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<blockquote data-quote="Wofano Wotanto" data-source="post: 9300411" data-attributes="member: 7044704">Reasonable points, but (for purposes of this thread) I reject the assumption that roleplaying games had to arise from any form of existing gaming community.&nbsp; That happened in the real world, sure, but it's hardly the only possibility.&nbsp; There was plenty of fertile ground in thespian improv already, and creative writing communities doing shared world settings were another possibility.&nbsp; That &quot;Marvel Comics invents roleplaying&quot; scenario I posted earlier wasn't wholly a joke.&nbsp; While we all know Gygax didn't invent the concept of roleplaying (nor did any other single creator), a single bright spark (&quot;Garfield Richards&quot;) in the right creative community (&quot;the Marvel Bullpen&quot;) could easily have triggered a cascade of collaborative ideas that resulted in something equivalent to a rules-light RPG.&nbsp; Without wargamer roots early RP might have been much more accessible to non-gamers from word one, and the early competition might have been reactions to the starting point being too simple and limited.Would anything like that have been as immediately popular or spread as fast?&nbsp; Maybe, maybe not.&nbsp; If it really was Marvel and DC involved that's some serious recognition factors even in the mid-70s when comics were more explicitly seen as kid stuff.&nbsp; If the conception point was some weird experiment in a shared-world intereactive setting by a fantasy or scifi publisher, it might take longer to get noticed and might even flop after spawning some others to attempt refinements of the idea.&nbsp; Most likely as the concept spread historical/alt-history gamers would have latched on fast and written their own systems that were more to their tastes (and likely much more complex, in keeping with the wargames of the 70s), and the RP concept as a whole would diversify across genres and fan bases much as it did IRL.Regardless of what soil the roots of roleplaying start from, there's no plausible timeline where a spread across genres and beyond a single company's exclusive control is inevitable.&nbsp; I think that's one thing we can all agree on regardless of other details change, yes?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wofano Wotanto, post: 9300411, member: 7044704"] Reasonable points, but (for purposes of this thread) I reject the assumption that roleplaying games had to arise from any form of existing gaming community. That happened in the real world, sure, but it's hardly the only possibility. There was plenty of fertile ground in thespian improv already, and creative writing communities doing shared world settings were another possibility. That "Marvel Comics invents roleplaying" scenario I posted earlier wasn't wholly a joke. While we all know Gygax didn't invent the concept of roleplaying (nor did any other single creator), a single bright spark ("Garfield Richards") in the right creative community ("the Marvel Bullpen") could easily have triggered a cascade of collaborative ideas that resulted in something equivalent to a rules-light RPG. Without wargamer roots early RP might have been much more accessible to non-gamers from word one, and the early competition might have been reactions to the starting point being too simple and limited. Would anything like that have been as immediately popular or spread as fast? Maybe, maybe not. If it really was Marvel and DC involved that's some serious recognition factors even in the mid-70s when comics were more explicitly seen as kid stuff. If the conception point was some weird experiment in a shared-world intereactive setting by a fantasy or scifi publisher, it might take longer to get noticed and might even flop after spawning some others to attempt refinements of the idea. Most likely as the concept spread historical/alt-history gamers would have latched on fast and written their own systems that were more to their tastes (and likely much more complex, in keeping with the wargames of the 70s), and the RP concept as a whole would diversify across genres and fan bases much as it did IRL. Regardless of what soil the roots of roleplaying start from, there's no plausible timeline where a spread across genres and beyond a single company's exclusive control is inevitable. I think that's one thing we can all agree on regardless of other details change, yes? [/QUOTE]

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