History of role-playing games
Encyclopedia
The history of role-playing games begins with an earlier tradition of role-playing
, which combined with the rulesets of fantasy wargame
s in the 1970s to give rise to the modern role-playing game
. A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game
in which the participants assume the roles of characters
and collaboratively create stories
. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a system
of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, they 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 game
s and card game
s. 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. Some educators support role-playing games as a healthy way to hone reading and arithmetic skills. Though role-playing has been accepted by some, a few religious organizations continue to object.
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.
s of fantasy wargame
s in the 1970s to give rise to the modern role-playing games.
, 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 game
s and parlour game
s such as the game Jury Box
included elements of role-playing. 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.
There is some evidence that assassin
-style games may have been played in New York city by adults as early as 1920. A simple version in which an assassination was performed by saying, "You're dead," was mentioned in Harpo Marx
's autobiography, Harpo Speaks!, in a section covering the 1920s.
In the 1960s, historical reenactment
groups gave rise to "creative history" games, which probably originate with the founding of the Society for Creative Anachronism
in Berkeley, California
on May 1, 1966. A similar group, the Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia
, began holding events on the University of Maryland, College Park
in 1969. These groups were largely dedicated to accurately recreating medieval history and culture, however, with only mild fantasy elements, and were probably mostly influenced by historical re-enactment.
, Helwig, Master of Pages to the Duke of Brunswick created a battle emulation game in 1780. According to Max Boot's
book War Made New (2006, pg 122), sometime between 1803 and 1809, the Prussian General Staff
developed war games, with staff officers moving metal pieces around on a game table (with blue pieces representing their forces and red pieces those of the enemy), using dice rolls to indicate random chance and with a referee scoring the results. Increasingly realistic variations became part of military training in the nineteenth century in many nations, and were called "kriegspiel" or "wargames". Wargames or military exercise
s are still an important part of military training today.
Wargaming
moved from professional training to the hobby market with the publication of Little Wars
, children's toy soldier
game, by H.G. Wells in 1913. A niche hobby of wargaming
emerged for adults that recreated model games around actual battles from the Napoleonic
period onward. Although a single marker or miniature figure
typically represented a squad of soldiers, some "skirmish level" or "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.
In the late 1960s, fantasy elements were increasingly used in wargames. Linguist M. A. R. Barker
began to use wargame-like sessions to develop his creation Tékumel
. In 1970, the New England Wargamers Association demonstrated a fantasy wargame called Middle Earth at a convention of the Military Figure Collectors Association. Fantasy writer Greg Stafford
created the board wargame White Bear and Red Moon
to explore conflicts in his fantasy world Glorantha
, though it did not see publication until 1974.
Gary Gygax
of the University of Minnesota
's wargaming society developed a set of rules for a late medieval milieu. This unusual wargame saw publication in 1971 under the name Chainmail
. Although Chainmail was a historical game, later editions included an appendix for adding fantasy elements such as wizards and dragons.
A wargame session was held at the University of Minnesota in 1969, with Dave Wesely as the moderator, in which the players represented single characters in a Napoleonic scenario centering around a small town named Braunstein. This did not lead to any further experimentation in the same vein immediately, but the ground had been laid. It actually bore greater resemblance to later 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
. The two games would be used partially by Dave Arneson
who was a participant, to focus his ideas regarding a fantasy realm known as Blackmoor
, and by 1971, Arneson would be running what could be conventionally recognized as a role-playing game based on his Blackmoor world.
Blackmoor contained core elements that would become widespread in fantasy gaming: hit points, experience point
s, character levels, armor class
, and dungeon crawl
s. 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.
The first commercially available role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons
(D&D), was published in 1974 by Gygax's TSR
. TSR marketed the game as a niche product. Gygax expected to sell about 50,000 copies. After establishing itself in boutique stores it developed a cult following.
The game's growing success spawned cottage industries and a variety of peripheral products. In a few years other fantasy games appeared, some of which blatantly copied the look and feel of the original game (one of the earliest competitors was Tunnels and Trolls
). Along with Dungeons & Dragons, early successes included Chivalry & Sorcery, Traveller
, and RuneQuest
. Live-action groups such as Dagorhir
were started, and organized gaming convention
s and publications such as Dragon Magazine
catered to the growing hobby.
TSR launched Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) in the late seventies. 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.
issues dogged the first edition Deities and Demigods rules book. A public controversy emerged (see below) that brought public attention and improved sales but also stigmatized the game. The company underwent dramatic growth, peaking at 300 employees in 1984.
New publishers entered the scene, such as Chaosium (RuneQuest
, 1978, and Call of Cthulhu
, 1981), Iron Crown Enterprises (RoleMaster
, 1980), Palladium (Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game
, 1983), 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.
Translations allowed the hobby to spread to other countries. Traveller was translated into Japanese
in 1984, quickly followed by Dungeons & Dragons in 1985. New games began to be produced outside America, such as Midgard
(1981) and The Dark Eye
(1983) 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) and Sword World RPG
(1989) in Japan
. France also 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 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). 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 (Joc Internacional, 1990) and Mutantes en la sombra (Ludotecnia, 1991) were published in Spain
and Laberinto
saw publication for the first time in Mexico
in 1998 (Gráfica Nueva de Occidente).
Role-playing games began to influence other media. A new genre of computer games arose from early mainframe computer
imitations of RPGs, with Akalabeth
and Rogue
both published in 1980; the genre inherited many of the settings and game mechanics of RPGs as well as the name, and went on to have its own varied history. An animated television series based on Dungeons & Dragons was produced in 1983, also called Dungeons & Dragons
.
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 Tolkienesque character types and the persistence of the gaming term "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
and Boot Hill
rules, but the obscure rules went largely unused. In 1986, seeking to produce a single, generic game
which would meet every gamer's needs, Steve Jackson Games
released GURPS
- the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System". GURPS emphasis on its "generic" aspect proved to be a successful marketing tactic; it remained the second-most popular role-playing game system into the 1990s.
GURPS and Champions
also served to introduce game balance
between player characters to role-playing games. Whereas in Dungeons & Dragons players created characters
randomly using dice, newer games began to use a system whereby each player was given a number of character point
s to spend to get characteristics
, skills, advantages, getting more points by accepting low characteristics, disadvantages etc.
, originally published in 1988, emphasised characterisation and storytelling over game mechanics and combat. The game was acquired by White Wolf, Inc.
, who took the same approach to their 1991 game Vampire: The Masquerade
, a gothic horror themed game whose setting appealed to the growing Goth subculture
; the game was a huge success and spawned a huge number of spinoffs which were brought together as the World of Darkness
. This style of storytelling game
lent itself well to live-action role-playing games.
The fall of communism allowed the hobby to spread even further. A Polish RPG magazine, Magia i Miecz
(Magic and Sword), was published, and soon several Polish role-playing games
followed, with other post-communist countries soon joining in.
With advances in home computing, computer role-playing 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 publishers Wizards of the Coast
(WotC) experienced phenomenal growth; A new genre of collectible card game
s 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.
As printing technology improved, buyers' expectations increased and the increased printing costs needed to meet them was passed on to the customer. TSR found itself involved in litigation against file sharers
who were bootlegging RPGs. Many FTP
sites and webpages that contained material relating to, but not directly copying any copyrighted material, were targeted and attacked by TSR, and some on-line fans of D&D and RPGs started to refer to TSR as "T$R".
With gamers' 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 roleplaying", 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.
Meanwhile critical and theoretical reflection on role-playing game theory
was developing. In 1994-95 Inter*Active, (later re-named Interactive Fiction) published a magazine devoted to the study of RPGs. In the late 90's discussion on the nature of RPGs on rec.games.frp.advocacy generated the 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.
Ryan Dancey introduced a policy whereby other companies could publish D&D-compatible games under the Open Gaming License
. This would spread the cost of supplementing the game and would increase sales of the core books, which could only be published by Wizards of the Coast. The new D&D rules became known as the 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 enjoyed a great deal of success, although there was some criticism of the move, and a great many d20 System games have been released.
Meanwhile, self-defined "Indie role-playing
" communities arose on the internet, studying role-playing and developing the GNS Theory
of role-playing games. With the advent of print on demand
and PDF
publishing, it became possible for these individuals to produce games with tightly-focused designs, eschewing the mainstream trends of the industry.
fantasy series and The Walt Disney Company
. However, these objections have not led to a boycott of Hasbro
similar to those organized against the latter two products.
Outsiders who misunderstand the nature of fantasy gaming have created serious problems for the industry. Publisher Steve Jackson Games
nearly went out of business after a 1990 United States Secret Service
raid
seized the company's computers. The firm's fantasy technology game GURPS Cyberpunk
inspired a mistaken assumption that they were computer hackers
. A 1994 U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit ruling upheld the firm's subsequent suit against the Secret Service. These actions, in part, led to the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
.
Though many role-playing games have had controversies or poor press, Dungeons & Dragons has often been the primary target of criticism, at least in part because it is so widely played that it has become emblematic of role-playing in popular culture. Groups as diverse as the Israel Defense Forces
and Jack Chick
publications have singled the game out as a source of concern.
In 2008 Michael Goldfarb, writing in support of Republican
presidential nominee John McCain
, referred to Dungeons & Dragons while disparaging supporters of Democratic
nominee Barack Obama
. Goldfarb had previously apologised for any harm caused by his comments about players of the game.
in the utility tunnels beneath the campus of Michigan State University
, and after his unsuccessful attempt, hid at a friend's house for approximately a month.
A well-publicized search for Egbert began, and a private investigator speculated in the press that Egbert had gotten lost in the steam tunnels during a live-action version
of the game. The press largely reported the story as fact, which served as the kernel of a persistent collective delusion regarding such "steam tunnel incidents." Egbert's suicide attempts, including his successful suicide the following year (by self-inflicted gunshot) had no connection whatsoever to D&D, being brought on by his being a talented but highly depressed young man under incredible stress. The 1981 book, Mazes and Monsters
was a thinly disguised fictionalization of the press exaggerations of the Egbert case, which was later adapted as a made-for-television movie
in 1982.
's son, an active D&D player, committed suicide, and Pulling believed the game to be the direct cause of his death. After unsuccessful legal action, Pulling founded the one-person advocacy group Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD), and began publishing information circulating her belief that D&D encouraged devil worship and suicide.
Overall opponents of role-playing gaming were remarkably successful at attracting media attention in the 1980s. In a 1994 Skeptical Inquirer
article, Paul Cardwell, Jr. observes that, "The Associated Press and United Press International
, between 1979 and 1992, carried 111 stories mentioning role-playing games. Almost all named only Dungeons & Dragons... Of the 111 stories, 80 were anti-game, 19 had no majority, 9 were neutral, and only 3 were pro-game. Those three pro-game stories were all from UPI, which is a considerably smaller wire service than AP.
Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR made little direct attempt to counter this impression other than to reduce objectionable content in its products. The company was experiencing growing pains during this time. Sales had doubled annually throughout the 1970s and quadrupled as the controversy ensued. TSR also commenced a partnership with Random House
at the same time, so the degree to which media attention helped sales is uncertain. Internal management and production issues appear to have consumed the firm's attention during this period.
Their defense of RPGs has been made easier as more research has become available regarding such games. For example, the American Association of Suicidology, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and Health & Welfare (Canada) have all concluded that there is no causal link between fantasy gaming and suicide. And in The Pulling Report, writer Michael Stackpole used BADD's own data to demonstrate that suicide is actually lower among gamers than non-gamers.
Mainstream criticism of RPGs has subsided with the debunking of BADD's and similar claims, although a number of urban legends have nevertheless been linked to RPGs over the years.
Riksdag
aimed at removing government grants
for Sverok
, the Swedish nationwide umbrella organization for gaming clubs. The arguments for the proposals were that playing role-playing games made youths more prone to acts of violence and that some sensational cases that had come to the public's attention had a cause in role-playing games.
In response to these proposals the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs, the government agency
charged with monitoring and acting on the interests of youths in Sweden, was given the assignment to evaluate role-playing as a hobby. This resulted in a report with the title Role-playing as recreation .
The report gives no support to claims of correlation between acts violence and playing role-playing games, nor of claims that impressionable youths would be susceptible to blurring lines between reality and fantasy, another claim made in the Riksdag proposals. On the contrary, the report is positive of role-playing as recreation for youths. The report states: Role-playing gives youths the opportunity to acquire exciting and complex skills. The game as such invites creativity and learning in for example oral presentation. Several other benefits are also mentioned, such as: stimulating flexibility and negotiation in social contexts, promoting cooperation, and promoting learning history and culture. The report concludes : In light of this it is possible to regard some parts of the criticism aimed towards role-playing as an expression of so called moral panic
.
This report was used as the main argument to strike down the Riksdag proposals. In 2004, Sverok was the youth organisation that was granted the most government funding in Sweden.
, Northern Ireland
robbed a lingerie shop at knifepoint in Belfast
while wearing a blonde ladies' wig. During his trial Boyd stated he was playing Shadowrun
, specifically the role of criminal elf Buho, at the time and may have "blurred reality and fantasy". Two jurors believed his story, but ten did not and he was convicted of robbery in March 2007.
Role-playing
Role-playing refers to the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role...
, which combined with the rulesets of fantasy wargame
Fantasy wargame
A fantasy wargame is a wargame that involves a fantastical setting, and employs rules for elements such as magic and non-human intelligent creatures.- History :...
s in the 1970s to give rise to the modern role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
in which the participants assume the roles of characters
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and collaboratively create stories
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a system
Role-playing game system
A role-playing game system is a set of game mechanics used in a role-playing game to determine the outcome of a character's in-game actions...
of rules and guidelines. Within the rules, they may improvise
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
freely; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the games.
Role-playing games are substantially different from competitive games such as ball game
Ball game
In American English, ball game refers specifically to either a game of basketball, baseball or American football. In British English ball game refers to any sport played with a ball....
s and card game
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
s. This has led to confusion among some non-players about the nature of fantasy gaming. The game Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
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. Some educators support role-playing games as a healthy way to hone reading and arithmetic skills. Though role-playing has been accepted by some, a few religious organizations continue to object.
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
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
purchased fantasy game publisher Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
in 1998 for an estimated $325 million.
Origins
Earlier role-playing traditions combined with the game mechanicGame mechanic
Game mechanics are constructs of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game or gameplay. All games use mechanics; however, theories and styles differ as to their ultimate importance to the game...
s of fantasy wargame
Fantasy wargame
A fantasy wargame is a wargame that involves a fantastical setting, and employs rules for elements such as magic and non-human intelligent creatures.- History :...
s in the 1970s to give rise to the modern role-playing games.
Early role-playing
In 16th century EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, traveling teams of players performed a form of improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...
known as the Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
, with stock situations, stock characters and improvised dialogue. In the 19th and early 20th century, many board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
s and parlour game
Parlour game
A parlour game is a group game played indoors. During the Victorian era in Great Britain and in the United States, these games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes. They were often played in a parlour, hence the name....
s such as the game Jury Box
Jury Box (game)
Jury Box is a parlor game that was popular in the United States in the 1930s. It is considered a predecessor to modern murder mystery games and role-playing games....
included elements of role-playing. Mock trials, model legislatures, and the "Theatre Games" created by Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin
Viola Spolin was an important innovator of the American theater in the 20th century. She created directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life...
arose, in which players took on the roles of characters and improvised, but without the formalised rules which would characterise modern role-playing games.
There is some evidence that assassin
Assassin (game)
Assassin is a live-action game...
-style games may have been played in New York city by adults as early as 1920. A simple version in which an assassination was performed by saying, "You're dead," was mentioned in Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
's autobiography, Harpo Speaks!, in a section covering the 1920s.
In the 1960s, historical reenactment
Historical reenactment
Historical reenactment is an educational activity in which participants attempt torecreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...
groups gave rise to "creative history" games, which probably originate with the founding of the Society for Creative Anachronism
Society for Creative Anachronism
The Society for Creative Anachronism is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
on May 1, 1966. A similar group, the Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia
Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia
Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia Markland Medieval Mercenary Militia (sometimes known as the Markland Medieval Militia also as "Markland Co." and its members as Marklanders is a non-profit historical educational organization, incorporated in Maryland...
, began holding events on the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
in 1969. These groups were largely dedicated to accurately recreating medieval history and culture, however, with only mild fantasy elements, and were probably mostly influenced by historical re-enactment.
Wargames
Drawing inspiration from ChessChess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, Helwig, Master of Pages to the Duke of Brunswick created a battle emulation game in 1780. According to Max Boot's
Max Boot
Max Boot is an American author, consultant, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian. He has been a prominent advocate for American power. He once described his ideas as "American might to promote American ideals." He self-identifies as a conservative, once joking that "I grew up in the...
book War Made New (2006, pg 122), sometime between 1803 and 1809, the Prussian General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
developed war games, with staff officers moving metal pieces around on a game table (with blue pieces representing their forces and red pieces those of the enemy), using dice rolls to indicate random chance and with a referee scoring the results. Increasingly realistic variations became part of military training in the nineteenth century in many nations, and were called "kriegspiel" or "wargames". Wargames or military exercise
Military exercise
A military exercise is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat...
s are still an important part of military training today.
Wargaming
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
moved from professional training to the hobby market with the publication of Little Wars
Little Wars
Little Wars is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by H. G. Wells in 1913. Its full title is Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books.Little Wars is considered by some...
, children's toy soldier
Toy soldier
A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier. The term applies to depictions of uniformed military personnel from all eras, and includes knights, cowboys, pirates, and other subjects that involve combat-related themes. Toy soldiers vary from simple playthings to highly realistic...
game, by H.G. Wells in 1913. A niche hobby of wargaming
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
emerged for adults that recreated model games around actual battles from the Napoleonic
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
period onward. Although a single marker or miniature figure
Miniature figure
A miniature figure is a small-scale representation of a historical or mythological entity used in miniature wargames, role-playing games, and dioramas. Miniature figures are commonly made of metal, plastic, or paper...
typically represented a squad of soldiers, some "skirmish level" or "man to man
Man to Man wargame
Man-to-man wargames are wargames in which units generally represent single individuals or weapons systems, and are rated not only on weaponry but may also be rated on such facets as morale, perception, skill-at-arms, etc...
" games did exist where one figure represented one entity only.
The board wargame Diplomacy
Diplomacy (game)
Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases and the absence of dice or other game elements that produce random effects...
, invented by Allan B. Calhamer
Allan B. Calhamer
Allan B. Calhamer invented the board game Diplomacy.A friend of Calhamer's recounted how, when they were boys in La Grange Park, Illinois, he and Calhamer "discovered in the attic a geography book that showed a map of Europe before World War I with the ... old boundaries." Years later, 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
Slobbovia
Slobbovia was a postal Diplomacy variant played among science fiction and gaming fans in North America and Europe from 1972 to 1986. The game was published in Slobinpolit Zhurnal ....
was used for character development rather than conflict.
In the late 1960s, fantasy elements were increasingly used in wargames. Linguist M. A. R. Barker
M. A. R. Barker
Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker is a retired professor of Urdu and South Asian Studies who created one of the first roleplaying games, Empire of the Petal Throne, and has authored several fantasy/science fantasy novels based in his associated world setting of Tékumel.-Early life:Born in Spokane,...
began to use wargame-like sessions to develop his creation Tékumel
Tékumel
Tékumel is a fantasy world created by Professor M. A. R. Barker over the course of several decades from around 1940. With time Barker also created the role-playing game Empire of the Petal Throne, set in the Tékumel fictional universe and first published in 1975 by TSR, Inc...
. In 1970, the New England Wargamers Association demonstrated a fantasy wargame called Middle Earth at a convention of the Military Figure Collectors Association. Fantasy writer Greg Stafford
Greg Stafford
Francis Gregory Stafford , usually known as Greg Stafford, is an American game designer, publisher and shaman.-Glorantha and gaming:...
created the board wargame White Bear and Red Moon
White Bear and Red Moon
White Bear and Red Moon is a fantasy board wargame set in the world of Glorantha, created by Greg Stafford and published in 1975. Stafford set up the Chaosium game publishing company solely to produce and market the game....
to explore conflicts in his fantasy world Glorantha
Glorantha
Glorantha is the Fantasy world created by Greg Stafford and since used as the background for several role-playing games, including RuneQuest , Hero Wars and HeroQuest , as well as several works of fiction and the computer strategy game King of Dragon Pass...
, though it did not see publication until 1974.
Chainmail and Blackmoor
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
of the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
's wargaming society developed a set of rules for a late medieval milieu. This unusual wargame saw publication in 1971 under the name Chainmail
Chainmail (game)
Chainmail is a medieval miniatures wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the game with fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association member Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly, and the game was first published in 1971...
. Although Chainmail was a historical game, later editions included an appendix for adding fantasy elements such as wizards and dragons.
A wargame session was held at the University of Minnesota in 1969, with Dave Wesely as the moderator, in which the players represented single characters in a Napoleonic scenario centering around a small town named Braunstein. This did not lead to any further experimentation in the same vein immediately, but the ground had been laid. It actually bore greater resemblance to later 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
Banana republic
In political science, the pejorative term Banana Republic denotes a politically unstable country dependent upon limited primary productions , which is ruled by a plutocracy, a small, self-elected, wealthy group who exploit the country by means of a politico-economic oligarchy...
. The two games would be used partially by Dave Arneson
Dave Arneson
David Lance "Dave" Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game , Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s...
who was a participant, to focus his ideas regarding a fantasy realm known as Blackmoor
Blackmoor
Blackmoor is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting generally associated with the game Dungeons & Dragons. It originally evolved in the early 1970s as the personal setting of Dave Arneson, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, first as a setting for Arneson's miniature wargames, then as an...
, and by 1971, Arneson would be running what could be conventionally recognized as a role-playing game based on his Blackmoor world.
Blackmoor contained core elements that would become widespread in fantasy gaming: hit points, experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s, character levels, armor class
Armor class
In some role-playing games, armor class is a derived statistic that indicates how difficult it is to land a successful blow on a character with an attack...
, and dungeon crawl
Dungeon crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...
s. 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
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
game.
The 1970s: The first modern RPGs
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
(D&D), was published in 1974 by Gygax's TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
. TSR marketed the game as a niche product. Gygax expected to sell about 50,000 copies. After establishing itself in boutique stores it developed a cult following.
The game's growing success spawned cottage industries and a variety of peripheral products. In a few years other fantasy games appeared, some of which blatantly copied the look and feel of the original game (one of the earliest competitors was Tunnels and Trolls
Tunnels and Trolls
Tunnels & Trolls is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St...
). Along with Dungeons & Dragons, early successes included Chivalry & Sorcery, Traveller
Traveller (role-playing game)
Traveller is a series of related science fiction role-playing games, the first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop and subsequent editions by various companies remaining in print to this day. The game was inspired from such classic science fiction stories as the Dumarest saga series by...
, and RuneQuest
RuneQuest
RuneQuest is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1978 by Chaosium, created by Steve Perrin and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. RuneQuest was notable for its original gaming system and for its verisimilitude in adhering to an original fantasy world...
. Live-action groups such as Dagorhir
Dagorhir
Dagorhir Battle Games is a battle game with thousands of members spread throughout the US, Canada and England.Founded in Washington, DC, USA in 1977, it has since spread to scores of locations...
were started, and organized gaming convention
Fan convention
A fan convention, or con , is an event in which fans of a particular film, television series, comic book, actor, or an entire genre of entertainment such as science fiction or anime and manga, gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and...
s and publications such as Dragon Magazine
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
catered to the growing hobby.
TSR launched Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) in the late seventies. 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.
The 1980s: Growth and controversy
Literary and mythological references helped draw new fans to the game. Success became a mixed blessing for TSR: copyright infringementCopyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
issues dogged the first edition Deities and Demigods rules book. A public controversy emerged (see below) that brought public attention and improved sales but also stigmatized the game. The company underwent dramatic growth, peaking at 300 employees in 1984.
New publishers entered the scene, such as Chaosium (RuneQuest
RuneQuest
RuneQuest is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1978 by Chaosium, created by Steve Perrin and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. RuneQuest was notable for its original gaming system and for its verisimilitude in adhering to an original fantasy world...
, 1978, and Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos.The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium.-Setting:...
, 1981), Iron Crown Enterprises (RoleMaster
Rolemaster
Rolemaster is a role-playing game published by Iron Crown Enterprises. Rolemaster has come in four separate editions. The 3rd edition, first published in 1995, is also known as the "Rolemaster Standard System" . There are two editions currently in production...
, 1980), Palladium (Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game
Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game
The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a game produced by Palladium Books. It is set in a unique world, called the Palladium World , with the primary setting being some 10,000 years after a great war between the elves and their dwarven allies...
, 1983), Victory Games (James Bond 007
James Bond 007 (role-playing game)
James Bond 007: Role-Playing In Her Majesty's Secret Service was a spy fiction role-playing game, designed by Gerard Christopher Klug, and published by Victory Games , based on the James Bond books and films. The game, and many supplements, were published from 1983 until 1987, when the license lapsed...
RPG, 1983), and West End Games (Paranoia
Paranoia (role-playing game)
Paranoia is a dystopian science-fiction tabletop role-playing game originally designed and written by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg, and first published in 1984 by West End Games. Since 2004 the game has been published under licence by Mongoose Publishing...
, 1984). These games were all based on a characteristics/skill system, following the trail blazed by Traveller.
Translations allowed the hobby to spread to other countries. Traveller was translated into Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
in 1984, quickly followed by Dungeons & Dragons in 1985. New games began to be produced outside America, such as Midgard
Midgard (role-playing game)
Midgard is a fantasy role-playing game from Germany. It was the first role-playing game published in German language and the first to be created in Germany....
(1981) and The Dark Eye
The Dark Eye
The Dark Eye , is a German role-playing game created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984. The name literally means "the black eye"...
(1983) in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Drakar och Demoner
Drakar och Demoner
Drakar och Demoner is a Swedish fantasy role-playing game first published in 1982 by the game publishing company Äventyrsspel .First edition was basically a translation of Steve Perrin's Basic Role-Playing Drakar och Demoner (Swedish for Dragons and Demons, in Sweden commonly referred to by the...
(1982) in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is a role-playing game set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Over the years, it has been through a number of phases and different publishers, most of which were related in some way to Games Workshop...
(1986) in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Adventurers of the North, Kalevala Heroes (1989) in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
and Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek (1983) and Sword World RPG
Sword World RPG
is a very popular Japanese role-playing game created by Group SNE. 10 million copies of the related books including rulebooks, novels and replays have been sold....
(1989) in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. France also 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 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
Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros
Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros is a French fantasy tabletop role-playing game created by Denis Gerfaud and re-published in English by Malcontent Games. It is the translation of , a best-selling game in France...
by Malcontent Games, 2002). Translations into Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
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
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
during the 1980s. Spanish speaking countries didn't start their own role-playing games production before the 1990s: Aquelarre (Joc Internacional, 1990) and Mutantes en la sombra (Ludotecnia, 1991) were published in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Laberinto
Laberinto
Laberinto is the twelfth studio album by Latin Grammy-winning Spanish musician and actor, Miguel Bosé, and his sixth with Warner Bros. Records . It was released in 1996...
saw publication for the first time in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in 1998 (Gráfica Nueva de Occidente).
Role-playing games began to influence other media. A new genre of computer games arose from early mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
imitations of RPGs, with Akalabeth
Akalabeth
Akalabeth: World of Doom is a computer role-playing game, first released in 1979, and then published by California Pacific Computer Company for the Apple II in 1980...
and Rogue
Rogue (computer game)
Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
both published in 1980; the genre inherited many of the settings and game mechanics of RPGs as well as the name, and went on to have its own varied history. An animated television series based on Dungeons & Dragons was produced in 1983, also called Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons (TV series)
Dungeons & Dragons is an American fantasy animated television series based on TSR's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. A co-production of Marvel Productions and TSR, the show originally ran from 1985 through 1987 for three seasons on CBS for a total of twenty seven episodes.The show focused on a...
.
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 Tolkienesque character types and the persistence of the gaming term "vorpal
Vorpal
Vorpal sword is a phrase used by Lewis Carroll in his nonsense poem "Jabberwocky".- Context and definition :Carroll published Through the Looking-Glass in 1871. Near the beginning, Alice discovers and reads "Jabberwocky"...
." Borrowed from Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's poem Jabberwocky
Jabberwocky
"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense verse poem written by Lewis Carroll in his 1872 novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
, 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
Gamma World
Gamma World is a science fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrowed heavily from James M. Ward's earlier product, Metamorphosis Alpha.-Setting:...
and Boot Hill
Boot Hill (role-playing game)
Boot Hill is a western role-playing game designed by Brian Blume and Gary Gygax. First published in 1975, Boot Hill was TSR's third role-playing game, not long after Dungeons and Dragons and Empire of the Petal Throne.-System:...
rules, but the obscure rules went largely unused. In 1986, seeking to produce a single, generic game
Generic role-playing game system
A generic role-playing game system or universal role-playing game system is a role-playing game system designed to be independent of setting and genre...
which would meet every gamer's needs, Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
released GURPS
GURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...
- the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System". GURPS emphasis on its "generic" aspect proved to be a successful marketing tactic; it remained the second-most popular role-playing game system into the 1990s.
GURPS and Champions
Champions (role-playing game)
Champions is a role-playing game published by Hero Games that is designed to simulate and function in a four-color superhero comic book world. It was created by George MacDonald, Steve Peterson, Bruce Harlick, and Ray Greer....
also served to introduce game balance
Game balance
Game balance is a concept in game design describing fairness or balance of power in a game between multiple players or strategic options. Each team or person would be equally matched in every aspect.- Overview :...
between player characters to role-playing games. Whereas in Dungeons & Dragons players created characters
Character creation
Character creation is the process of defining a game character or other character. Typically, a character's individual strengths and weaknesses are represented by a set of statistics. Games with a largely fictional setting may include traits such as race and class...
randomly using dice, newer games began to use a system whereby each player was given a number of character point
Character point
Character points are abstract units used in some role-playing games during character creation and development.Early role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons assigned random values to a player character's attributes, while allowing each character a fixed number of skills...
s to spend to get characteristics
Attribute (role-playing games)
An attribute is a piece of data that describes to what extent a fictional character in a role-playing game possesses a specific natural, in-born characteristic common to all characters in the game. That piece of data is usually an abstract number or, in some cases, a set of dice...
, skills, advantages, getting more points by accepting low characteristics, disadvantages etc.
The 1990s: Sophistication and decline
The game Ars MagicaArs Magica
Ars Magica is a role-playing game set in Mythic Europe, a quasi-historical version of Europe around AD 1200 with added fantastical elements. The game revolves around wizards and their allies...
, originally published in 1988, emphasised characterisation and storytelling over game mechanics and combat. The game was acquired by White Wolf, Inc.
White Wolf, Inc.
White Wolf Publishing is an American gaming and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein·Hagen of the former and Steve and Stewart Wieck of the latter. Since White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with...
, who took the same approach to their 1991 game Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade
Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game. Created by Mark Rein·Hagen, it was the first of White Wolf Game Studio's World of Darkness role-playing games, based on the Storyteller System and centered around vampires in a modern gothic-punk world....
, a gothic horror themed game whose setting appealed to the growing Goth subculture
Goth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
; the game was a huge success and spawned a huge number of spinoffs which were brought together as the World of Darkness
World of Darkness
"World of Darkness" is the name given to three related but distinct fictional universes created as settings for supernatural horror themed role-playing games. It is also the name of roleplaying games in the second and third settings...
. This style of storytelling game
Storytelling game
A storytelling game is a game where two or more persons collaborate on telling a spontaneous story. Usually, each player takes care of one or more characters in the developing story...
lent itself well to live-action role-playing games.
The fall of communism allowed the hobby to spread even further. A Polish RPG magazine, Magia i Miecz
Magia i Miecz
Magia i Miecz was the first RPG-oriented magazine in Poland. Started in 1993, it ceased publishing in 2002 after 103 issues....
(Magic and Sword), was published, and soon several Polish role-playing games
Polish role-playing games
Polish role-playing games have been in production since the early 1990s. Now there are several games that have been designed in Poland, as well as many translations on the market.- History :...
followed, with other post-communist countries soon joining in.
With advances in home computing, computer role-playing 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
Peter Adkison
Peter D. Adkison is the founder and first CEO of Wizards of the Coast , as well as a hobby game professional.During Adkison's tenure, Wizards of the Coast rose to the status of a major publisher in the hobby game industry. Wizards achieved runaway success with its creation of "Magic: the...
and Richard Garfield
Richard Garfield
Richard Channing Garfield is a mathematics professor and game designer who created the card games Magic: The Gathering, Netrunner, BattleTech CCG, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle , The Great Dalmuti, Star Wars Trading Card Game, and the board game RoboRally...
, 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
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
. The game was extremely successful, and its publishers Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
(WotC) experienced phenomenal growth; A new genre of collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
s 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.
As printing technology improved, buyers' expectations increased and the increased printing costs needed to meet them was passed on to the customer. TSR found itself involved in litigation against file sharers
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
who were bootlegging RPGs. Many FTP
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
sites and webpages that contained material relating to, but not directly copying any copyrighted material, were targeted and attacked by TSR, and some on-line fans of D&D and RPGs started to refer to TSR as "T$R".
With gamers' 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 roleplaying", 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
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
in 1998, being bought for an estimated $325 million.
Meanwhile critical and theoretical reflection on role-playing game theory
Role-playing game theory
A role-playing game theory is an academic or critical study of role-playing games as a social or artistic phenomenon. RPG theories seek to understand what role-playing games are, how it functions and how the process can be refined in order to improve the gaming experience and produce more useful...
was developing. In 1994-95 Inter*Active, (later re-named Interactive Fiction) published a magazine devoted to the study of RPGs. In the late 90's discussion on the nature of RPGs on rec.games.frp.advocacy generated the Threefold Model
Threefold Model
The Threefold Model of roleplaying games is an attempt to distinguish three different goals in roleplaying. In its original formation, these are: Drama, Simulation, and Game...
. 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
Knutepunkt
The annual Knutepunkt conference, first held in 1997, has been a vital institution in establishing a Nordic role-playing identity, and in establishing the concept of "Nordic larp" as a unique approach. Though the conference started out strictly as a Live action role-playing event, it has since...
conferences, which began in 1997 and continue to today.
The 2000s: Open gaming and Indie gaming
Frustrated that game supplements suffered far more diminished sales over time than the core books required to play the game, WotC's Dungeons & Dragons brand managerBrand management
Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand.The discipline of brand management was started at Procter & Gamble as a result of a famous memo by Neil H...
Ryan Dancey introduced a policy whereby other companies could publish D&D-compatible games under the Open Gaming License
Open Gaming License
The Open Game License may be used by game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, notably game mechanics.-Language of the licence:The OGL describes two forms of content:...
. This would spread the cost of supplementing the game and would increase sales of the core books, which could only be published by Wizards of the Coast. The new D&D rules became known as the d20 system
D20 System
The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast originally developed for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons...
, and a System Reference Document
System Reference Document
The System Reference Document, or SRD, is a set of reference role playing game mechanics licensed under the Open Game License by Wizards of the Coast and based upon their Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. The SRD forms the basis of WotC's various d20 System role-playing games, including the...
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
Open gaming
Open gaming is the movement within the role-playing game industry that is somewhat similar to the open source movement. The key aspect is that authors give recipients of works covered by copyright a license to certain rights, such as the right to make copies or the right to create derivative...
movement enjoyed a great deal of success, although there was some criticism of the move, and a great many d20 System games have been released.
Meanwhile, self-defined "Indie role-playing
Indie role-playing game
An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside of traditional, "mainstream" means. Varying definitions require that commercial, design, or conceptual elements of the game stay under the control of the creator, or that the game should just be produced outside of a corporate...
" communities arose on the internet, studying role-playing and developing the GNS Theory
GNS Theory
The GNS Theory, as originally developed by Ron Edwards, is a relatively amorphous body of work attempting to create a theory of how role-playing games work...
of role-playing games. With the advent of print on demand
Print on demand
Print on demand , sometimes called, in error, publish on demand, is a printing technology and business process in which new copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received...
and PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
publishing, it became possible for these individuals to produce games with tightly-focused designs, eschewing the mainstream trends of the industry.
Controversy
Role-playing games are often poorly understood by the non-gaming community, and have attracted criticism from concerned parents and religious conservatives. The religious objections leveled against fantasy role-playing games in the past are similar to religious objections sometimes now made against the Harry PotterHarry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
fantasy series and The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
. However, these objections have not led to a boycott of Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
similar to those organized against the latter two products.
Outsiders who misunderstand the nature of fantasy gaming have created serious problems for the industry. Publisher Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.-History:...
nearly went out of business after a 1990 United States Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
raid
Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service
Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, 816 F.Supp. 432 , is a legal case that resulted from a raid by the United States Secret Service on the Austin headquarters of Steve Jackson Games in 1990...
seized the company's computers. The firm's fantasy technology game GURPS Cyberpunk
GURPS Cyberpunk
GURPS Cyberpunk is a genre toolkit for cyberpunk-themed role-playing games set in a near-future dystopia, such as that envisioned by William Gibson in his influential novel Neuromancer...
inspired a mistaken assumption that they were computer hackers
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
. A 1994 U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit ruling upheld the firm's subsequent suit against the Secret Service. These actions, in part, led to the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
.
Dungeons & Dragons
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
and Jack Chick
Jack Chick
Jack Thomas Chick is an American publisher, writer, and comic book artist of fundamentalist Christian tracts and comic books...
publications have singled the game out as a source of concern.
In 2008 Michael Goldfarb, writing in support of Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
presidential nominee John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
, referred to Dungeons & Dragons while disparaging supporters of Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nominee Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. Goldfarb had previously apologised for any harm caused by his comments about players of the game.
Steam tunnel incident
One of the most widely referenced incidents relating to Dungeons & Dragons came in 1979, with the disappearance of 16-year-old James Dallas Egbert III. Egbert had attempted suicideSuicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in the utility tunnels beneath the campus of Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, and after his unsuccessful attempt, hid at a friend's house for approximately a month.
A well-publicized search for Egbert began, and a private investigator speculated in the press that Egbert had gotten lost in the steam tunnels during a live-action version
Live action role-playing game
A live action role-playing game is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically act out their characters' actions. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by the real world, while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may...
of the game. The press largely reported the story as fact, which served as the kernel of a persistent collective delusion regarding such "steam tunnel incidents." Egbert's suicide attempts, including his successful suicide the following year (by self-inflicted gunshot) had no connection whatsoever to D&D, being brought on by his being a talented but highly depressed young man under incredible stress. The 1981 book, Mazes and Monsters
Mazes and Monsters (novel)
Mazes and Monsters is a 1981 novel by Rona Jaffe. The novel is a cautionary tale regarding the then-new hobby of fantasy role-playing games. The book was adapted into a made-for-television movie by the same name in 1982 starring young Tom Hanks....
was a thinly disguised fictionalization of the press exaggerations of the Egbert case, which was later adapted as a made-for-television movie
Mazes and Monsters
Mazes and Monsters is a 1982 made-for-TV movie directed by Steven Hilliard Stern about a group of college students and their interest in a fictitious role-playing game of the same name. The movie starred a 26-year-old Tom Hanks in his first major leading film role.- Background :The film was...
in 1982.
BADD
Also in 1982, Patricia PullingPatricia Pulling
Patricia A. Pulling was an anti-occult campaigner from Richmond, Virginia, and the founder of Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons , an advocacy group that was dedicated to the regulation of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons and other such games.-Biography:Pulling formed the organization...
's son, an active D&D player, committed suicide, and Pulling believed the game to be the direct cause of his death. After unsuccessful legal action, Pulling founded the one-person advocacy group Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (BADD), and began publishing information circulating her belief that D&D encouraged devil worship and suicide.
Overall opponents of role-playing gaming were remarkably successful at attracting media attention in the 1980s. In a 1994 Skeptical Inquirer
Skeptical Inquirer
The Skeptical Inquirer is a bimonthly American magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry with the subtitle: The magazine for science and reason....
article, Paul Cardwell, Jr. observes that, "The Associated Press and United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, between 1979 and 1992, carried 111 stories mentioning role-playing games. Almost all named only Dungeons & Dragons... Of the 111 stories, 80 were anti-game, 19 had no majority, 9 were neutral, and only 3 were pro-game. Those three pro-game stories were all from UPI, which is a considerably smaller wire service than AP.
Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR made little direct attempt to counter this impression other than to reduce objectionable content in its products. The company was experiencing growing pains during this time. Sales had doubled annually throughout the 1970s and quadrupled as the controversy ensued. TSR also commenced a partnership with Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
at the same time, so the degree to which media attention helped sales is uncertain. Internal management and production issues appear to have consumed the firm's attention during this period.
Response to criticism
Gamers organized the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games (CAR-PGa) in 1988. This organization writes letters to editors, gives interviews, and advocates for balanced reporting about RPGs.Their defense of RPGs has been made easier as more research has become available regarding such games. For example, the American Association of Suicidology, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and Health & Welfare (Canada) have all concluded that there is no causal link between fantasy gaming and suicide. And in The Pulling Report, writer Michael Stackpole used BADD's own data to demonstrate that suicide is actually lower among gamers than non-gamers.
Mainstream criticism of RPGs has subsided with the debunking of BADD's and similar claims, although a number of urban legends have nevertheless been linked to RPGs over the years.
Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs
From 1994 to 1997 three proposals were put forth in the SwedishSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Riksdag
Parliament of Sweden
The Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
aimed at removing government grants
Grant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
for Sverok
Sverok
Sverok, Sveriges Roll- och Konfliktspelsförbund is a Swedish nationwide umbrella organization for gaming clubs.-What the clubs do:...
, the Swedish nationwide umbrella organization for gaming clubs. The arguments for the proposals were that playing role-playing games made youths more prone to acts of violence and that some sensational cases that had come to the public's attention had a cause in role-playing games.
In response to these proposals the Swedish National Board for Youth Affairs, the government agency
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...
charged with monitoring and acting on the interests of youths in Sweden, was given the assignment to evaluate role-playing as a hobby. This resulted in a report with the title Role-playing as recreation .
The report gives no support to claims of correlation between acts violence and playing role-playing games, nor of claims that impressionable youths would be susceptible to blurring lines between reality and fantasy, another claim made in the Riksdag proposals. On the contrary, the report is positive of role-playing as recreation for youths. The report states: Role-playing gives youths the opportunity to acquire exciting and complex skills. The game as such invites creativity and learning in for example oral presentation. Several other benefits are also mentioned, such as: stimulating flexibility and negotiation in social contexts, promoting cooperation, and promoting learning history and culture. The report concludes : In light of this it is possible to regard some parts of the criticism aimed towards role-playing as an expression of so called moral panic
Moral panic
A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...
.
This report was used as the main argument to strike down the Riksdag proposals. In 2004, Sverok was the youth organisation that was granted the most government funding in Sweden.
Belfast robbery
In December 2005 Robert Boyd from CarrickfergusCarrickfergus
Carrickfergus , known locally and colloquially as "Carrick", is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located on the north shore of Belfast Lough, from Belfast. The town had a population of 27,201 at the 2001 Census and takes its name from Fergus Mór mac Eirc, the 6th century king...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
robbed a lingerie shop at knifepoint in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
while wearing a blonde ladies' wig. During his trial Boyd stated he was playing Shadowrun
Shadowrun
Shadowrun is a role-playing game set in a near-future fictional universe in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspiracy fiction, horror, and detective fiction.The original game has spawned...
, specifically the role of criminal elf Buho, at the time and may have "blurred reality and fantasy". Two jurors believed his story, but ten did not and he was convicted of robbery in March 2007.
External links
- A Brief History of Roleplaying - categorization of role-playing games in history
- Roleplay.org - An introduction, history, and articles on role-playing and role-playing games.
- A History of Role-playing - 8 part series
- A Brief History of Role-Playing Games by Victor Raymond (1994), Midwest Area Gaming Enthusiasts.