History of the Hobby: What were some of the trends?

[icemaster109]

So recently I've really been looking into the history of roleplaying games. I've been playing for nearly 15 years now and had never thought about the history of the hobby until recently, when a new player who had never even heard of rpgs asked me about it's origins. One of the more interesting topics is how rpgs have evolved over time, what systems/settings/mechanics/ideas became popularized and proliferated and which elements were deemed passé and forgotten. This question is for everyone, but I'm also particularly interested in the opinions of some of the old birds around here.

What trends have you noticed in tabletop gaming? How has the hobby changed and shaped itself through the 70's, 80's, 90's, and into the 21st century. What changed for the better? Or for worse? What would you want to bring back? What trends do you see now or or forming in the near future?

Thanks

 

[Morrus]

Production values have increased drastically. Rules-light games have increased in popularity. Kickstarter and the OGL were two enormous catalysts for small press publishing explosions.

 

[haakon1]

History of D&D

A good book about the history of the game, from a gamer/reporter's perspective is "Of Dice and Men'".

http://www.amazon.com/Dice-Men-Dung...id=1397370457&sr=1-1&keywords=of+dice+and+men

 

[TerraDave]

Feel free to check out the links in my sig...

Lets see a "few" general trends:


*Agree, production values have tended to get better, with big leaps early on then roughly every decade. Current trend to full color started around 2000 and became standard around 2005;

*D&D has always dominated, with dominance fading as an edition gets old in the tooth, then returning with some new polish and modernising;

*Lots, and lots, (and lots) of other games have come and gone; some, like Call of Cthulhu or Traveler, have established lasting niches, some, like Vampire and, briefly, Gurps, challenged for the crown, and many have largely been forgotten;

*In the early days, there was a tendency for games to get more codified and complicated, this probably peaked in the 1990s (..MegaTraveller, full on Gurps, Aftermath, Role Master and Champions in that era) and the trend since then has been towards streamlining overall;

*But, there has always been a back and forth; Basic D&D, Vampire, and CoC where popular with simpler systems, where as Pathfinder cannot really be described as "rules light";

*Overall, complexity for complexity sake has tended to come, and go; the tendency towards more standard, "universal" mechanics started in the 80s and then spread to just about all games; But there is still a (counter) tendency to build out rules;

*Speaking of Pathfinder, D&D has always faced competition from other FRPGs, but we do live in a unique era. Instead of one D&D dominating, we have a few, with not many other games really challenging them;

*In terms of "passe", because of its dominance, this has often been D&D...yet it hangs on, whereas as games that do not use levels, do not use classes, do not use HP, do not use fire and forget spells, do not use ability scores, do not have dungeons, are more story based, etc etc come and usually go, though again, some, like Savage Worlds or FATE, can hold on to a substantial niche through time;

*Some would argue that there has been a trend to empower players over GMs, and to emphasize player choice and optimization; I think this trend has actually been around for a while, like decades;

*Though the push towards more coherent and universal rules may have empower players by reducing DM discretion (maybe);

*And I do see the idea of really "building" a character moving from board games like Car Wars and niche RPGs like Champions to becoming mainstreamed in D&D, but again, this took place a while ago;

*The dance between complicating and streamlining takes place on both sides of the screen, and one real trend is the belated realization that over complicating the GMs life is a bad thing;

*"Indie" games, a sort of recent trend, are shorter, super niche games like Sorcerer and Dogs in the Vineyard, and these are very light, but other games like Burning Wheel, which are grouped with these, really aren't.

*For years, there where many game companies, beyond the one(s) that makes D&D, and these where all pretty close to "indie" operations, though they where able to get a good number of nice looking books in stores and sell there stuff under D&D's shadow;

*This seemed to collapse in mid 2000s....

*The OGL, which helped de-passe D&D for years and seemingly crush all its competition, may have fed this through the infamous "glut" (though this is a contentious issue) and by undermining non-d20 games;

*The disappearance of local game stores (due to the internet) and WoW (also related to the internet) may have been a factor;

*But in the last few years...

*The OGL, PDF publishing, and more recently Kickstarter have seemingly revived the wider game scene;

*As has revived hobby gaming more broadly, which also led to a return of some local game stores that also stock RPGs along with dozens and dozens of Eurogames;

*And maybe online play of tabletop RPGs and use of online tools to find face to face games;

*This points to a wider trend...

*Due to enraged mothers, computer games, gross mismanagement, trading card games, MMORGs, kids these days, adults these days...RPGs are always on the verge of some big collapse;

*Yet gaming continues to happen.

.....................................................
That should be enough for now.

 

[Neonchameleon]

So recently I've really been looking into the history of roleplaying games. I've been playing for nearly 15 years now and had never thought about the history of the hobby until recently, when a new player who had never even heard of rpgs asked me about it's origins. One of the more interesting topics is how rpgs have evolved over time, what systems/settings/mechanics/ideas became popularized and proliferated and which elements were deemed passé and forgotten. This question is for everyone, but I'm also particularly interested in the opinions of some of the old birds around here.

What trends have you noticed in tabletop gaming? How has the hobby changed and shaped itself through the 70's, 80's, 90's, and into the 21st century. What changed for the better? Or for worse? What would you want to bring back? What trends do you see now or or forming in the near future?

Thanks

Hmm... I did a string of blogposts about this. Movements start - but they fade rather than die; none of the trends are BadWrongFun (although I happen to not like some of them) and people quite happily play older seeming games and develop them.

Back Where We Started - the early 1970s and oD&D. Play was "Pawn Play" (i.e. you treated your PC in about the same way you would a boardgame piece). And there was a specific object to the game (rob the dungeon blind).

Traveller to a Common Language - the late 1970s (starting about 1977 with Traveller) and other Fantasy RPGs. oD&D was about robbing dungeons blind. But people wanted to do more than that. They wanted worlds, they wanted settings, they wanted simulation. Because that would enable them to do whatever they like as if you simulate enough you simulate enough. Building characters to your exact specifications became a thing. This was the dominant strand in the 1980s - and made a comeback in the 00s with 3e and the d20 system.

Storyteller, tell me a story - this period is foreshadowed with the Dragonlance Saga, but really starts around 1989 with Vampire: The Masquerade, and AD&D 2E. In this period there's only limited development of rules (there is definitely some - but many genuinely believed that System Doesn't Matter and you just threw extra rules on the pile). You had two titans in the industry, both churning out lots of material fast that made very good bedside reading and inspiration but it got in the way of and cut across the rules. This aesthetic has also made a relatively recent comeback with Pathfinder.

Game design is Mind Control - outside d20 there was Usenet and The Forge. And a lot of these people were not happy. Games came in large hardback books, making them hard to get into. And above all the claim they were objecting to was that "System doesn't matter". If your system doesn't matter you might as well replace it with rock-paper-scissors (some would say that that made Vampire LARP much better than Vampire). Game rules should at the very least be light enough to not get in the way, and they should preferably support you in what you are trying to do. I'd currently disagree with my blogpost and name the highlights from this period as Fate, Fudge, and Unisystem, marking the start of the movement with Fudge (and Fate being currently the most talked about RPG that isn't D&D according to the Hot Games tracker). D&D 4e took a lot of this aesthetic and approach when they were redesigning D&D from the ground up.

Light, Tight, and Fast. Commenting on the current cutting edge is always tricky - and I've two blogposts that circle my current thoughts. But most modern games, especially most Indy games zero in on one type of game they want to produce. Probably the best known of these games (and the one everyone should own) is Fiasco (as featured on Tabletop) which with two handouts and a downloaded playset allows a group of three to five moderately creative people to create their own Cohen Brothers movie in the time it takes to watch one. Although Dread (a horror game using a Jenga tower), Grey Ranks, and My Life With Master came at the start of the 2000s it's only in the last few years with Fiasco, Cortex+ and Apocalypse World they've really got motoring. Apocalypse World is a post-apocalyptic RPG with the setting created at the table that starts off with the idea that freeform roleplaying is good but can be improved on. Resolution isn't complex (2d6+stat - 6- is bad, 7-9 is a partial success, 10+ is a spectacular success), but comes at exactly the right time to not disrupt the freeform flow. Character creation is from predefined playbooks that are pure concentrated inspiration, and the moves point you at the sort of thing you'd do in the sort of setting it's trying to evoke. Because it's both simple and tightly focussed, there are a lot of hacks out there - probably the best is Monsterhearts which takes all the reasons the genre containing Twilight and Teen Wolf is popular, throws out the mountains of crap, and creates one of the most intense games I've played. It's also a game that should come with health warnings - and warnings to make sure you know your group first. And I've even created three Apocalypse World hacks that are ready for playtesting - Silver Age Marvel (playbooks), The Hunger Games, and a tongue in cheek Harry Potter game.

I hope some of that helps

 

[Sword of Spirit]

TerraDave hit most of it. While I don't think I could add much of usefulness in specific details, I'll provide a bit of commentary.

Overall, the feel of games in the late 80s and early 90s (when I got started) was much more varied. In those days, D&D was popular, but a lot of people had entirely stopped playing it. It was looked down on by some gamers because of its old-school mechanics, which were definitely felt to be more or less outdated.

Competitors didn't have the feel of a fringe element of gaming, but it rather felt like there was a vibrant variety of RPG options, with D&D being only the big kid on the block that had been around forever, and you didn't have to choose just one game to play.

Class-based systems were definitely going out of style, and skill-based was where it was at. D&D was always classed-based, but if you weren't D&D and you were class-based, you were pretty uncool and viewed as a behind the times D&D clone that missed the memo. Now, the negativity towards class-based systems didn't extend to the same degree to other class-based games with a long pedigree from the 70s to mid 80s--most of those games did class-based because that was what D&D did, but had been around long enough if you liked the game, it was okay. Factions and templates--where you got some abilities from an identification with a group of some sort, but it wasn't considered a category within which you advanced, were considered okay. But creating new class-based systems was viewed by most as obsolete game technology. Skill-based was the new and improved.

Class/character levels were under the same state of being viewed as obsolete as classes. Nobody was an X level character. You had skills and abilities, and there might have been an overall level of power based on some trait or another, but you did not advance via some sort of class. You advanced by individual skills and abilities.

Note also that you didn't see new D&D clones--TSR would have smacked you down with a lawsuit. Instead, all new systems were relatively innovative, though some were related and you can't really escape being influenced by what has come before.

Buying a new game wasn't just buying a new setting and some rules variants. Unless it was part of a set of related games (such as White Wolf's World of Darkness games) you were always buying an entirely new system.

However, you had mechanics that had become so entrenched in consciousness that they were implemented in new games without thinking. For instance, prior to 3E D&D, the standard for initiative systems was to have a declaration stage, and then an actions stage--based off of D&D. Even World of Darkness, as unlike D&D as it was, kept this convention. 3E D&D's switch to a simple cyclical initiative system was a technological innovation for most, and became the standard, virtually replacing the declaration phase initiative standard in gaming.

When the indie game movement started hitting late in the pre-3E era, it focused on being even more innovative and questioning more of the gaming assumptions that are still embedded in the majority of popular systems.

I think most of the developments were a step in the right direction, so you'll have to take my commentary in that light. Consider the rest of what I say strongly biased with opinion.

Then 3E hit with the OGL. This was at the same time one of the best things to ever happen to D&D (right alongside the flowering of settings and fluff in 2E) and one of the worse things to ever happen to tabletop gaming in general.

D&D retained an obsolete class and level system, but it made several improvements and cleaned up a lot of the junk from the 2E rules that had clogged the system for centuries...er I mean decades. At the same time, it made a few unfortunate choices in the name of ease of use (such as dumbing down the planes). It also changed the mode of play to a more heavily game-focused attitude, and you started building, rather than creating, characters.

However, it wasn't the changes to D&D directly that had such a powerful effect on the hobby--it was the OGL.

With the freedom for anyone to make use of the basic rules systems behind D&D, we started to see a lot of companies and individuals completely abandon the innovation of the 90s. Why make a new system when you can ride on the D&D train? New systems stopped being mainstream expectations and were relegated to the bargain bin. If you wanted to make money, you just used the d20 SRD and attached a setting to it, whether it fit or not. I particularly remember the Wheel of Time series of Robert Jordan's books being made into a d20 system. Seriously? If that wasn't a prime candidate for its own system, and a horrible fit for d20, I don't know what was. Travesty I say.

And of course, many people stopped even pretending to make new games, and just made supplements. "The Big Book of Stuff that WotC Knew Wasn't Important Enough to Publish, Part X" flooded gaming shelves.

Oh, and those gaming shelves? They started to disappear, or be filled with Magic: the game your friends Gathered to play when they were too tired for a role-playing game. I recently moved back into a town I had lived in before, only to find that the only gaming store in town appeared to be completely absent of RPGs. CCGs, comics, and maybe a few board games seemed to be their entire stock.

Of course, the move to online purchasing also further shut down innovations, since now you had to know what you were looking for to even try it. Had Vampire: the Masquerade come out in that era, White Wolf never would have gotten off the ground because no one would have known to look for it. Game shelves with a variety of different games were the way you used to find new games to try out. Now you were stuck with only playing what you already knew about, or if you were lucky, hearing about Savage Worlds by word of mouth.

After WotC had killed off the competition (except for the die-hard fans of other systems that had been around since the early 90s or earlier) they decided to make a new game: 4E D&D.

Whereas 3E D&D was the worse thing to happen to the market, 4E was the best thing to happen to the market since the 90s gaming renaissance. It was the best thing to happen precisely because it split the fan-based. Suddenly, the monolithic hold that WotC had over the tabletop industry shattered in an instant. Pathfinder jumped in to grab a good share of the 3E players, while many others simply discovered the forgotten truth that your game didn't have to be currently supported by a publisher to continue to be played and enjoyed. The OSR started up and some fans siphoned off to it. Frankly, it was(is) like a cassette tape nostalgia fad. Obsolete technology to the max, but a lot of people were discovering something entirely new. Kind of like playing a pinball machine or Pac-Man. Old can be fun when its new to you, or when you're just in the mood for some good ol' Super Mario Brothers after however many centuries...er, years.

People again regained that sense of choosing games for themselves based on what interested them, instead of just playing "the" game in its endless variety of sameness.

But even so, the market remained dominated by several iterations of D&D. That's where we stand today. The hope of new and exciting gaming innovations again taking a more prominent place is beginning to kindle, but it's still a long ways to go before we really get into a true renaissance again. We're now sitting in the mid-80s again, except instead of a variety of different games, we have a variety of different D&D. Soon, I think we'll see a flowering of additional games, but I'm not sure what influence 5E is going to have. If we're fortunate, it will become the next 2E in market effect. Fans of many editions will unite under it (while many others will still stick to other preferred editions) and there will again become an official current edition of D&D. It will be best for the hobby if they don't make an OGL, although that may be too much to ask. If that is the case, we'll start seeing a flowering of entirely new games again, as D&D cloning of the latest and intentionally iconic version of D&D goes off the radar. If you want D&D, you'll mostly be playing 5E, and if you aren't interested in 5E, you'll mostly be looking outside of the whole D&D mindset. Classes and levels will again become obsolete technology and people who study role-playing history will see their brief resurgence as an anomaly or a demonstration of the power of marketing to squash creativity. I hope gaming stores make a come-back, but I doubt it. If we are lucky, online gaming magazines and sites will become popular outlets for informing fans of the new systems coming out, and again technology will progress.

And that, IMO, is a very good thing.

*Disclaimer: While this article does represent my actual opinions (with some creative exaggeration), it should not be construed as representing serious negativity towards D&D. I'm still involved with both 3E and D&D Next and looking forward to 5E. I just hope that D&D will learn to get into its own, if large, niche, and stop diluting the rest of the role-playing hobby.

 

[Selkirk]

the biggest current trend (say 10 years or so) is the self publishing industry. now anyone with an idea and some knowledge of layout and design (i did say some ^^;...) can publish , at least in pdf form, the module or sourcebook of their dreams. this has led to an explosion of titles/add-ons/ and systems. there are games for just about everything now (rules light/no rules/rules heavy) and fluff books by the hundreds.

and ..surprisingly this is a good thing . there have been a tremendous amount of good ideas (along with the bad...but we always had the bad ones) and the influence has reached the larger publishing houses. now what's the downside? well as noted in a previous post-games have no shelf life anymore. what was popular last year is forgotten this year. the incredible amount of products churned out each year almost guarantee that a product that isn't well supported (with ongoing expansions/fluff and splat books) will perish. but overall it's good for the fans and for the community. of course digital has destroyed print publishing but...that goes for all print(check out comic book sales ...yeah i picked the two hobbies most affected by digital sales ).

 

[icemaster109]

The information thus far has been quite captivating. I will definitely be grabbing a copy of Of Dice and Men, does anyone know if there are any other books/blogs/websites that go over the history of the hobby? Would anyone else like to add their input?

 

[Neonchameleon]

The information thus far has been quite captivating. I will definitely be grabbing a copy of Of Dice and Men, does anyone know if there are any other books/blogs/websites that go over the history of the hobby? Would anyone else like to add their input?

I think you're looking for Shannon Applecline's Designers and Dragons. The first edition, by Mongoose Publishing is very hard to get hold of. But Evil Hat are producing a second edition in four volumes.

 

[Morrus]

The information thus far has been quite captivating. I will definitely be grabbing a copy of Of Dice and Men, does anyone know if there are any other books/blogs/websites that go over the history of the hobby? Would anyone else like to add their input?

Not so much the whole hobby, but there' a lot of info on TSR/WotC right here on EN World.