Hypothetical: If DnD had never existed, BUT...

[Tsyr]

Ok. If, hypotheticly, TSR never existed, DnD never existed... but, somehow, every other game currently in existance did, what do you think you would be playing? Or would you be playing anything?

Myself, I can see myself playing Earthdawn, Rifts, Shadowrun, and World of Darkness games. I play all of those now except Earthdawn, because anytime I try to get someone interested in Earthdawn, they just yawn and say "So... it's DnD, but I have to learn a new rule system to play it? No thanks." If DnD had never existed...

*evil grin*

I didn't get started with DnD, but even if I had, I suspect something else would have done it if DnD hadn't existed.

 

[MEG Hal]

Palladium's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Aftermath
Not RPG but CAR WARS!!!


hugs his PHB......

 

[Dinkeldog]

Earthdawn, Champions/Heroes, or Shadowrun, most likely.

 

[Prince Atom]

Umm...

Palladium FRPG (my knight, Sir Chad, would by now most likely have retired several levels higher than he did when we stopped).
RIFTS (My Glitter sense is tingling!)
WEG Star Wars
GURPS (maybe)

And one of my group has his own system, which we'd also be playing from time to time.

TWK
Or we could all be playing wargames and HeroClix.

 

[Maraxle]

Honestly, probably none of them. What got me into RPGs was Computer RPGs. What got me into Computer RPGs was the SSI Gold Box series (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, etc). If D&D hadn't existed, those games wouldn't have existed, and I'd still be happily playing non-RPG console and computer games. As a plus, I'd probably be really good at Civilization, Master of Magic, and all those Sierra adventures by now.

 

[Amrynn Moonshadow]

I think i speak for alot of people here, but i probably would have gotten involved with girls at an earlier age, that's all . . . lol

 

[Zappo]

Weeeell, I would have started with GURPS, not because I particularly like it (not that I hate it either), but because the first time I almost accidentally stumbled into a RPG shop, I came out with OD&D, GURPS and Star Wars (WEG). Barring OD&D, I like fantasy too much to keep playing Star Wars (WEG) forever.

As for what I would have stabilized into, I guess I would eventually have ended up (gosh, I'm sure I must have got the tense wrong there) playing Warhammer FRP or Stormbringer.

...nah, that's not really true. The first reason I loved D&D was the incredible amount of material available, enough to dwarf all the other games combined (now with 3e, I also play it because I like the rules better than many other games). Without that, I would probably have written my own RPG and played that.

 

[Rashak Mani]

I think i speak for alot of people here, but i probably would have gotten involved with girls at an earlier age, that's all . . . lol

hahaha... very true. I probably would be having less trouble with my girlfriend as well.

Back to the topic... without D&D we wouldnt have RPGs maybe. Most of us would be playing normal Board Games or War Games in my case...

RPGs are more social and use the imagination more... I would be playing Earthdawn if not D&D.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Probably the gaming system based on Final Fantasy, led by the Returners...

The FFRPG system, a percentile, skill-based system that akes formulas from the game and applies them in pen-and-paper.

And the only reason I'd be playing that was because Final Fantasy is what got me interested in D&D in the first place. I will come full circle if my Final Fantasy d20 project picks up more momentum.

 

[evil_rmf]

Honestly, probably none of them. What got me into RPGs was Computer RPGs. What got me into Computer RPGs was the SSI Gold Box series (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, etc). If D&D hadn't existed, those games wouldn't have existed, and I'd still be happily playing non-RPG console and computer games. As a plus, I'd probably be really good at Civilization, Master of Magic, and all those Sierra adventures by now.

MMM.... the first text-only game was Adventure (granddaddy of zork), and it appeared in 1972, before DnD, so I dunno about your argument. I think it's very likely that the text-based adventures would have evolved into rogue/nethack, MUDs and graphical RPGs on their own, without the influence of paper based RPGs.

Certainly, they were influenced by the existence of the paper-based games post '74, that is not in question. However, I think they would have evolved on their own.

I'm guessing LARPs would have happened on their own as well. I would think the two of these would have generated a paper based RPG game of some sort.