History of role-playing games

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The history of role-playing games begins with an earlier tradition of role-playing, which combined with the rulesets of fantasy wargames in the 1970s to give rise to the modern role-playing game.[1] A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which the participants assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create stories. Traditionally all the participants but one take on characters and determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization and the actions succeed or fail according to a system of rules and guidelines, and one of the participants takes on the role of game master (or GM for short) who narrates the story, plays all the non-player characters and determine the challenge rating and the outcome of various actions. Within the rules, the participants may improvise freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games.

Role-playing games are substantially different from competitive games such as

ball games and card games. This has led to confusion among some non-players about the nature of fantasy gaming. The game Dungeons & Dragons was a subject of controversy in the 1980s when well-publicized opponents claimed it caused negative spiritual and psychological effects. Academic research has discredited these claims.[2] Some educators support role-playing games as a healthy way to hone reading and arithmetic skills.[3] Though role-playing has been accepted by some religious organizations,[4] a few continue to object.[5]

Media attention both increased sales and stigmatized certain games. In thirty years the genre has grown from a few hobbyists and boutique publishers to an economically significant part of the games industry, though grass-roots and small business involvement remains substantial. Games industry company Hasbro purchased fantasy game publisher Wizards of the Coast in 1998 for an estimated $325 million.[6]

Early role-playing

Main article: Role-playing

Han Chinese organized events in which participants pretended to be from an earlier age with entertainment appearing to be the primary purpose of these activities.[7] In 16th century Europe, traveling teams of players performed a form of improvisational theatre known as the Commedia dell'arte, with stock situations, stock characters and improvised dialogue. In the 19th and early 20th century, many board games and parlour games such as the game Jury Box included elements of role-playing. At the same time in Shanghai, role-playing characters from literature works was an integral part of the Chinese courtesan behavior.[8] Mock trials, model legislatures, and the "Theatre Games" created by Viola Spolin arose, in which players took on the roles of characters and improvised, but without the formalised rules which would characterise modern role-playing games.[9]

There is some evidence that

medieval
history and culture, however, with only mild fantasy elements, and were probably mostly influenced by historical re-enactment.

Wargames

Main article:
History of wargaming

Indian epic Mahabharata), with pieces representing roles such as rajas, mantri (counselers), infantry, cavalry, chariots and war elephants.[12][13] Chaturanga is considered the most ancient ancestor of Dungeons & Dragons.[13] According to RPG designer John Wick, Chess can be turned into a role-playing game if chess pieces such as the king, queen, rooks, knights or pawns are given names, and decisions are made based on their motivations. According to Wick, Dungeons & Dragons was a "sophisticated, intricate and complicated combat simulation board game that people were turning into a roleplaying game" just "like giving your rook a motive" in Chess.[14]

In Europe, from the late 18th century to the 19th century,

Kriegsspiele" or "wargames". Wargames or military exercises
are still an important part of military training today.

man to man" games did exist where one figure represented one entity only. The board wargame Diplomacy, invented by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released in 1959, made social interaction and interpersonal skills part of its gameplay. A live-action variant of Diplomacy named Slobbovia
was used for character development rather than conflict.

Late 1960s to early 70s: fantasy elements and the dawn of Tabletop RPGs

In the late 1960s, fantasy elements were increasingly used in wargames. Linguist

LARP games than what would conventionally be thought of as a role-playing game. Wesely would, later in the year, run a second "Braunstein," placing the players in the roles of government officials and revolutionaries in a fictional banana republic
.

armor class, and dungeon crawls. Like the wargames it grew from, Blackmoor used miniature figures and terrain grids to illustrate the action. The key difference with the Blackmoor games, which allowed it to become a game distinct from the wargame-based Braunsteins, was the ability of the players to set their own character goals, in addition to the scenario goals set by Arneson. Arneson and Gygax then met and collaborated on the first Dungeons & Dragons
game.

1974 to early 80s: the first modern RPGs, growth of the industry and controversy

Dave Arneson, co-author of Dungeons & Dragons, the first modern role-playing game
Gary Gygax, co-author of Dungeons & Dragons, the first modern role-playing game

The first commercially available role-playing game,

Tunnels and Trolls
(1975).

Other early fantasy games included Empire of the Petal Throne (1974/75), Chivalry & Sorcery (1977), Arduin (1977) and RuneQuest (1978). Meanwhile, Science Fiction role-playing was introduced in Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), Traveller (1977) and Gamma World (1978) while the Superhero genre was first represented by Superhero: 2044 (1977). Empire of the Petal Throne and City State of the Invincible Overlord (1976) pioneered the concept of ready-made campaign settings.[18] Live-action groups such as Dagorhir were started, and organized gaming conventions and publications such as Dragon Magazine (1976–) catered to the growing hobby.

From 1977 to 1979, TSR launched Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). This ambitious project expanded the rules to a small library of hardcover books. These covered such minutiae as the chance of finding a singing sword in a pile of loot or the odds of coaxing gossip from a tavern keeper. Optional modules in the form of small booklets offered prepared adventure settings. The first edition Dungeon Master's Guide published in 1979 included a recommended reading list of twenty-five authors. Literary and mythological references helped draw new fans to the game. During this time, the genre drew nationwide attention and fan base expanded to teens and lower. However, success became a mixed blessing for TSR. The company was involved in some legal disputes and criticism from mainstream media and religious fundamentalist groups was increasing. Many claimed that TSR's games contained demonic rituals and directly led to suicide attempts by its players. Religious organizations made pamphlets warning of the dangers of role-playing games,[19] and public advocacy groups like Bothered about Dungeons & Dragons were formed in a failed attempt to remove the game from game store shelves. The company underwent dramatic growth, peaking at 300 employees in 1984.

New publishers entered the scene, such as Chaosium (

RoleMaster, 1980), Palladium (The Mechanoid Invasion, 1981), Victory Games (James Bond 007 RPG, 1983), and West End Games (Paranoia
, 1984). These games were all based on a characteristics/skill system, following the trail blazed by Traveller.

Role-playing games began to influence other media. A

animated television series based on Dungeons & Dragons was produced in 1983, also called Dungeons & Dragons
.

Mid-1980s to early 90s: competition among various settings and systems

The second edition of Dungeons & Dragons, launched in 1988, downplayed literary elements to reduce objections. Surviving artifacts of this heritage and its influence on the wider gaming community include widespread use of

vorpal." Borrowed from Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky
, this was the first edition's most powerful magic sword.

Up to this stage, each game had tied itself to a particular setting; If a player wanted to play in a science-fiction game and a fantasy game, they had to learn two game systems. Attempts were made in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to allow cross-genre games using Gamma World (1978) and Boot Hill (1975) rules, but the obscure rules went largely unused. Some companies bucked this trend, however. Chaosium produced a book titled Basic Role-Playing (1981), which was the first generic role-playing game system. It originated in the fantasy-oriented RuneQuest role-playing game rules and was used in Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer (1981) and other games. The Hero System, first introduced in Champions (1981), was also used in Justice, Inc. (1984), Fantasy Hero (1985) and other games. Steve Jackson Games followed with GURPS (the Generic Universal Roleplaying System) in 1986.

advantages
, getting more points by accepting low characteristics, disadvantages, and so forth.

The game

power gaming
but which set the tone for later generations of less conventional RPGs.

International market

Translations allowed the hobby to spread to other countries. New games began to be produced outside America, such as Midgard (1981) and The Dark Eye (1984) in Germany, Drakar och Demoner (1982) in Sweden, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1986) in the United Kingdom, Adventurers of the North - Kalevala Heroes (1989) in Finland and Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek (1983)[20] and Sword World RPG (1989) in Japan.

In Italy, the hybrid sci-fi adventure boxed game VII Legio (1982) containing RPG elements and original role-playing games by local authors - I Signori del Caos in 1983 and Kata Kumbas in 1984 - preceded the translation of Dungeons & Dragons in 1985 and of many other foreign titles. Besides many truly old-school games, local designers released quite original games as the completely narrative Holmes & Company (1987) - a detective game with not even rules for combat - and On Stage! (1995), where players bid for the control of each scene and actually take in turns the role of game master. Role-playing games have a widespread use in schools and libraries; public institutions even released easy role-playing games to be freely distributed for that purpose to teachers and librarians, like Orlando Furioso (City Council of Rome, 1993) and Giocastoria (City Council of Modena, 1998).

France was hit by the role-playing wave in the mid-1980s, as seen by the translations into French of Dungeons & Dragons in 1983 (first role-playing game to be translated), Call of Cthulhu in 1984, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in 1986 and RuneQuest in 1987, and by original products such as its first role-playing game Ultime épreuve (Jeux actuels, 1983), the Légendes series (Jeux Descartes, 1983), Mega (Jeux et Stratégie, 1984), Empire Galactique (Robert Laffont, 1984), or Rêve de Dragon (Nouvelles Éditions Fantastiques, 1985; English translation Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros by Malcontent Games, 2002).

Traveller was translated into Japanese in 1984, quickly followed by Dungeons & Dragons in 1985.[21]

Translations into Spanish of Dungeons & Dragons (Dalmau Carles Pla, 1985), Call of Cthulhu (Joc Internacional, 1988), RuneQuest (Joc Internacional, 1988), Middle-earth Role-Playing (Joc Internacional, 1989) and Traveller (Diseños Orbitales, 1989) were published in Spain during the 1980s. Spanish speaking countries didn't start their own role-playing games production before the 1990s: Aquelarre[22] (Joc Internacional, 1990) and Mutantes en la sombra[23] (Ludotecnia, 1991) were published in Spain and Laberinto[24] saw publication for the first time in Mexico in 1998 (Gráfica Nueva de Occidente).

The

post-communist
countries soon joining in.

Mid- to late-1990s: decline in popularity

With advances in

home computing, role-playing video games
increased in popularity. These games, which use settings and game-mechanics found in role-playing games, do not require a gamemaster or require a player to remain in-character. Although they helped to introduce new gamers to the hobby, the demands of time and money on players were split between the two.

In 1993, Peter Adkison and Richard Garfield, a doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, released a competitive card collecting game with a fantasy setting reminiscent of fantasy role-playing games called Magic: The Gathering. The game was extremely successful and its publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC) experienced phenomenal growth; A new genre of collectible card games emerged. The sudden appearance and remarkable popularity of Magic took many gamers (and game publishing companies) by surprise, as they tried to keep pace with fads and changes in the public opinion.[25]

In the year afterwards (1994), Bethesda Softworks released the first chapter in their The Elder Scrolls role-playing video game series. The game was Bethesda's attempt to create a true "pen and paper" style experience for personal computers, with the fifth major game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) being one of the most frequently released games in the history of the industry.[26]

With gamers's time and money split three ways, the role-playing game industry declined. Articles appeared in Dragon Magazine and other industry magazines foretelling the "end of role-playing", since face-to-face time was spent playing Magic. TSR's attempts to become a

publishing house further drained their reserves of cash and the financially troubled company was eventually purchased by Wizards of the Coast in 1997. Articles criticising WotC's game in TSR's magazine stopped. WotC became a division of Hasbro in 1998, being bought for an estimated $325 million.[6]

Meanwhile, critical and theoretical reflection on

Threefold Model. The Scandinavian RPG scene saw several opposing ideological camps about the nature and function of RPGs emerge, which began having regular academic conferences called the knutepunkt
conferences, which began in 1997 and continue to today.

2000s-: open and indie gaming, Edition Wars and OSR

In 2000, Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons

d20 system, and a System Reference Document was published, containing all the rules needed to write a supplement or run a one-off game, but lacking the character advancement rules necessary for long-term play. The open gaming movement and 3rd/3.5 edition D&D (2000, 2003) enjoyed a great deal of success, and although there was some criticism of the move a great many d20 System games
have been released until around 2008.

In 2009,

Paizo Publishing, intended for backward compatibility with D&D 3.5 edition ruleset under the OGL. Pathfinder eventually became the top-selling RPG in around 2011 to 2013,[27][28][29][30] replacing Dungeons & Dragons, which had been the best-selling game since the advent of RPG industry in 1974.[31]
In comparison, then-4th-edition D&D (2008) proved to be a lackluster, WotC quickly responded to this and announced next edition of D&D with more emphasis on open playtestings and user feedback. Under such circumstances, "Edition Wars" became a hot topic among user community and internet boards, although some may argue such discussions already and always existed.

Meanwhile, self-defined "

PDF
publishing, it became possible for these individuals to produce games with tightly focused designs, eschewing the mainstream trends of the industry.

Also on this same era, there has been a trend known as the OSR (

Swords & Wizardry
 (2008), games which more closely recreate the original rule sets, using the OGL materials and non-copyrightable aspects of the older rules.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Where we've been and where we're going". Archived from the original on 2011-06-29.: "Generation 1" games
  2. ^ Paul Cardwell, jr. "The Attacks on Roleplaying Games". first published in the Skeptical Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2016-10-12. Retrieved 2005-11-03.
  3. ^ Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel. "Working Hard at Play".: An educator's opinion of role playing games
  4. ^ Christian Gamers Guild explaining that one may be Christian and a role-player at the same time
  5. ^ Jack Chick. "Dark Dungeons".:a comic tract portraying D&D as the "Filth of Satan" and promoting book burning
  6. ^ a b "WotC buyout by Hasbro". The Spruce Crafts.
  7. JSTOR 2719347
    .
  8. OCLC 61162180
    .
  9. ^ a b Role-Playing Games: An Overview Archived 2000-08-23 at the Wayback Machine, Andrew Rilstone in Inter*Action #1, 1994
  10. ISBN 0-87910-036-2
    .
  11. ^ a b c Jon Peterson (2012), Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games
  12. ^ a b c Brief History of Wargaming, University of Virginia
  13. ^
    ISBN 9781451640519
    .
  14. ^ John Wick, Chess is not an RPG: The Illusion of Game Balance, John Wick Presents (October 1, 2014)
  15. ^ History of Wargaming Archived 2007-06-09 at the Wayback Machine – discusses developments from chess to H.G. Wells
  16. ^ "The Courier's TIMELINE OF THE HISTORICAL MINIATURES WARGAMING HOBBY".
  17. ^ Interview with Gary Gygax at Atlas of Adventure
  18. ^ Slack, Andy (April 4, 2012). "Review: Empire of the Petal Throne". Halfway Station. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  19. ^ https://www.chick.com/products/tract?stk=0046
  20. ^ "Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek – RPG Item – RPGGeek".
  21. ^ "RPG FAQ from Japan". Retrieved 2006-07-27.
  22. ISBN 84-7831-038-X
  23. ISBN 84-404-9356-8
  24. ISBN 968-7822-02-3
  25. ^ Card sharks – success of card game company Wizards of the Coast – Company Profile – a financial analysis of the firm
  26. ^ Hammond, Bailey. "Skyrim wins top accolades". Newspaper. The Vanguard. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
  27. ^ "Top 5 RPGs—Q2 2011". IcV2. 2011-08-04. Retrieved 2013-10-02.
  28. ^ "Top 5 RPGs—Fall 2012". IcV2. 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2013-10-02.
  29. ^ "Top 5 RPGs—Spring 2013". IcV2. 2013-07-15. Retrieved 2013-10-02.
  30. ^ "Top 5 RPGs—Fall 2013". IcV2. 2014-03-13. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  31. ^ Forbing, Jeremy (December 22, 2013). "Dungeons & Dragons Next Edition Out Summer 2014". Guardian Liberty Voice. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
  32. ^ "Castles & Crusades is a fantasy RPG, clearly based upon the first edition of AD&D but with streamlined d20-like rules." (Mythmere; Castles & Crusades Players Handbook (4.6 stars))

Further reading

  • Raymond, Victor (January–February 1995). "A Brief History of Role-Playing Games: Part I, Pre-History and the Early Days: RPGs to 1970". Shadis. No. 17. pp. 13–19.

External links

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