The Golden Age of Gaming

[Glyfair]

what do you consider a LARP?

diaglo "who was making his own armor out of chain link fence and sewing his own tabard and then going into the woods to beat his friends over the head with sticks and throwing tennis balls as spells back in 1981-1988" Ooi

edit: wiffle ball bats, wiffle balls tied on the end of string and handle, pvc with foam,etc...

i also went to events... The Maryland Markland Mercenary Mlitia would meet in Rock Creek Park near DC....

The LARP definition I'm referring to are the roleplaying games, acted out in "live action". Hitting each other with with sticks and throwing tennis balls, to me, is more a wargame acted out in "live action" (a LAWG, if you will).

I realize there is crossover between RPGs and wargames. After all, D&D evolved over time from chainmail and other games. I'd suggest that if you take the live action game, translate it to a table top game, and then decide whether you're playing an RPG or a wargame.

Still, I consider Markland and the SCA to be wargaming and not roleplaying, although some elements of roleplaying might be there.

 

[Wormwood]

The Golden Age of Gaming? Three weeks in 1982.

 

[Akrasia]

...
I think the real reason people think of it as the golden age was because at the time, the sport was now easily followed (due to TV) There were only six teams, so if you were a fan, you knew the complete roster of each team without having to think about it. TV also turned some players into superstars. In Canada it was a total shared experience...there was only a couple of channels, and EVERYONE watched hockey on Saturday night. It became a huge part of our culture...thus the Golden Age of Hockey.

I feel that the golden age of RPGs (D&D in particular) was in the late 70s early 80s, partially for the same reason...the shared experience. Most everyone went up against the Giants, the Slavers, the Drow etc.
...

Great analogy, Shadowslayer.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

In terms of the quality of the rules material, I'd have to unambiguously say right now. The latest versions of d20, HERO, Shadowrun, Storyteller, SilCore and Unisystem all seem to be well ahead of their predecessors.

I think if more of the game designers and gamers came from a console RPG background, this would have moved forward further and faster; unfortunately, the computer RPG field is much more closely linked to core concepts pen-and-paper RPGs desperately need to look beyond, and it seems to be the main source of cross-pollination. Otherwise, I suspect conceptual elements showing up in the likes of Spycraft 2.0 and Iron Heroes might have come out three or four years earlier, which would have put d20 development even further forward. Other concepts still haven't really been explored, such as the near-constant-levelling structure of most console RPGs. HERO has been doing ATB since before Final Fantasy was, but its failure to appear in other systems might also have been overcome.

For all the wonderful rules advances, however, Spelljammer is no longer in regular production. As such, I'd have to say the height of 2e was the Golden Age of gaming.

 

[Crothian]

...and when did LARP rule the roost?

In the 90's. It got pretty big and while table toppers might not have realized it, many LARPers were sure Tabletop RPGs were dead.

 

[Crothian]

For all the wonderful rules advances, however, Spelljammer is no longer in regular production. As such, I'd have to say the height of 2e was the Golden Age of gaming.

Sure it is

 

[Glyfair]

In the 90's. It got pretty big and while table toppers might not have realized it, many LARPers were sure Tabletop RPGs were dead.

I never encounted any of that particular attitude myself, but I was never a LARPer. All but one of the LARPs I particiipated in grew out of tabletop roleplaying (for example, the Glorantha "Home of the Bold" was one of the first LARPs I participated in).

Personally, I liked the idea of LARPs overall. However, I had too many hurdles for my personal enjoyment of LARPs. First, it takes me a while to warm up "in character" at the LARP level. By the time I was comfortable playing the character, the shorter ones were moving towards a climax, and I was just getting ready to start.

Secondly, I'm pretty quiet until I get to know people. If I was set up to interact with people I knew, then I'd open up faster. Unfortunately, the organizers I knew had the idea that the occasional LARP was the chance to game with people you didn't get a chance to game with usually, so they deliberately made sure your goals had you interact with people you didn't know, and tried to keep you away from people you did know. That pretty much killed my interest in playing in any more LARPs.

Now, I did know people convinced that MtG was going to kill roleplaying. These were retailers, and it wasn't in the typical "this is so much more fun than roleplaying." They just saw MtG taking more and more gamers money, and roleplaying games getting less and less sales.

 

[Crothian]

I never encounted any of that particular attitude myself, but I was never a LARPer. All but one of the LARPs I particiipated in grew out of tabletop roleplaying (for example, the Glorantha "Home of the Bold" was one of the first LARPs I participated in).

In the 90's I only encountered the Vampire LARPs. At the time the division of gamers between the White wolf people and the D&D people was bad, the LARPers though were even worse. Now, in the years since then I've learned that the LARP I knew was seemingly badly run and very elitist, and I know my experiences with them is not representivtive of all LARP. But they reeally thought tabletop was obsolete and I heard more then a few state how they hated that White Wolf couldn't drop the table top games and support the true Role Playing of LARP. They thought of D&D and other RPGs even less.

Now a days if there is a regularly run LARP around here it is unknown to me. We do have some good LARPS run at cons like the ever famous Paranoia LARP. LARP isn't dead by any means but I think if you don't actively look for it you probably won't notice it is there.

 

[mythusmage]

When was it? Or is it right now? Or yet to come?

What is the golden age of roleplaying games?

13

 

[MonsterMash]

To some people here it seems to mean "I, a gamer, am experiencing Golden Age in Gaming." For others, it seems to mean "The industry, the designers & companies, is experiencing a Golden Age." And for others, it seems to mean "The collective community, as in all us gamers everywhere, is experiencing a Golden Age."

I think this thread's intent was about the collective community experiencing a Golden Age.

- Ed

But back in the pre-internet days the collective community was pretty much you and your gaming group, that has been one of the big changes.

Personally I'd see this as being a silver age possibly, but my golden age would be the late 70's- early 80's.

MM, the unrepentant grognard