# Are roleplaying games a cool new technology? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** rpg-dnd-wargames\ **Created:** [August 11, 2022, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476 "2022-08-11T12:00:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/61 "2022-08-13T21:04:55Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Pinball? And even with pinball, it took decades for someone to finally add buttons and flippers to the game. ---
**Author:** ![omenran](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omenran/32/3318_2.png) [@omenran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omenran)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/62 "2022-08-14T07:00:05Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Even then, do we have any evidence of prior board games with persistent character growth (even just in terms of leveling up and getting loot) across multiple sessions and adventures? Not many games had a persistent state to begin with, but excepting that and being able to level the same piece, checkers -kinging- and chess - promoting pawns. Both have a lot in common with what people think of by levelling. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > (seriously, the top hat is a protagonist in a narrative? That seems like pedantic picking at my terms and frankly exhausting). No more pedantic than your DnD character sheet being a protagonist, imo. The top hat represents a fictional player, just as a character sheet represents a fictional character. A narrative about starting out as a poor, ambitious businessman (landlord) looking to make it to the top and defeat all competition via luck, guile and cunning is not all together different from a beginning adventurer setting off to reach their goal. > [@Chronos](#): > > What were the non-computerized predecessors to something like the Mario games? Those wood box mazes you control with knobs to tilt and move a marble. > [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > Playing Pandemic Legacy was an experience like nothing I’d ever had, and the feeling of _ripping up board game components_ was so transgressive and taboo that I felt like a naughty child. I know Magic The Gathering did this with Chaos Confetti from the Unglued set in 1998. When played, the card is to be torn up. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/63 "2022-08-14T14:12:34Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > \*mostly static. I have a copy of of the 1979 version of _Dune_ which includes a pad of scorecards - each player is meant to rip one off and use it each time they play. I bought the game on eBay and while it had clearly seen plenty of use, the pad itself is pristine and unused. Not even a smudge. Every person who ever owned it - and this was before it was reprinted so it probably changed hands several times - had either made photocopies or just used handwritten notes. I’ve played a lot of games that come with score pads, and it’s never occurred to me not to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/64 "2022-08-14T15:11:07Z")
I thought about the Chaos Confetti card earlier but “Unglued” was a novelty set and not intended for “real” (i.e. Tournament legal) M:tG play so didn’t feel like it really counted. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/65 "2022-08-14T15:34:48Z")
> [@omenran](#): > > being able to level the same piece, checkers -kinging- and chess - promoting pawns. Both have a lot in common with what people think of by levelling. Not all that much. Leveling pawns and checkers follows a very strict set of rules, you don’t really have any options on how to upgrade them, nor what happens when you do. > [@omenran](#): > > No more pedantic than your DnD character sheet being a protagonist, imo. The top hat represents a fictional player, just as a character sheet represents a fictional character. A narrative about starting out as a poor, ambitious businessman (landlord) looking to make it to the top and defeat all competition via luck, guile and cunning is not all together different from a beginning adventurer setting off to reach their goal. But the top hat doesn’t have different skills and abilities from the iron. In Monopoly, your choice of “character” is purely aesthetic, in D&D, character creation has actual impact on gameplay. Gary Gygax didn’t invent all or maybe even any of the elements of the game, but he did put them together in a unique way that created something new. I’d call that a technology. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/66 "2022-08-14T15:39:04Z")
> [@omenran](#): > > I know Magic The Gathering did this with Chaos Confetti from the Unglued set in 1998. When played, the card is to be torn up. Though of course, like most of Unglued (and Unhinged), it was intended as a joke (a reference to an urban legend surrounding the card “Chaos Orb”, which was itself already a very weird card). And video games that require manual dexterity and reflexes are, in some ways, descendants of mechanical games that require manual dexterity and reflexes… but it’s a distant descent. Both Doom and Super Mario Brothers are equally descended from those games, and yet radically different from each other beyond that. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/67 "2022-08-14T21:40:56Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Gary Gygax didn’t invent all or maybe even any of the elements of the game, but he did put them together in a unique way that created something new. I’d call that a technology. But that doesn’t fit any definition of “technology” I can find. It’s not using scientific principles, there is no engineering involved, it doesn’t involve machinery. I agree with what was said earlier about conflating the terms “innovation” and “technology”. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/68 "2022-08-14T21:46:00Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But that doesn’t fit any definition of “technology” I can find. It’s not using scientific principles, there is no engineering involved, it doesn’t involve machinery. I agree with what was said earlier about conflating the terms “innovation” and “technology”. Yeah, “innovation” would have been a much better word choice. I struggled between “artform” and “technology,” but didn’t even think of “innovation.” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476/69 "2022-08-14T21:46:54Z")
I do agree it’s an innovation though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-roleplaying-games-a-cool-new-technology/969476.md?page=3)