I’m all about using the computer to the hilt outside of the game. Heck, I’m sure that if I played Risus, I’d still make up a Filemaker database to create and store characters.

During the game, though, nothing of the sort. Sort of like the instant replay in sports. Once the game actually gets started, that visceral, face-to-face, you make mistakes and live with them attitude is what prevails.

As to virtual interactions being the same as face-to-face, well, let’s just say I’ve been to more than my fair share of virtual meetings for work, many lasting all day, and I can assure you, there is never the level of engagement or “sense of the meeting” that leads to a satisfying outcome from such meetings. Sometimes they are out of necessity, but I see the diminishing returns very quickly after about 1 hour.

There’s currently a system in development called ORS (omnificient Roleplaying System)
http://www.dreamborn.com/ors_p.html

ORS, as I understand it, is a computer app designed with object-oriented design, to be a cross-breed between an MMO, a hyper-mathmatical rules-crunch system, and a traditional RPG. It allows the GM to set up their adventures using a giant box of pre-set items, locations, adversaries, etc… or modify or make their own to use, and handles the math intensive crunch via hand-held electronic devices. Instead of dice, minitures, etc… each player uses their electronic device to input actions (including the option to input non-standard actions for GM adjucation, an option that no REAL computer game can match) but all the role-playing is handled by the players without the roll-playing getting in the way.

If that sounds interesting to anyone, feel free to follow that link above. It’s still in development and is looking for contributors.

Online poker has not made poker night with actual paper cards and plastic chips extinct. This, I think, is more apt than most other analogies. At least for me. I’ve always thought that role-playing games serve exactly the same role in the lives of me and my friends as poker does for other people.

My son still turns off the Wii and asks me to play marbles with him.

I see no reason for tabletop role-playing games (as a hobby) not to survive.

Tech might enhance all of these things though.

The only way I see tabletop going away is if virtual gaming becomes as free-form as tabletop rpg can be and people can still get together to do it. The social aspects of gaming can not be understated.

I’m afraid I totally disagree. The dynamic is different. I’ve played via Skype and play-by-post with the same group I’ve played at the table with for years, and it isn’t the same as being physically gathered together, feeding off each other’s energy, seeing the evil GM grin and groaning, sharing a knowing smile with another players, watching so-and-so shake their die for 15 seconds before rolling, etc. That table dynamic just doesn’t exist in the same way in video conference or conference call format.

I conference call with exactly the same group of people I sit around a table with and the banter, seriousness, even the “These biscuits are great.” “Damn, stop making me want to eat biscuits.” all happens in both situations.

If table top roleplaying was to move in this direction I can honestly say that people’s fears that the lack of physical proximity would not detract from the experience would not come true.

Seriously, The End Is NOT Nigh. Computers have a loooong way to go to replace a group of friends sitting around, slinging dice, and having fun. Maybe someday, when the plot driven door is resolved, we can revisit this scenario. (Yeah, that’s actually some of my unintentional trolling in the comments.)

Besides, these things lose their luster after a while. About the twentieth time you see an effect, it’s not nearly as cool as the first time you saw it.

I enjoy both WoW and tabletop RPGs, and play them both for different reasons. I can’t ever see those two things merging into The One Thing. They will always remain distinct, even if by a small margin.

I like electronic tools for prep and character creation, but technology during actual games isn’t something I enjoy. It clutters the experience. I’m so glad to be away from d20 and battlemats. Only things I need for Burning Wheel are d6s; a pencil; and a few sheets of paper, one of which has the characters Beliefs, Instincts and Traits on it. For Dogs In the Vineyard, it’s about the same.

4e introduced the need for so many damn props and tools and widgets and tracking tokens and cards and coloured markers. Oi.

Personally I believe that game companies will just develop better tools for people to use, with netbooks being cheap and smaller I see more people bringing them to the table to help manage their games better.

A wiki for example is a great place to put campagin notes, or email a great way to interact outside the table for side adventures. Especially when playing in a modern/futuristic settings. I’ve played games where we did a lot of side character interactions outside of the table.

Technology isn’t going to kill it, it’ll only enhance it.

my blog- http://bigballofnofun.blogspot.com/

@Will Hindmarch – The hobby will definitely survive. I wonder how it will change though. I love where many of the recent changes in gaming style have taken the industry, and I think a lot of changes are yet to come. However, the people who sit down and play roleplaying games aren’t the same people who get sucked into mmorpgs because of the crunch.

By the by, I couldn’t get the link to cause a trackback to your review of the surface demo from the link I posted in the article.

http://gameplaywright.net/?p=1000

Keep up the discussion. There is some incredible stuff being said, but there is a lot more to be said on the topic.

@Sarlax – “So the real question is, “Once electronics are doing all the heavy lifting for us, and we can have the same experience remotely as we can in person, will we still gather around the table?””

That is a good question. I wonder if we will need to. If I can VR in to a holodeck, or emulate that feel of having my players around me, I think that aspect of socialness might be satisfied for me. Whenever we have to remote anyone into our current games we print a picture of the person and paste it on the chair he or she would be sitting in. It helps us interact with them like they were there.

@theeo123 – “that being said, most RPG designers now ,are run by companies, with an interest in “the bottom line” not like it used to be, where a handful of gamers, got together, made a game, and then scrounged up the money to get a few copies published.”

I’m not sure that I would agree with the most in your sentence there. The concept over all is right on for the companies that are owned by big names, but most games I know of are by people doing the work themselves. The bigger a company, the more revenue it needs to produce. Steve Jackson games is comparatively huge and focuses on things that can turn a profit (like board games, dice games, munchkin, etc.), but I definitely don’t think their #1 concern is the bottom line, except in that they want to be producing games tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, etc.

@Noumenon – I’ve seen the best run D&D games use tokens to represent all the various status effects and bonuses. They remind me so much of small bits of object oriented programming language that are calculated when a program is compiled.

@LesInk – Very true. I’m a big advocate of using pictures and sounds to bring players 3/4 of the way to the image in your head. Animations add 1 extra step, in that the motion they provide grabs another part of the players’ perception. Now instead of each player imagining the running gallop and jump of the wolf with it’s teeth flashing and drool spilling, will they settle for seeing it walk forward and swipe it’s claw? I’ve seen a lot of crunch heavy games where the numbers become so complex that the GM drops right out of descriptive mode and never gets back into it in the other non-combat sections of the game. I know I’ve done it many times myself.

@rwenderlich – Yes. Anything that can reduce those math elements can definitely free up room for other things. That is a great boon that I would welcome. The beauty of roleplaying games to me though, is the fact that the GM can just say: “Meh, this is the way I want it to go, screw the rules.” I don’t want to see that silently swept away because the computer can’t handle what the GM wants to do. I would hate to see the cashier GM calling up tech support to see how to enter in an exemption to a certain rule.

@vollmond – You bring up a good point. In some ways we are already at the surface level of technology, with or without the fancy table. Distance is a problem in a lot of ways. I wouldn’t use maptool, great program that it is, unless I couldn’t get gamers at the table.

If you have full-vr, then why sit around the table. Why not stand in the holodeck and deck yourselves out. I’m not a huge larper, but I would admit this would be awesome, even with all the numbers and combat bonuses floating around my head, and me calling out “Attack monster 4, flaming strike, +2 mod.” and then the computer does the math and I get to make some awesome swing. Far far far off yes, but it will be awesome when it gets here.