Is this the Golden Age of Roleplaying?

[Eridanis]

D&D 4E came out a little over a year ago, and has a large following. D&D 3E reatains a large following, and is about to get a substantial refresh with the release of Pathfinder this week. The OGL birthed Mutant & Masterminds, which is a fun system that's showing how versatile it can be, with releases this year of books like Warriors & Warlocks and Mecha & Manga. Older editions of D&D are being re-examined and refreshed in games like OSRIC, Castles & Crusades, and others. In nearby orbits, we have GURPS 4E being supported with regular pdf releases, and World of Darkness gamers have Geist coming out this year for their game system. And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head!

The number of quality options we have is staggering, to the point where there are more interesting things to try than time to do it. So I ask you: is this the golden age of (paper-and-pencil) roleplaying? If not, then I'd be hard-pressed to think of a better time to be a fan of this style of game.

 

[kitsune9]

D&D 4E came out a little over a year ago, and has a large following. D&D 3E reatains a large following, and is about to get a substantial refresh with the release of Pathfinder this week. The OGL birthed Mutant & Masterminds, which is a fun system that's showing how versatile it can be, with releases this year of books like Warriors & Warlocks and Mecha & Manga. Older editions of D&D are being re-examined and refreshed in games like OSRIC, Castles & Crusades, and others. In nearby orbits, we have GURPS 4E being supported with regular pdf releases, and World of Darkness gamers have Geist coming out this year for their game system. And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head!

The number of quality options we have is staggering, to the point where there are more interesting things to try than time to do it. So I ask you: is this the golden age of (paper-and-pencil) roleplaying? If not, then I'd be hard-pressed to think of a better time to be a fan of this style of game.

Hard to tell. I think that gaming is more trending and retracement similar to the markets. There will a start of a trend, it gets stronger, then there were be some retracement, but the trend will start again. It's anyone guess as to whether this is a Golden Age until the industry completely ends and then one can look back and identify when it was and long it ran. For me, I hope there are many Golden Age's to come.

 

[JediSoth]

I tend to think of the Golden Age of RPGs to be back in the 80s when everyone and their brother had a boxed set RPG out there: D&D (BECMI), Star Frontiers, Dr. Who, Star Trek, Paranoia, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Ghostbusters, Marvel Super Heroes....

Well, OK, I guess a lot of those were TSR.

Maybe this is a second Golden Age? Or maybe a Silver Age, like comics had in the early 80s.

 

[ggroy]

So I ask you: is this the golden age of (paper-and-pencil) roleplaying? If not, then I'd be hard-pressed to think of a better time to be a fan of this style of game.

It depends on how exactly one defines "golden age".

Personally, I thought the golden age was back in the mid 1980's. Many enthusiastic D&D players around the neighborhood with no shortage of players.

 

[Crothian]

When I was an ENnie Judge with Teflon Billy back in 04 and 05 we were seeing a lot of high quality books being entered and we were calling that a new golden age of gaming.

Today the top tier books are still there but that's about it.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Like the others posters in this topic, this is no golden age of roleplaying in terms of people playing.

If by golden age, you mean plenty of high quality games, then you can make a case for it.

 

[jdrakeh]

I don't believe so, no. I think the Golden Age was probably back in the late 1980s to early 1990s.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I blogged on this a while ago and I said that basically yes, it is. My point was that thanks to the OGL, there are a number of great games out there for people to play, and there are other games that were never open before that are open now, such as Traveller and Runequest, which means that talented people outside the original publisher can come in and innovate and add their own material. Further, I like that there are products on the market for the latest and greatest (Pathfinder, 4E), and old school options (Castles and Crusades, OSRIC, Mutant Future, etc.).

For me personally, this is the golden age of gaming because I have a great group to game with, plenty of opportunities for freelance, and my own scifi RPG brand. Couldn't ask for more, really.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There's a great diversity of D&D-style games atm. Whether you regard that as a good thing depends on whether you prefer diversity or unity. More diversity means more choice, but at the expense of creating barriers. More unity means more commonality of experience, more understanding. It makes it easier to play in other peoples games and harder to get into internet flamewars.

This is part of a general tendency in entertainment. There has been an explosion in popular culture over the last 30 years. More and more books and TV shows and videogames and websites. More choice. But it means everything is becoming more and more niche. In the 70s you could expect 50% of your co-workers to have seen the same popular TV show you did last night. Now you can't. Everyone is stuck in cultural gated communities of ever decreasing size.

 

[Truth Seeker]

I will agree, the 80's were the time, of the Golden Age.

Today, I welxome the Age of Iron.

The age of true diveristy, flavor, and staying power.

(watches the flag of Pathfinder begin to climb).