Well, we’ve all heard of Dungeons and Dragons, as well as many other games. Off the top of my head I could name a few, Traveller, GURPS, MERP, Call of Cthulhu, the list goes on, but the question is why? Why do we find these games so alluring? Well that is a question that I don’t think I could ever fully answer, but would like to explore none the less.

Gary Gygax wrote and published the very first version of Dungeons and Dragons with Dave Arneson, and with it, they tempered many of the concepts that we now have come to expect from modern fantasy media. The thing that made us play though was not the setting, but the imagination involved. The group stroy telling aspect is what brings these games alive, we like to explore a world with our friends in way that lets us be the heroes, villains and everything in between, we like slaying alien scum, rescuing the princess and facing down legions of orcs and gnolls because its fun. Akin the lego when we were children, the best part was not the model straight out of the box, but when you took it apart and rebuilt it in a way that you liked, you could build castles and cars and space ships, all from designs propogated within your mind, and your friends’ minds.

What old pen and paper roleplaying games, I always believe, have over electronic rpgs is the realism and intelligence. By that I mean, in a game of Pathfinder if the heroes wish to find the goblin lair and kill the chieftain, they must make enquiries in the world, talk to the npcs, which themselves are made my up by the GM. Look at maps and decide how much food will be required to get them their and how many days travel are involved. No map markers, no free rides.

I feel that older electronic rpgs were more this way. Looking at Morrowind as an example, if you were sent into a mine from the local mages guild, the npc’s involved would give you directions, you may have to make a few notes or keep checking the journal to find your way there, looking for landmarks that have been mentioned to you. However in newer games in the TES line of games, such as Skyrim, there is a dramatic increase in the amount of handholding. What I mean to say is that in Skyrim you are given a map marker that can be viewed at anytime that leads immediatly to your destination, no thought needed. This pulls away from the roleplaying aspect somewhat, and discourages exploration.

Overall, I’m not saying that electronic roleplaying games are bad, or worse the pen and paper ones, I have had many hours of fun playing both. I just feel that they are different ball parks and appeal to the mind in different ways.