Where’s the Board? Oh, you mean like D&D?
These are probably two of the most common things tabletop role-playing gamers are asked by non-gamer friends, family and other acquaintances. The long and the short of it is, the answer to both questions is “yes”…and “no”.
Where’s the Board?
The majority of tabletop role-playing games do not make use of any sort of board, platform or other play surface, other than the players’ imagination, sometimes referred to as “shared imagination space”. Role-playing games are abstract types of games in that they are “played” mentally and usually vocally, although various record and “character sheets” are used to record and track in-game statistics and other information such as character names and abilities, items, money, etc.
This is not to say that boards are unheard of in role-playing games. In fact, Wizards of the Coast, the owner of the Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon collectible card games, also own and publish the “Dungeons & Dragons” tabletop role-playing game, whose 3rd and later editions are written in a fashion heavily weighted to the use of miniatures and tactical play, similar to wargames. This is not surprising as Dungeons & Dragons originally grew out of some homemade rules created by players of a tabletop miniature wargame called Chainmail.
Like D&D?
Although it is true there are many role-playing games “like D&D”, this is a phrase that makes some gamers cringe at the disservice such a generalization does to what is a large field of varying kinds of role-playing games, some of which have very little in common with what could be thought of as the first product to really hit the spotlight in popular culture and put role-playing games “on the map”.
For example, there is Call of Cthulhu (kuh-thooh-loo), published by Chaosium, a game originally set in a horroric 1920′s world adapted from pulp horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and his contemporaries – this gritty, dangerous world is populated with all sorts of abominations and cultists and unimaginable beings so terrible in their appearance that simply recognizing their existance can cause one to go stark raving insane. So, Call of Cthulhu is “like D&D” in that they are both role-playing games, the same way a ham sandwich is “like” a cheeseburger – they may share cosmetic and fundamental similarities but their differing qualities and properties truly differentiate one from the other.
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Yeah, they even made a made-for-tv movie abt teens getting caught up in satanic rituals associated with dungeons and dragons. Did you see that one? I recall I fell asleep during the airing.
I first played D&D whin it was the Boxed basic original, many moons ago. I went through all the persecution e.g. “If you throw it in the fire it would scream”.
I was like 12. I had Non-religious felons tell me I was going to hell for playing D&D.
I dont play D&D for those reasons, just the fact that there are better games. like Call of Cthulu or Warhammer FRP.
Man, there is nothing like going in to the woods at night with a bunch of friends and fighting Goblins, Wizards, and other nasties, only to be the only one to survive and go home when the sun comes up. Quest on!
Yes I’d like to address some of these issues in a future post, I meant to do it in this one but got sidetracked. As for Ultimate Quester… are you sure you’re not confusing one of your memories with the Tom Hanks movie Mazes and Monsters?
So, let me put it all in perspective for you. You use black magic to play D&D in steam tunnels, which, if accomplished correctly, causes mental illness. And yes, if you manage to off everyone, hence being the sole survivor, then kudos to you, yet you’ll be facing a lifetime term in the loonybin of the court’s choice.