Aug 6
History of games and RPG
Two of the oldest war games of all times can b tracked to almost four thousand years ago: Chess and Go. Even though ‘war games’ already originated at the turn of the 19th centaury from Prussia, it was Wells who wrote the amateur book for war games in 1915, now known as the war games ‘bible.’ Dices were commonly used to predict the outcome of the game, and what the elements evolved would be.
A vital piece of game design, which is often overlooked, is the model for adventure. For example, early D&D was defined by the keyed dungeon map and room descriptions.
Evolutionary that is what many authors have described RPG as. Since Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, RPG has become much more ‘sophisticated’ and it also had its origin to D&D.
A more literary approach to role-playing came at first from Chaosium in reaction D&D. The rules for Chaosium were based a skill-based system also working percentile, developed for “Rune quest” originally.
It became known as basic role-playing {BRP} As technology developed so did the imagination have more freedom, not limited with the physical world anymore. But to most industries it is still a struggle to support effective running adventures without laying out a plot to follow.
The approach of providing maps and background had all but disappeared in favor of scene-by-scene plots. With the revival success of D&D, this may be reconsidered.
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