thread: 2005-02-03 : Roleplaying Theory Open House
On 2005-04-18, Scott A. H. Ruggels wrote:
Oh How I wish someone had not sent me this link :-) I have read a few of your articles here and it brought back a lot of the discussion on rec.games.frp.advocacy, from 10 or more years ago. I used to be in the industry (illustrator for R. Talsorian, and Hero, and Tri-Tac, still do some for Hero on occasion) Gaming table top is something I don't do any more for a few reasons, not all of which were my choice but seeing this again was nostalgic in the annoying sense, like bad disco heard in a Denny's :-) So it seems that the industry has continued to develop after Magic sucked all the Money out of it, and the D20 rules threatened to homoginze everything.
The Big change for me looking over the notes is different rules, a lot of interpersonal rleations, and the emphasis on "Story" rather than simpl the situation and background. (Lets just say that in the old days, the Background was the GM's responsibility and the players were "strong Actors", and when I GM'd I much prefered it that way. This stuff seems kind of newfangled, and a bit too touchy feely, and "Story focused" for one that came to the hobby from war gaming, and the original D&D 3 book set.
I'm sort of glad the hobby still continues, even with the rest of the world thinking RPG is something they play on their consoles, involving a railroad straight storyline, and pre-generated Characters. (Though I am in the electronic entertainment industry, my taste there are almost exclusively FPS, games, the 3d Equivalent of Dungeon crawls), Good luck with your endeavors, and I amresisting the temptation of getting involved in the discussion, as it would probably make me miss Tabletop all the more, and with the generational change, it wouldn't be the same, these days. Good luck.
Scott
