D&D General Roleplaying Origins of Early DnD

[OptionalRule]

Just dropped a blog post about The Origins of Roleplaying in Early D&D and wanted to get your thoughts.

TL;DR: Contrary to what some folks think, roleplaying wasn't an afterthought in early D&D - it was baked right in from the start. Think Keep on the Borderlands, Village of Hommlet, and all those classic modules. No skill checks, just pure player creativity.

What was roleplaying like for you back in the day?

 

[Greg Benage]

Big damn heroes save the world! Pretty much exactly like it is today, because that was the kind of epic fantasy that was popular back in the early to mid 80s--LotRs, Shannara, Riftwar, Belgariad, Star Wars. I didn't encounter the player-skill-focused fantasy survival horror game beloved by the OSR until I got to college in 1985.

That said, you can roleplay a character in either sort of game and I wouldn't typically connect roleplaying with skill checks (or the lack thereof).

ETA: At least one excursion into "Big Damn Antiheroes Who Know the World Ain't Worth Saving" when we were on a Moorcock bender.

 

[OptionalRule]

That's great you still experience it today. I don't really. It's all theater kids it seems. Not putting it down, but not my style and I prefer it backed up with character actions and not just dialog.

 

[Krachek]

Pure players creativity indeed and I will add pure DM fiat!

 

[KYRON45]

My group stared with the red box. None of my crew were theatre kids and we absolutely loved the drama of it all. We also loved the laughs....so many laughs.
No min-maxers, no optimizers, no rules lawyers (if my DM knew any of the rules at all it wasn't on purpose). It always seemed like we were saving the world from...well...us.

 

[Larnievc]

My group are definitely not theatrical in that way. They seem to prefer a strong story that they can be part of, influence it’s outcomes and have laugh.

But most of us are in our late 40s early 50s

 

[Stormonu]

The first couple of years I played D&D (we're talking 5-7th grade in the 80's), dice at school weren't allowed, so the majority of our lunch and recess gaming was all narrative. We had combats, but you had to fairly describe what you were doing. For the most part though, the game was pretty much exploration, interacting with NPC/monsters and gathering treasure.

That said, I don't think I'd be willing to play a RPG game that didn't have have a skill system nowadays. I prefer a well-defined layer between what the player is capable of and what their character is capable of.

 

[Lanefan]

Just dropped a blog post about The Origins of Roleplaying in Early D&D and wanted to get your thoughts.

TL;DR: Contrary to what some folks think, roleplaying wasn't an afterthought in early D&D - it was baked right in from the start. Think Keep on the Borderlands, Village of Hommlet, and all those classic modules. No skill checks, just pure player creativity.

What was roleplaying like for you back in the day?

Early on most of the roleplaying was with other PCs rather than with NPCs, and frequently of the pranks-leads to-arguments-leads-to-violence sort. We were a nasty bunch of college-agers, often playing nasty characters, and when we weren't arguing we were laughing our damn-fool heads off.

Things settled down after a while but every now and then over the years the nasty still rears its in-character head; and it's always entertaining and fun when it does.

 

[MichaelSomething]

That's great you still experience it today. I don't really. It's all theater kids it seems. Not putting it down, but not my style and I prefer it backed up with character actions and not just dialog.

Since you're an Enworlder, why not simply teach the kids to play in your style. That should be no problem for a person who posts on Enworld. Are we not the greatest and most commutative group of roleplayers the world has ever saw???

 

[Vaalingrade]

Theater kids got this game to 50 years.