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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 9293578" data-attributes="member: 467">It is the 1970s. The time of the tabletop RPG has come. BUT, it isn't Gygax and Arneson and their love of pulpy sword and sorcery and wargames that start the genre, but some other nerd(s) with different preferences. What could it be? What would those early games look like? What would the modern RPG landscape look like now? Support you answers with media of the time, please!NOTE: This is supposed to be fun If your inclination is to argue that it could only have been D&amp;D and fantasy, that's fine, but it probably won't add much to the discussion.I'll start with Comic Books! The 70s was a time of (relative) maturation of the medium, with the wild melodrama of the Silver Age giving over to the slightly more grounded emotional realism of the Bronze Age. It is possible that some fan obsessed with both games and comic books could have developed the first RPG and kicked off an industry.Without the influence of wargames, I think a primordial comic book super hero RPG would lean into storytelling and might have served as an ur-PbtA or Fate style system. With that, it would have appealed to a different kind of nerd than wargames and while comic books were still largely white teenage boy media, I think the narrative aspect would invite other folks into the hobby earlier than D&amp;D did. That is to say, the &quot;Vampire revolution&quot; of the early 1990s that brought a lot of women and other folks into the hobby might have happened earlier.Also, we know that D&amp;D changed fantasy fiction, so it is fun to consider how a D&amp;D equivalent comic book game might have changed comic books. Would the Iron Age have happened earlier, or been avoided entirely?Anyway, what strange situation do you posit, where some other geek media and/or activity gave rise to TTRPGs?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 9293578, member: 467"] It is the 1970s. The time of the tabletop RPG has come. BUT, it isn't Gygax and Arneson and their love of pulpy sword and sorcery and wargames that start the genre, but some other nerd(s) with different preferences. What could it be? What would those early games look like? What would the modern RPG landscape look like now? Support you answers with media of the time, please! NOTE: This is supposed to be fun If your inclination is to argue that it could only have been D&D and fantasy, that's fine, but it probably won't add much to the discussion. I'll start with Comic Books! The 70s was a time of (relative) maturation of the medium, with the wild melodrama of the Silver Age giving over to the slightly more grounded emotional realism of the Bronze Age. It is possible that some fan obsessed with both games and comic books could have developed the first RPG and kicked off an industry. Without the influence of wargames, I think a primordial comic book super hero RPG would lean into storytelling and might have served as an ur-PbtA or Fate style system. With that, it would have appealed to a different kind of nerd than wargames and while comic books were still largely white teenage boy media, I think the narrative aspect would invite other folks into the hobby earlier than D&D did. That is to say, the "Vampire revolution" of the early 1990s that brought a lot of women and other folks into the hobby might have happened earlier. Also, we know that D&D changed fantasy fiction, so it is fun to consider how a D&D equivalent comic book game might have changed comic books. Would the Iron Age have happened earlier, or been avoided entirely? Anyway, what strange situation do you posit, where some other geek media and/or activity gave rise to TTRPGs? [/QUOTE]

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