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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sejs" data-source="post: 1891452" data-attributes="member: 4910">This isn't anything new, and has been around longer than mainstream computer RPGs has.  Some subsets of people have always looked for the most effective way to do things.  The only difference is that there are more tools available now to work with.  Heh, speaking from personal experience - dry DMing and railroading has been around longer than video games. Sadly, that's a function of the system, for the most part.  More so with non-spellcasters.  What you can do comes somewhat from you, and in large part from your stuff.  This isn't the case in all games.  Earthdawn, off the top of my head, is pretty much the opposite.  Your abilities come from cool stuff you as a person can do.  Your gear, no matter how magical or neato, is just window dressing.  This is due in large part to the fact that losing your character, or havin them be crippled permanantly isn't fun, and fun is what the game is all about.  Realism takes a back seat to enjoyment, and that's a good thing.  There are games where those realistic woes are played up, such as GURPS;  broke your arm?  Expect it to be out of commission for 3 months unless you know a good medic or happen to be really, really healthy.  *shrug* Language evolves.  You know words like assassinate, bedroom, luggage, and torture?  Shakespere just made them up because he wanted a word that was appropriate.  While alot of MMO-isms can't really be applied properly to tabletop games (monsters don't just magically replenish themselves once you've killed them, so you can't really farm in the MMO sense, for example), some of them can.  "Buffs" is a reasonable, concice term for magical enhancement effects, "Tanking" seems just fine to describe your keeping a badguy's attention so he doesn't tear appart the weaker party members.  Sometimes it's just easier to say the shorter word, than the whole mouthfull. It's an aesthetic choice, really.  In part because there is a want to make a fantasy game setting feel fantastic rather than mundane, albeit medieval.  Another part is due to the fact that a fantasy setting frankly isn't just medieval earth with magic added in.  There are development factors that would have always been present in a fantasy setting that wern't there on medieval Earth.  We didn't have magic, or a dozen different sentient races, or people who could actually channel the power of their god.  If we had, Earth now wouldn't be anywhere near the same.    True, though again, video games arn't the source.  Monks were running around with paladins and druids way back in 1st edition, before EQ was even a glimmer in Brad McQuaid's eye.   Honestly, I can't say I've seen this one, myself.  Heroic roleplaying has always been about kicking ass, getting the girl and saving the day, even back when it involved THAC0, racial level limits, and all weapons doing 1d6 damage.  Heh, besides - at least it's not Rifts(tm).  Depends on the DM and setting, I'd suppose.  For the average man, magic is rare and fantastic.  For adventurers, not so much.  Much as it's always been.Anyway, just my observations.  I don't personally see RPGs as having become more video-gamey.  In a way, they've always been video-gamey, and video games have become more like RPGs.  Nothing exists in a vacuum, and if it wern't for RPGs pushing as much as they got pulled, we'd never see MMORPGs.  We'd still be playing Pong and Chessmaster.  Maybe Pong Online; who knows.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></blockquote>

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