Stop me if you’ve heard this one: An RPG, A Videogame, and a Bingo Game sit down in a bar…

Photo courtesy of stokfoto (Jeroen Thoolen).
Video Games and RPGs have shared a parallel evolution throughout their histories, going all the way back to the original such games (Colossal Cave Adventure in 1967 and [Original] D&D in 1974, which was based on 1971’s Chainmail rules for miniatures wargaming).
Throughout their histories, they have fed on each other, sometimes in a fairly conventional fashion (the various D&D computer games ranging from the D&D Computer Labyrinth Game of 1980 through to the better known Baldur’s Gate and more recent Daggerdale and the Legend Of Zelda RPG which took the complimentary evolutionary path, from computer game to tabletop), and sometimes in more indirect fashion.
The two have a lot in common insofar as the game mechanics of any RPG translate readily into computer code, they both have fundamentally similar storytelling techniques, and they both involve interaction with a narrator or GM who describes the action – in a computer RPG, that narrator is controlled by the machine, that’s all. They will often share fantasy elements and have other common elements. This commonality has existed throughout their history, but it is about to enter a new phase of development that merits a little scrutiny.
Initial Developments
Early developments in both types of gaming explored improvements in game play. The fundamentals of storytelling were being explored in both environments, while the human-game interfaces underwent considerable development. In the case of Tabletop RPGs this focused on exploration of the rules systems and examination of meta-issues and underlying design philosophies. Meanwhile, computer games developed from purely text-based to simple graphical games like Space Invaders, Asteroids, and later, more sophisticated games like Defender.
Unfortunately, these games were unable to hide the basic inability of players to interact with the game plot and narrative, reducing the plot to a basic script. More sophisticated programming techniques would be required before game play could further advance.
Glossy & Verbose
The development paths of the two game styles then appeared to diverge for a period. Programmers concentrated on the things that computer games were inherently good at, like fancy graphics and basic gameplay. Increased memory, processing power, and graphics capabilities meant that the visuals of games were increasingly sophisticated. At the same time, random selection of a number of scenarios began to be integrated into a number of games of the era, restoring an at least superficial resemblance to a truly interactive game.
Roleplaying games also worked on the aspects of their games that they were inherently good at – interaction with plot, character development, and uniqueness of setting and narrative. Character development in particular was liberated from the tyranny of randomness with the advent of point-based construction systems. New approaches to interactivity with the passage of in-game time, new methods to the simulation of skill systems, and new techniques for simulating the learning and growth of individuals as experience was gained by characters, all extended the veracity of gaming systems.
Simulation meets Interaction
Eventually, the simulation techniques inherent to computer games grew sufficiently sophisticated that they could even mimic interaction with the narrative. The results were a series of landmark efforts in the sub-field of computer-based RPGs, as TSR released their AD&D games. While the choices available to players were still confined to those inherently coded into the system and plotline, it was not always easy to tell that the plots were pre-scripted, even when you knew better.
At much the same time, computer-based tools for pencil-and-paper RPGS were developing beyond basic character generators. Everything from simple map generators to combat simulators achieved new standards of performance over the next few years.
The 32-bit era
Home computers evolved from 16 to 32-bit technology, operating systems advanced, and what we now think of as the internet became more than isolated bulletin boards. RPG aids became more sophisticated, and many applications nominally intended for other purposes such as spreadsheets, databases, appointment calendars, and more, were adapted to assist GMs. At the same time, RPGs entered a phase in their development in which two simultaneous paths were being explored: simplicity and refinement on one branch, and increasing sophistication and complexity of options on the other. All these movements culminated in a number of computer-based RPGs that set new standards for interactivity, such as games like Baldur’s Gate; but there were a number of other games in this period that blurred the lines between simulated rpg and traditional computer game with complex branching narrative structures that furnished a sophisticated illusion of choice on the part of the player. But game development then got side-tracked into the 3D and Real-time movements and away from the turn-based elements that they had shared in common with RPGs.
Gaming aids appeared to hit a peak in their development in this period. Sophisticated tools such as the official D&D character generator and Redblade made the tedium of GMing far less strenuous. Increasingly, however, this aspect of computer software development would also be diverted into the portability of documentation and tools of collaboration, as wikis and blogs began to evolve.
It was not long after these trends commenced that RPG development also became sidetracked by the d20/OGL explosion. For several years, it seemed that no other core gamesystem could survive, so ubiquitous was the d20 approach, fuelled by the runaway success of D&D 3.0 and 3.5.
In their own ways, all three strands of this narrative found themselves exploring seductive cul-de-sacs. In time, each would escape these traps, but it would not be immediate.
The MMORPG
MUDs, or multi-user dungeons, evolved from the same text-based origins as other computer games, but took a branching path instead of focusing on the graphical development of their more famous brethren. From time-to-time, the two strands of game software development converged, usually in the form of a multiplayer option attached to a traditional game. Beginning in 1997, the MUD assimilated a number of utility technologies such as chat software, added a reasonable standard of graphics similar to that of other computer games, perhaps five years behind those of the cutting-edge games of the time, and – beginning with Ultimata Online – emerged as the MMORPG. This, in effect, integrated and then supersized at least one traditional element of table-top RPGs, simultaneous multiplayer involvement. In 2004, the MMORPG exploded into popular consciousness with the massively successful World Of Warcraft. Some people were so alarmed by the success of this development that they prophesied the imminent death of RPGs as we knew them.
In part, this doomsaying was fueled by the edition war between D&D 3.x and 4e, which is still a divisive issue amongst the table-top gaming community. Guess what? It’s almost a decade later, and Tabletop RPGs are still around, and even looking more vigorous than they have in many years. The huge fanbase brought into the hobby by the success of 3.x fractured into support for a multitude of systems, harnessed the power of nostalgia to reinvent a number of classic games from the past, and hooked up with the online environment to fuel a massive wave of roleplaying blogs that continues to this day.
At the same time, computer gaming shifted from the personal computer to gaming consoles. The result was that the most interactive capability was lost – a hand controller simply doesn’t have the sophistication of a keyboard or the depth of the written word. Not being into console gaming myself, I could not even tell you whether or not these games have even achieved the limited interactivity of Baldur’s Gate, where your choices of action were limited to combinations of preselected options, and an overall fixed narrative.
The problem with WoW and other MMORPGs is that they are centralized, with a centralized structure, and the narrative is best described as “emergent” – it grows out of the actions and interactions of hundreds or thousands of players, each doing something “fun” – with that being defined largely in terms of older, more traditional computer games. It means that the game environment is constantly evolving, but in terms of an adventure with pacing and plot, it doesn’t go anywhere. Ultimately, I think it will be another in a long line of very successful evolutionary cul-de-sacs for computer gaming – though I might be wrong, and this wouldn’t be the first time, so don’t get upset if you disagree.
Online RPGs & The Modern Day
Recent years have seen genuine progress in the integration of computers and the tabletop RPG. It is now possible for players from many different geographic locations to play, across the internet, in a game with a genuine old-style GM. The first such software that I became aware of was Roll20, but I have since learned of others. The general classification of the software is “Virtual Tabletop” and it is so new than Wikipedia don’t even have a page for it yet! But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t resources and alternatives out there. Here’s just a handful:
- Virtual Tabletop – a Wiki dedicated to telling you all you need to know about Virtual Tabletops, including a visual comparison chart. The number-one resource for the subject.
- Guide to choosing a virtual tabletop program – a page from the above Wiki.
- This page from Battlegrounds Links to Virtual Tabletop (VT) Programs suitable specifically for RPGs – a comprehensive list. As a bonus, if you scroll up to the top of the page, you’ll find an equally comprehensive list of Mapping Software, Sources of Free Art for RPGs, Roleplaying Aids, and Music & Sound Effects for RPGs.
An unusual engine for development
The big question is this: how to fund the future development of this software. If it takes off in popularity, becomes as big as DnD 3.x or WoW, there will be no problem – but I can’t see that happening. What we need is some well-funded sugar daddy to pay for the primary R&D for something we can adapt to become improvements in tabletop gaming software.
Believe it or not, there is such a creature.
Kids and teens have always been in the forefront of online gaming. Households are crammed with Xbox’s, Playstations, and Wii’s. But over the last half-decade, online gaming has taken off in a new direction for adults; everything from Online Poker Tournaments through to online Bingo, as offered by sites such as Costa Bingo, with innovative free-to-play games.
There’s money behind these games, money for R&D, and at the same time, they are closer in their software requirements to those of tabletop RPGs than might be expected. There is considerable overlap in the areas of the selective broadcasting to particular individuals of live transmissions, interactions between the central game and each player, and interactions and communications between players. How can you look for a “Tell” if your webcam view only updates once a second, and not in real time?
Gaming sites such as these will develop the necessary tools for their own use, tools which can be licensed and adapted to service other genres of gaming. In the years to come, simply because they can afford to fund the R&D, such sites will become a driving force for the advancement of Tabletop Gaming into the 21st century – the best friends we never knew we had. And that’s food for thought.
Update 9 Feb 2013: Play-by-Post gaming
Yesterday, Twitter user @StarArmy quite rightly took me to task for omitting a major subgenre of gaming from this article. He/She wrote,
“In your Campaign Mastery article about RPG evolution, why is there no mention of online text based RPGs such as forum RPGs? Since the mid 90s, hundreds of roleplaying games have been started on the web, played by forums and email lists. Check out Wikipedia’s article on Play-by-post gaming. I have spent much of my life GMing Star Army, [Sci-fi] a PbP community. Forum RPGs aren’t tabletop and we’re not video games, we’re roleplayers writing back and forth. Some have GMs, some not.”
The reason PbP gaming doesn’t get a mention in this article is because I’ve never played that way, and would rather send out an incomplete article than an inaccurate one. We then went on to compare the roles of the moderator of such a game (when there was not a GM) and a GM. StarArmy wrote, “A GM describes the setting and controls NPCs. A moderator is mainly there to enforce behavior guidelines.”
I have to admit that I found all this very interesting. What StarArmy was describing was, to my mind, very similar to an MMORPG, in which the story is an emergent property of the interaction of players. Strip an MMORPG of its graphical inheritance from traditional computer games, and what you are left with is a live action RPG operating in real time. An archive or transcript of such a game would look remarkably similar to the archive or transcript of a PbP game, though it would be sliced up into much smaller components due to the real-time interactivity of the MMORPG.
“Although text-based roleplaying has exploded in popularity on the web, in theory it could be played by snail mail too,” according to StarArmy. Twitter user @Canageek then added, “Keep in mind, that is also only one type of PbP. The other is just a traditional RPG played via typing on forum” – which, of course, would be a direct descendant of the PBEM (Play by E-mail) games of yesteryear.
PbP gaming would appear to be a crossover point, or perhaps an intersection point, between MMORPGs and traditional RPGs which evolved from PBEM origins. They may or may not have a directed narrative under the control of a GM; where they do, they resemble a traditional tabletop RPG played by some form of correspondence, and sped up via the speed of the modern internet. Where they don’t have a GM, the narrative is an emergent property of the chaotic system of individual actions within a common game world – all the players act simultaneously, and then react simultaneously to each other’s actions.
David Ball – Twitter user @ongoingworlds – pointed out that PbP games “are more like collaborative writing than tabletop [RPGs}”. That similarity, and in particular the resemblance to a shared-world anthology being crafted in parallel by each participant rather than sequentially, episode by episode, had also not escaped me. I had deliberately avoided clouding the subject by including the evolutionary interactions between various forms of gaming and “traditional” literary fantasy in my article – lack of time, if nothing else – but if I had done so, the resemblance to a PbP archive and a series like Thieves’ World would also have merited mention.
Text-based RPGs aren’t just a strange offshoot or hybrid of computer games, mass communications, forum technologies, and tabletop RPG elements. They are their own evolutionary path, which may have emerged from the same cultural niche as tabletop RPGs but have forged their own path. As someone who writes – both in the literary sense, and the RPG sense – the attraction of PbP gaming seems very obvious to me. I wish I had the time to investigate it more fully. But at the very least I’m glad to be able to acknowledge the gaming format of PbP here and rectify an obvious-in-hindsight deficiency. Thanks to @StarArmy, @Canageek, and @ongoingworlds for taking the time to talk to me about it – and for making the effort of bringing the oversight to my attention.
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February 9th, 2013 at 6:33 pm
A quick shout-out to Twitter user @SimmingNet (Federation Sim Fleet) whose offer of additional insights didn’t reach me in time for a mention in the update. The offer is nevertheless appreciated!
Mike recently posted..Stop me if you’ve heard this one: An RPG, A Videogame, and a Bingo Game sit down in a bar…
February 10th, 2013 at 4:08 am
Mike, thank you again for your openness and willingness to explore the play-by-post class of RPGs. When I first read the article, honestly I thought it was a snub at us. I knew online text-based RP was not really acknowledged by a lot of the mainstream/tabletop RPG community but didn’t even cross my mind that this type of gaming was actually an unknown. So I learned something too!
February 10th, 2013 at 4:58 am
I would never knowingly snub any part of the gaming community, Wes. You never know what else they are into that might be of value to you or to your readers. So if I’ve opened your eyes a little to what might really be going on when you are aparrantly ignored by the rest of the gaming community, then that sounds like a fair trade to me! I appreciate your willingness to speak up politely especially if you thought your chosen form of gaming had been deliberately snubbed, so the shout-outs and updates were well-deserved. Stop by anytime, and if you think I’m missing a bet in a future article, feel free to speak up! Hopefully between us we’ve educated a few other gamers out there!
February 11th, 2013 at 1:25 pm
What I find most interesting is how PbP is seemingly dominated by women and is as close to mainstream geekery as you can get: everything from Star Wars to Twilight to Harry Potter to original settings and even offshoots of video games, like Dragon Age: Origins and ES: Skyrim (a quick glance at http://rpg-directory.com/ shows how well this modality is thriving, and how it’s spawning the next generation of graphic and web designers). I would guess that the evolutionary antecedent would be fanfiction, with PbP becoming the interactive fan stories.
The real shame to me is how most PbP players won’t touch pen and paper RPGs because of the stigma, but I think PbP also fosters more cooperative social- and intrigue-based games compared to the predominantly competitive and combative games of 3.x and its ilk. Tabletop is going to want to figure out how to shake that stereotype in the next couple of years to really take off, since I know a ton of women who would enjoy D&D but are usually too self-conscious to give it a try and associate themselves with “that kind of gamer.” Especially considering that, as far as I can tell, “that kind of gamer” only barely exists nowadays!
Anyway, I’m glad you took the time to write the addendum! Another quality article.
Lindevi recently posted..Catching my Breath, Looking Ahead
February 11th, 2013 at 7:31 pm
Thanks Lindevi.
While 3.x and other table-top games may have a reputation as competitive and combative, it’s only a half-truth at best.
Competitive: Not really. Players generally have to cooperate, so tabletop RPGs are generally less competitive than traditional board games like Monopoly.
Combative: Perhaps – depending on the game and how you define the term. But combative games are nothing new – you could argue that soccer, basketball, softball and baseball, and many other games whose roots go back centuries, are all combative. Nor are these games exlusively a male province.
I disagree with the assertion that this combative aspect is something that “needs to be shaken off”. The most popular computer games of the last ten or twenty years – since the hey-day of Tetris – have all been extremely violent and combative, in the same sense of the word as applies to RPGs, and while many have deplored that violent streak, it has hardly hurt sales.
On the contrary, the controversy has probably stimulated sales, as often used to happen to musicians with a “Bad boy” reputation. While sanitizing the reputation of the genre might double the potential market by making the games more appealing to females, I think they would lose far more audiance, as shown by the failure in the marketplace of just about every “non-violent” RPG I’ve ever seen or heard of – with the exception of those targetting suitability for small children.
Furthermore, the last decade or so has seen a slew of successful action movies with female leads, starting with “Aliens” and moving forwards from there. So I don’t accept the premise that simulated violence is off-putting to women; I think the majoprity are fully capable of distinguishing between the cartoonish violence of a tabletop RPG and that of real life.
There have been other bug-bears targetted as the cause of violence and immorality in modern society – everything from heavy metal to comic books to violence on television. No accusation of such has ever been proven. Realistic depictions of violent behavior may desensitize subjects – even that is far from conclusively proven – so I have no doubt that there are those who percieve tabletop RPGs as being excessively violent, and you’re right, that is a shame.
Finally, I think that the extraordinary levels of success achieved D&D 3.x / Pathfinder shows that internal attributes, like the handling of licencing, has far more to do with the success of a game than any other single factor. In a nutshell, popularity + permissive licencing = more third party product = more popularity. So I don’t think that the violence issue will really make much difference in terms of pen-and-paper RPGs “Taking off”.
But the same can be said of every form of prejudice or stereotype: an unbiased look at the assumptions apon which the “logic” of the prejudice is based generally reveals that it’s complete nonsense.
It’s obvious from your comments that you are simply reporting the wrong-headed opinions of a vocal minority, with whom you don’t personally agree, so don’t think this criticism is aimed at you – it’s not.
I would actually place the source of the dichotomy somewhere else completely: PbP games are far more literary in nature, and far less about improvisation and acting. The latter encourages extravertism (in a safely confined environemt, which is why it appeals to those of a nerdish persuasion), which is traditionally approved of as a male attribute and discouraged in girls, an attitude that is only changing slowly. PbP gaming seems to be more introverted in nature, placing the narrative at arms’ length, and hence is more acceptable to traditionally-approved female values, which in turn makes it more attractive to those concerned over the “stigma” of tabletop RPGs. So it’s a natural haven for those with the potential for the most extreme prejudice against tabletop RPGs. Which means I’m afarid that you won’t see the end of that opinion for quite some time to come.
Mike recently posted..Stop me if you’ve heard this one: An RPG, A Videogame, and a Bingo Game sit down in a bar…
February 13th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
This was my fault for the way I structured my post, but I don’t think that tabletop needs to shake being competitive or combative, but rather the stigma that you’re “that kind of nerd” if you play tabletop. Playing WoW, watching Dr. Who, or reading comics is now considered cool, but D&D still warrants social pariah status. Granted, I am only speaking from my personal experience, and not everyone might agree with me, but I can’t count how many women I’ve met who expressed interest in RPGs but wouldn’t make the plunge because they thought it was one step too far down the loser ladder. This partially stems from women’s susceptibility to others judgments of them, but it keeps a new set of gamers from breaking into the genre. Just my 2 cents.
You’re right, though, tabletop are about as tame as they get violence-wise. And sanitizing them further isn’t the answer. I don’t know what is, but tabletop role-play gaming could appeal to a wider audience, it just doesn’t want to yet.
Lindevi recently posted..Catching my Breath, Looking Ahead
February 13th, 2013 at 4:32 pm
I just wanted to post my perspective on the PbP/RPG discussion that has been going on, because my (limited) experience has been very different. I’ve only been involved in RPG gaming for about a year. In that time, I’ve been active both in a live tabletop D&D game, and playing D&D through PbP forums. I’d been interested in the game for years, but I never knew people to play with until recently. Then, as I learned the details of the game, I looked for information online and ended up finding gaming forums. In my experience, the passage of time is the only real difference between the two methods, and the game itself operates in much the same way. Of course, I’m playing the same game (D&D 3.5) through both methods, but it seems strange to me to imagine playing a game through PbP without a traditional GM fulfilling exactly the same role as at the table. The GM describes the setting, controls NPCs, and, of course, provides the world and all of the plot machinations that are revolving around in the background. How much of that is carefully scripted and how much is completely up to the players depends not on the gaming medium, but on the preferences of the DM and players. For example, my tabletop DM flies on the seat of his pants and makes everything up based on what we decide to do (and runs a rather whimsical game), but the DMs I’m PbPing with seem to have more thoroughly developed campaign settings and serious plotlines.
And for what it’s worth, I’m loving D&D no matter the system of delivery, but WoW and other computer games do not appeal to me. I think of them as being “one step too far down the” ladder for me (and I don’t mean that in any pejorative sense! Just my personal tastes).
I’m not trying to criticize what anyone has said; I just thought I’d share my seemingly minority perspective.
[First post, mainly because I’ve been reading (excellent) years-old articles here for months, and now I’m actually reading what’s current. On that note, great site! I have quite a few of the articles here bookmarked. :) ]
February 13th, 2013 at 7:19 pm
Welcome aboard, Newcomer! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and for the positive comments. Given the subject of the article, perhaps instead of “one step too far down the ladder”, a better metaphor might be One step too far across the island of a platform game. I don’t see a heirarchy with WoW (etc) being either up or down relative to anything else – rather, each is part of their own ladder, with platforms forming cross-connections between them. That doesn’t mean that developments in one can’t or won’t change the shape of the others. I think your attitude is exactly right, overall – if something is not to your personal taste, there is nothing wrong with that, it’s just not to your personal taste, and that’s the beginning, and end, of the story.
But it’s not the middle of the story, which is all about why X is not to your tastes. It’s the middle of the story that fascinates people in development and marketing in all the different gaming industries, because at its heart, it is asking how they can make their products more popular and more successful. One approach of the computer game has been to pander to the adrenalyn rush induced by simulated violence, with the goal of being as realistic and gory as possible; that happens to be an approach I disagree with and that I think ultimately will do more harm than good.
But there is a point of diminishing returns with any single solution, and I think the violence-in-games trend is well past that point. Whenever that happens, something emerges from left-field to completely change the landscape – last time, it was Guitar Hero, before that, The Sims; the time before that, it was Tetris, and the time before that, it was Civilization. What will it be next? “Angry Birds” seemed to be the best contender until a month or two ago, but it no longer seems to be flavor of the month. There’s absolutely no reason it can’t be some version of D&D or roleplaying games. All it takes is great gameplay and something that sparks the public imagination.
I hope your first post wasn’t too traumatic; feel free to speak up anytime. Even a simple “great article” or social media mention can help tell others that something is worth reading, and we all benefit from good ideas being spread around within the community. :)
February 13th, 2013 at 6:48 pm
I agree with that, Lindevi. The solution, to my mind, is patience. I remember when there was not just a social stigma attached to gaming but outright paranoia, a conditon which I referenced in my reply. We have now reached the point where some catholic priests run RPGs, and so do primary school teachers (at least here in Australia – I can’t speak for the American experience). And every person of either gender who has a positive experience through gaming, who learns something (whether that is technical, social, or academic) reduces that stigma just a little. Multiply those small amounts by thousands and by years, and the image will reform itself – not gradually, but in an escalating progression.
The biggest thing individuals can do is, firstly, to ensure that they are always a positive representative for the hobby; and then to promote themselves as gamers. Too many are still “in the closet”, unwilling to risk the consequences of exposure due to the social stigma that you describe; but these are the very role models that can change the way games and gamers are percieved.
The next biggest thing that they can do is to support the gaming industry, to make it continually thrive, and to build connections with other sectors of the business community. If the public percieve gaming as an industry that creates jobs and educates the participants, that provides positive role models for other gamers new to the hobby, that stigma will vanish in the same way that the nerdishness of being involved in computers has done. These days, being able to write a computer program doesn’t make you a nerd, though it might make you a little eccentric. Software and hardware development have progressed from the public perception of that industry as it was when I was getting started, back in 1979-80, to the point where it is easily as respected a profession as doctor or dentist.
Part of always being a positive representative for the hobby is being willing and able to listen to others with different experience, and discuss those experiences with an open mind. And that’s always part of my goal-set for Campaign Mastery, beyond simply helping GMs and players with the nuts and bolts of being a better gamer. Your comments also contribute to that, so I’m glad you chose to comment.
Mike recently posted..On The Origins Of Orcs, Chapters 1-4
February 20th, 2015 at 12:59 am
[…] knows in that he has done some PbP (Play-by-post) gaming, something Mike neglected to include in an article on the evolution of RPGs and was quite rightly taken to task over (the article was updated within 24 hours to correct the […]
March 6th, 2015 at 2:15 am
[…] knows in that he has done some PbP (Play-by-post) gaming, something Mike neglected to include in an article on the evolution of RPGs and was quite rightly taken to task over (the article was updated within 24 hours to correct the […]
March 13th, 2015 at 12:58 am
[…] knows in that he has done some PbP (Play-by-post) gaming, something Mike neglected to include in an article on the evolution of RPGs and was quite rightly taken to task over (the article was updated within 24 hours to correct the […]