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D&D General If D&D were created today, what would it look like?
- Thread starter Sacrosanct
- Start date
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Halflings would 100% be in. Y’all really underestimate how popular LOTR is.
R_J_K75
Legend
If you wish upon a star maybe itll come true
embee
Lawyer by day. Rules lawyer by night.
Sure thing! It will be in an episode of Season 3 of The Mandolorian.
Actually, while we're at it, we should do a live action reboot of The Clone Wars with Toshiro Mifune as Obi Wan and Yoshio Harada as Anakin.
Ralif Redhammer
Legend
But back to the main discussion, I think it's pertinent to decide whether this hypothetical world is one that had RPGs that developed before D&D did in 2020 (And if so, which one came first then, because those concepts would likely dramatically inform pop culture. Imagine a world where Tekumel was the first RPG?), or one that had no RPGs until D&D came out in 2020. Because that makes a world of difference in the stage our new D&D creation steps onto. For my part, I think it has to be a world without RPGs. Because with RPGs already existing, it seems impossible that we wouldn't have seen a fantasy tabletop RPG prior. And from there, the cat is out of the bag.
R_J_K75
Legend
If someone came to me today explaining the concept of D&D as a game they were creating asking what races should be in it, my first reaction would most certainly be modeled after Tolkiens the Hobbit and LotR. Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Humans and Orcs...and Gnomes...just because...Gnomes.
R_J_K75
Legend
Pandemic aside, I'm pretty sure that you could take the table top part out in 2021. It would probably be all digital on a computers/cell phones, over skype or FB groups. I don't think it would be based on the premise of friends getting together around a table with pen, paper, books and dice. I bet as I'm writing this skype and facebook have already been replaced. I feel old, skype and facebook is so 2010 right?
But back to the main discussion, I think it's pertinent to decide whether this hypothetical world is one that had RPGs that developed before D&D did in 2020 (And if so, which one came first then, because those concepts would likely dramatically inform pop culture. Imagine a world where Tekumel was the first RPG?), or one that had no RPGs until D&D came out in 2020. Because that makes a world of difference in the stage our new D&D creation steps onto. For my part, I think it has to be a world without RPGs. Because with RPGs already existing, it seems impossible that we wouldn't have seen a fantasy tabletop RPG prior. And from there, the cat is out of the bag.
I do not think D&D could be created today and some alternate world or maybe nightmarish dystopia where Gygax and Arneson never existed would not have anything like modern RPG's and that includes computer games. We's have sims and piloting games and star ship tactical games but probably no RPG's. Even the first text RPG's like Colossal Cave were contemporary with D&D , a bit after it actually
D&D itself came from wargames which would have been long gone. No 40K or Warhammer either
This means no idea of playing individual heroes which is the core of D&D.
Something folks may not know but was common for gamers well into the 90's to have read most of or all of Appendix N (I'm one book short but its on my shelf now) a and without those limited touchstones everyone knew , there would be no ability to create a common foundation for RPG's
These days there is not a common cultural foundation to draw from that would allow D&D to become a popular hobby not does a world as atomized by technology as ours is going to be one in which a social hobby like D&D takes root. No long lazy summers hanging out and playing D&D in 2020
Frankly I'm not sure we'd have as much fantasy lit in our culture, There would still be Tolkien but probably no Howard, Lovecraft and a great deal of the modern fantasy writers would be writing something else. Maybe even no Harry Potter is the Zeitgeist was too different
I'd guess no cosplay , no LARPING and roleplaying would either be a therapeutic technique or something for the bedroom. It is possible Renfaire (these came out in 1966) or light-saber sparring or HEMA might develop into LARPING and into eventually into tabletop play but its a difficult road.
I don't think it would be SF either SF was never as popular and the culture that allowed Vampire the Masquerade to exist was D&D. Its a different style of game but no D&D, no VTM
D&D itself came from wargames which would have been long gone. No 40K or Warhammer either
This means no idea of playing individual heroes which is the core of D&D.
Something folks may not know but was common for gamers well into the 90's to have read most of or all of Appendix N (I'm one book short but its on my shelf now) a and without those limited touchstones everyone knew , there would be no ability to create a common foundation for RPG's
These days there is not a common cultural foundation to draw from that would allow D&D to become a popular hobby not does a world as atomized by technology as ours is going to be one in which a social hobby like D&D takes root. No long lazy summers hanging out and playing D&D in 2020
Frankly I'm not sure we'd have as much fantasy lit in our culture, There would still be Tolkien but probably no Howard, Lovecraft and a great deal of the modern fantasy writers would be writing something else. Maybe even no Harry Potter is the Zeitgeist was too different
I'd guess no cosplay , no LARPING and roleplaying would either be a therapeutic technique or something for the bedroom. It is possible Renfaire (these came out in 1966) or light-saber sparring or HEMA might develop into LARPING and into eventually into tabletop play but its a difficult road.
I don't think it would be SF either SF was never as popular and the culture that allowed Vampire the Masquerade to exist was D&D. Its a different style of game but no D&D, no VTM
Nah, you completely underestimate the role the East, especially Japan, had on the Fantasy RPG genre. And the prevalence of Nintendo in the late 80's would have pathed its way to the West as well. I think there would still be a Legend of Zelda and the likes. Whether or not turn-based styles would have been so widespread (they are easy to script, but miss on the action part) as they were in the early days is debatable though. And I guess that Final Fantasy would at least be missing its Beholder and Mind Flayer of the early days.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Yep. I’d be looking at LoTR, and various fantasy cartoons, and myths, and I’d probably have a lineup soemthing like;
Elfs, Dwarfs, Humans, Halflings, Gnomes, and then something like ogres or trolls of a mythical nature, aiming toward soemthing like Ludo from Labyrinth or the Ogier from Wheel of Time, and then probably satyrs, and it there is room, something anthro, prolly a fox or cat people race, maybe wolf people. The anthros might be theriomorphs, or not, depending on the assumed world we build during development.
