The World Without D&D

[kitsune9]

How would our current popular culture be different if D&D had not been invented? Would our current popular culture be affected at all?

What would your favorite hobby be if there were no RPGs?

Bullgrit

If there were no rpgs at all, I think our culture would noticeably different. Other hobby industries would probably pick up the slack of what gamers would normally do--maybe board games would be really hot (imagine if all of us played Settlers of Catan regularly instead of X the RPG), wargames, computer games, comic books, anime, manga, and so on.

Games like GTA 4 would probably be even more popular because dollars that gamers have spent on playing crpg would go toward more sandbox style games, though they don't necessarily have to be violent--just more open-ended.

However, if it wasn't for Gary and Dave, I think someone else would have invented rpgs and it would interesting to speculate a what-if scenario if the first popular rpg was a sci-fi game instead of a fantasy game or a supers game or something like that.

Well, that's my take.

Happy Gaming!

 

[Frugatti]

It would be a very boring and crappy world at that.

 

[pawsplay]

Probably the biggest obstacle I faced to taking an Urban Arcana game seriously was imagining a world without D&D. Or, conversely, a world with D&D, thus causing the PCs to realize they are in world that strangely resembles D&D.

 

[nightwyrm]

Bahamut would be an obscure Babylonian turtle god instead of an iconic dragon god/FF summon.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

A world without D&D?

Panic, chaos, horror, raining frogs, rivers of blood, dogs and cats getting along... It would be chaos I tell you, CHAOS!!

 

[Dragonbait]

Many of the RPG computer cames would still be around, but might use different terminology. For instance, instead of HP, it would just be Life, Wounds, or something equally generic. People would think of little gnomish creatures when you talk about elves. There would probably be more people into board games and table-top army games.


Personally, I would be a video game player who playes old-school systems (by now, the PS2 or something along those lines) and I would have drawn and written a lot more. I think I'd be a LOT LESS social too since none of my interests required human interaction.

 

[kitsune9]

I know personally that without rpgs, I would probably be more of a video gamer and 50 lb heavier than I am now.

 

[Agamon]

A world without D&D?

Panic, chaos, horror, raining frogs, rivers of blood, dogs and cats getting along... It would be chaos I tell you, CHAOS!!

So that's what the 60's were like. Damn, I just missed that.

 

[Agamon]

I know personally that without rpgs, I would probably be more of a video gamer and 50 lb heavier than I am now.

Wait, you get more exercise playing RPGs than playing video games? Please share your secret!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The 2 major effects of there being no D&D?

1) While someone probably would have invented RPGs by now, we probably wouldn't have CRPGs yet. "Role-play" would probably be more famous for being a psychological technique or a bedroom game.

2) I would be a rock star, because I'd actually have spent real time practicing my guitar rather than merely noodling.