in the psychological community for multiple decades.

"hack and slash", "role playing game"

Quasqueton

First Post

kenobi65

First Post

Henry

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francisca

I got dice older than you.

francisca

I got dice older than you.

Henry

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Joshua Randall

Legend

francisca

I got dice older than you.

Henry

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Wombat

First Post

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