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Heroic Knight
 
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Last Login: Saturday, October 04, 2008 5:20 PM
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| I'm not seeing many new people joining the Hobby these days, more and more people are playing online RPGs instead of around a table. Is that true? And if so, what are the advantages of the Tabletop medium it should use against online computer RPGs, what can tabletop do that computer games cannot?
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"Stick around!"
-Governor of California throwing a hunting knife into a man's chest
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Prodigal
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| Perhaps I'm not really qualified to try to answer this question- I've never played tabletop or online RPGs. Larp is the only roleplay I've ever been involved with. I can say, however, that tabletop is one of those things which I keep meaning to try at some stage, whereas the concept of online RPGs has never really had much appeal for me. So you could probably count me as part of the target demographic. For me, the appeal of tabletop is that I'd like to try roleplaying face to face with people like I do in larp, but also play with settings and concepts which would be impossible to physrep effectively. The concept of roleplaying with people online feels inherently less interesting. It's like online chat- I use MSN messenger, and I think it's a really useful tool for talking to people that I can't physically meet (because it wouldn't be convenient for me to go to where they are, either because I don't have the time or because they live a long way off). But given the choice, I'd almost always prefer to talk to someone face to face than online. I'm sure that there are good online RPGs, and if I made the effort to look into them properly then I'd probably find at least one that I could enjoy playing. But as things stand, it's not an idea which I find myself able to get very enthusiastic about.
WARNING: the information above may have been subjected to dangerously high levels of ignorance.
OOC (and on Pagga): Carrie
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I do talk a good fight
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The big advantage of tabletop is the face-to-face social contact. Social contact via a computer is at best a poor substitute.
Or as one advert for D&D put it, "If you're going to sit in your basement pretending to be an elf, you should at least have some friends over to help. Dungeons and Dragons: Get together. Roll some Dice. Have Fun."
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Prodigal
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Also, there is a large and flourishing community of people doing standard tabletop roleplaying over the Internet (at places like www.rondaksportal.com and the RPG.net board).
Certainly we still run loads of tabletop in Cambridge. What appears to really be the killer is that people generally don't have time to run face-to-face tabletop: it takes a lot of planning and some organisation, and supports smaller groups than LARP so there isn't the collective will to do something about it.
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Heroic Knight
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I dont know about others but time is a factor in RPG as one gets older and more resposibility gets piled on.
I for one used to eat sleep and breath RPG, i have hundreds of books of various genres and stuff, but these days I will be lucky if I get to even look at the shelves containing these tombs let alone open one and read it, and run a campaign HA!
Online RPG (it's a sin really to call it that in most cases) is a lot more accessable, if your in a guild with 200 others then there is a great likely hood that when you have a spare hour, you can log in and hook up with some one for some RP, it is a lesser beast to the face to face RP I have experienced, like the difference between a Kobold and a Balrog, but when a junky needs a fix he'll smoke banana skins.
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Apprentice
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| I dont think this is the case, Table-top Roleplay seems to be booming at the moment, a lot of people who would not have tried it had they not tried online/offline RPGs and been intreguied! With regards to what tabletop can do compared to online gaming... Anything, completly customised situation by situation plot... improvised traps, improvised attacks, anything you can imagine and your character can do. Just a few weeks ago in one of the games i play i made a small hole in the roof of a pub and proceeded to rain arrows down upon my enemies inside said pub. Computers have a set way of doing things you have these abilities and thats it... but when it comes down to it your character would be able to attempt almost anything if he had the guts and bravery. Face-to-face interation is so much better and online gaming will equate to a whole load more meta-gaming. Trying to roleplay with somebody who is desperate to get that sword because it will increase his strength by 8 points which he only knows because he read it off a website is just annoying! As Horsewood stated... I have not found one single online RPG that holds true to the RolePlaying part of the name untill i do, PnP will always be the way to go. Saying that i have found OpenRPG and some online PnP/forum games to be interesting and fun whilst provking good RP.
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Heroic Knight
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I agree to the statement that it is mainly about the social interaction.
Like Jesus I used to table top far more than I do now, every day in fact (I hang my head in shame  ), but since getting a girlfriend (non roleplayer), a job and a house, I don't have the time.
I still tabletop once a week, tonight in fact. I'll head round to my mates for a game of Earthdawn, but I guarantee that at least half the time there will be chatting, winding each other up, and catching up on the weeks events. It's like a poker game with friends, but substituting dice for cards.
Liverpool Vamp - Richard Ballengate - Clan Tremere
Maelstrom - Malachi Dante - Now an Independant Trader
IRL - Matt Jenkins
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Wag
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| The only reason I stopped tabletop was because my time vanished due to my wife being into LRP but not tabletop. Would be interesting to see if there were any stats on this, though. Personally I agree with Ian in that tabletop and online are two entirely different concepts and, having experienced both, do not think online is anything near as good as tabletop. It may be more that there is a boom in both and online simply gets more 'airtime' with the media due to its relative popularity among even 'normal' people.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God... Ruins of Empire 1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester
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