Keeping pen and paper gaming alive

I was surprised to find a lengthy article about Bermuda’s community of tabletop role-players in Saturday’s Royal Gazette. Reading it brought a nostalgic smile to my face.

Throughout my teenage years, I was an unapologetic geek, an avid player of pen and paper role-playing games (RPGs). At weekends and during school holidays I’d get together with four or five friends, and with the help of voluminous rulebooks and handfuls of multi-sided dice, spend hours exploring fantasy worlds and battling enemies that existed only in our imaginations. We started with basic Dungeons & Dragons, graduated to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and finally settled on the more satisfying Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Every now and then, for a bit of variety, we’d play one of the less popular RPGs such as Judge Dredd or Call of Cthulhu.

Most of the time I was the game-master (GM) – the person responsible for planning and running the games, describing the world, applying the rules, and telling my friends the outcome of their characters’ actions. Watching my friends overcome the obstacles that I tossed into their path was much more enjoyable than having to solve them myself. Easily frustrated, on the rare occasions I would role-play a character, I favoured a brute force approach to problem solving that quickly earned me the label "hack and slay prat".

I stopped playing RPGs after my friends and I graduated from university and moved to different parts of the UK. Some of my friends are now embarrassed by their geek past, but not me. In addition to being a lot of fun, those games helped develop my imagination, and improved my communication and writing skills. My first published piece of writing was an adventure that I wrote for Warhammer (it first appeared in 1989 as part of an official supplement, The Restless Dead, and was later reprinted as part of Apocrypha 2: Chart of Darkness).

Nevertheless, I was surprised to learn that there’s an active RPG community in Bermuda today. D&D and other tabletop role-playing games began to decline in popularity in the early 1990s as video games became more sophisticated. Several mainstream PC adventure games have used the D&D rules, and this year saw the launch of the first massively-multiplayer online RPG set in the D&D world. However, none provide the same degree of complexity or social interaction.

So although I’ve long since swapped the pen-and-paper RPGs for PC games, I’m happy to hear that some are still keeping the old games alive.

Comments

[SmokingGun on 08.05.06 at 20:27]

Technically speaking isn't ALIB just another RPG in another world?

[Uncle Elvis on 08.05.06 at 20:39]

'Throughout my teenage years, I was an unapologetic geek..."

So what are you now? *grin*

[ace on 08.05.06 at 20:46]

Phil, this video is for you man:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7521044027821122670

[SmokingGun on 08.05.06 at 21:08]

Ace - hilarious! Scary world out there.

This is what happens when pen and paper gets traded in for the PC:

http://www.break.com/index/patiencechild.html

[Phil on 08.05.06 at 21:08]

Uncle Elvis

Haha. Still an unapologetic geek!

ace

But not that much of a geek. Ever. Obviously.

[ace on 08.05.06 at 21:27]

SmokingGun:

lol...is that German he's speaking? If I ever...and I mean EVER... see my kids acting like that, they would be in BIG trouble. We're talking "cut-ass" trouble. Seriously. Bang out of order.

Phil:

lol..obviously.

I thought of you when I watched it though: "Bloggermaster Phil is hard...but fair".

[SmokingGun on 08.05.06 at 21:34]

ace - if I ever saw my kid act up like that I'd be looking for a good counsellor.... and one for my kid too! When I first saw that I was in shock. After the hysterical laughter of course.

By the way, just for a little more fun at the expense of a foreign language:

http://www.controlancy.co.uk/fun/lost_jewels.htm

[ace on 08.05.06 at 21:49]

hehe...I've seen that one. Hilarious!

You've probably seen this one, but it's topical as it does indeed make fun of language:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1365353836237246497&q=berlitz

[SmokingGun on 08.05.06 at 22:08]

ace - yes indeed, great commercial!

Kind of reminds me of a conversation one might hear between the people of Bermuda and the PLP.

Ouch.... sorry;

[NiHao on 09.05.06 at 15:23]

Wow, Dungeons and Dragons, that brings back the memories! There was an episode of Freaks and Geeks once where they got the "cool kid" to play with them and he became enthralled. It was hilarious, and brought me right back to the '80s!

[Two Cents on 09.05.06 at 15:33]

D&D wow !!

Circa 1984 I honestly tried to 'get into' it, but I just couldn't.

One fun fact, there isn't one 'D&D guy' that I went to boarding school with (well of them killed himself...but not counting him) who isn't now making stupid amounts of money with tech companies or doing really well in business.

[Mum on 09.05.06 at 16:03]

Are you going to sell them all of your painted figures. What about all the scenery you made? The money might come in handy with baby Wells on the way. Or are you thinking of joining them?

[SmokingGun on 09.05.06 at 16:14]

Now I remember why I never bought my mum a computer.... ;)

[ace on 09.05.06 at 16:19]

LOL...

Philphil?

[Full Fullish on 09.05.06 at 16:29]

Smoking Gun -
Jesus Christ! A Cut ass....that is all...

[Uncle Elvis on 09.05.06 at 16:51]

"Are you going to sell them all of your painted figures. What about all the scenery you made? The money might come in handy with baby Wells on the way. Or are you thinking of joining them?"

Coffee... nose... exploding!

That gave me a good giggle today. Thank you Mum!

Scenery! I love it!

Oh, and on a personal note, I am FAR too young to remember the 80s. FAR FAR too young.
I am. Seriously. I'm not 37. Nope. Not me.

[SmokingGun on 09.05.06 at 16:54]

FF- I've got too many skeletons in my closet... that is all... ;)

[Two Cents on 09.05.06 at 17:42]

Good God Phil,

Now I know why I haven't offered to help my mum with her new laptop.

Although she can barely open an email by herself or find a website, if you listen to her talk you would think she's writing code for NASA

...Ah Mums gotta love 'em

[Phil on 09.05.06 at 18:01]

groan...

[Adjustah on 09.05.06 at 18:35]

"Are you going to sell them all of your painted figures. What about all the scenery you made? The money might come in handy with baby Wells on the way. Or are you thinking of joining them?"

THAT is just perfect!

Be happy you still have them Phil. Your stuff could have all been sold when you went off to university. Or given away. For free. To the dump. The horror! The horror!

Sigh.

Adjustah
Card Carrying Nerd.

[ace on 23.06.06 at 07:44]

I thought you guys would get a kick out of this, give it a few seconds into the song...all is made clear:

http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=3281&CAT=movies&NSFW=0&rtn=search-3281&Keywords=tripod