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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lewpuls" data-source="post: 8151999" data-attributes="member: 30518">This is approximately the 100th “Worlds of Design” column, so a good time to consider the future of role-playing games. In this column I’ll talk about the connection with computers, and <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/worlds-of-design-what-the-future-holds-for-rpgs-part-2.677134/" target="_blank">in Part 2 I’ll talk about actual play and about the economics of the hobby</a>.[ATTACH=full]130276[/ATTACH] <a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/sky-mountain-game-stage-rpg-1871753/" target="_blank">Picture courtesy of Pixabay.</a>Even self-proclaimed “Futurists” and science fiction authors have weak track records in forecasting the future, and I’m neither! I have no crystal ball other than a strong understanding of history. But I thought a discussion of the future of tabletop RPGs might interest readers.<h2>The Rise of Technology</h2>The obvious way to “forecast” the future is to extrapolate current trends, and that’s what I’ll try to do. The biggest predictor, in my experience, is what’s happening in video/computer RPGs. Technology in general can be a predictor. And now we have the long-term effects of the pandemic.RPGs will be played as long as the real world holds itself together, though I think gradually computers will overtake tabletop RPGs, not because they're better but because they're easier and more convenient. Being a good GM of a tabletop RPG is difficult, and for most people it's a form of work, work they accept in order to entertain their friends, or perhaps for other personal reasons. As computers become more powerful and computer programming improves, a computer can take on more and more of the work required of a really good RPG GM.Perhaps computer assistance is the wave of the future, but I suspect in most cases it will be "let's play this cooperative RPG or this MMO" on computers, rather than "let's use computer assistance for tabletop games."Computer/electronic assistance is already around today. I watched a few minutes of an in-person RPG session earlier this year, and saw that most of the players were referring to their smartphones. That can be a problem in general in face-to-face play, but in this case they had their character sheets on their phones, none of them had a paper character sheet.At the other extreme, online rather than face-to-face play, many programs exist to help make playing a tabletop RPG online more practical.<h3>A Matter of Convenience</h3>Convenience will continue to be a strong incentive. Check out GoDice (<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1928372437/godice-your-favorite-dice-games-reimagined" target="_blank">GoDice | Incredibly Smart Connected Dice For Any Game!</a>), for example, which (among other things) transmit the results of your rolls to a smartphone.The visual side (aids to the imagination) will continue to improve, as well. There are already lots of 3D printed character and monster figures for sale online, <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/worlds-of-design-how-rpg-tools-have-changed.674603/" target="_blank">even 3D printed dice towers</a>.I’ve suggested that <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/world-of-design-the-lost-art-of-making-things-up.675250/" target="_blank">imagination is atrophying in the population at large</a>, a trend we can expect to continue. This makes visual aids all the more important for tabletop games, as the alternative is the photo-realism of AAA list video games.Keep in mind, computer RPGs themselves are immensely more popular than tabletops, even with the rise of D&D 5th edition. To pick out just one CRPG, Skyrim had made $1.4 billion (with a “b”) worldwide and counting several years after its 2011 release ($450 million in its first week). This is far more revenue than all tabletop RPGs for the past decade and more. Tabletop RPGs are a minnow in the game industry in dollar terms (<a href="https://www.enworld.org/wiki/top_rpgs/" target="_blank">as Morrus explains periodically from ICV2 USA statistics</a>), $80 million (2019) for tabletop RPGs (US only), but not so long ago (before D&D 5e) it was just $15m for a year.Moreover, playing tabletop RPGs via online connection was a growing thing even before the pandemic; as the connections grow faster and more common, both visual as well as audible, surely this will continue to grow, especially because of the effects of the pandemic.Co-op games are a big thing in board and card games, and to a lesser extent in video games. RPGs are the ultimate form of co-op, a game with human-controlled opposition. (See my column “<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?5635-Worlds-of-Design-Tabletop-RPGs-Are-the-Most-Naturally-Co-operative-Games" target="_blank">Tabletop RPGs are the most naturally cooperative games</a>”).Tabletop RPGs have the social aspect in their favor that you can't get with computer RPGs, even MMOs. Many of my friends have been D&D players. I met my wife through D&D in 1977, and in that group of five, two others (who were not in a relationship when we started playing D&D) married one another, and the last one married my wife's best friend! And we're all still married to one another. You can't beat that!But online/computer RPGs are improving communication among players just as the players are more and more accustomed to playing a game when they’re the only person actually present. And many are more accustomed to doing things online as the pandemic has forced them to work from home.Your Turn: How much do you play video games?</blockquote>

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