Pen and Paper RPGs vs. Computer RPGs - Part 1

Once again i take to the typing machine, and bring you another DM ramble!

Today I am tackling (mostly attempting) to answer my own personal question...

Pen and paper RPGs vs. computer RPGs, which s better?

Okay, where shall I start? Of course!

Back in the mists of time before the gaming industry really took off and we were stuck with pong yer back too the good old 70s!!

We as people didn't have a lot to choose from, granted there were the ultimate board games of the time dealing with war, strategy and seeing how many times your little sister could land on that row of hotels around Piccadilly!

The concept of 'role playing' is a simple one: you take the persona of a warrior or a crafty thief but really its only an upgrade, dare I say, from playing games as kids using your imagination to well and truly live out your favourite cartoon or comic (many times when I was younger I'd be a Power Ranger or Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

But I digress...

Role playing 'games' as we know them was a concept drempt up by David Wesely with the Braunstein Game.

In 1967, Wesely served as referee for a Napoleonic war game set in the fictional German town of Braunstein.

Two players acted as commanders of the opposing armies, but because he was interested in multi-player games, Wesely also assigned additional, non-military roles. (For example, he had players acting as town mayor, banker, and university chancellor. When two players challenged each other to a duel, Wesely found it necessary to improvise rules for the encounter on the spot).

Needless to say initial experiments were not exactly popular (from all reports simply chaotic) the Braunstein game was never published but in the eyes of the world 1967 had sown the seeds of role playing games.

It wasn't until 1974 when arguably the corner stone of all pen and paper RPGs was invented! Dungeons and Dragons!

Giving us poor mortals a chance to use our imagination to play out those fantasies of being Gandalf or Conan in a structured way! And it kept people from murdering each other playing diplomacy.

Now with the concept of RPGs established and the gaming industry growing it was only a matter of time before the popular 'table top game' became a console game only a year later!!

In 1975 Claremont graduate university student wrote the first Computer RPG. The game was an unlicensed implementation of the new role playing game Dungeon and Dragons!

Granted it was in text format, it was still the first game to use line of sight graphics, as the top-down dungeon maps showing the areas that the party had seen or could see took into consideration factors such as light or darkness and the differences in vision between species. Truly revolutionary!

Okay people lets do the time warp *cue Dr who theme tune.*

Fast forward and we find ourselves at the ever developing peak of technology and social interaction known simply as....err, today?

Anyhow!

Where does this lead us? Do I even need to to list the hundreds upon thousands of role playing games out there? Most people can name at least 4 console RPGs... but can they name 4 pen and paper RPGs?

Once upon a time getting your mates around, grabbing some dice, some soft drink, order a pizza and once again assailing the heights of Wizard's Tower, was cool, popular and of course dictated the basic core concepts of console RPGs!

Epic back story, <check>
Player characters, <check>
More monsters and booty and exp! <check>
And of course the dungeon with optional sewer level (because there's always a sewer level). <check mate>

But somewhere along the line we became geeks, pen and paper games became unpopular and so shunning sunlight and girlfriends (or boyfriends. After all, girl gamers do exist - I know 4) it simply became a stereotype, but once again I'm going off point...

Wait what is my point...?

Oh yes...

You see, with time comes innovation with that we look back and go "hmm, how can we make that better?"

Both console games and pen and paper games have come a hell of long way: rules, graphics and dozen other things.

But which is better?

Find out in part 2!