The Lonesome Road

My first introduction to the world of role playing games (RPGs) came in the form of Baldurs Gate 2. In spite of the fact that it was a lot different from the “RPG” (now known to my educated mind as a hack-n-slash) Diablo2 that I had just finished, it soon had me hooked.

As I continued playing through the game, I finally understood what a RPG was supposed to be like. Huge storylines, plot twists, epic battles and of course loot and treasure! Point being that the game was so good that I was hooked into the DnD universe, reading just about any book I could get my hands on.

Of course, playing on the computer simplifies the entire experience. You simply issue orders and the computer does all the work of rolling the die, calculating the move and attack combinations and displaying the amount of damage caused. In most games this system is very transparent. The only exception I have seen to this is in the Temple of Elemental Evil where the move and attack are clearly displayed on a character.

In the time before computers, players used to do all this on a tabletop (literally!). Hence the term tabletop RPG where one of the group would take on the role of a Dungeon Master and the rest of the group would don the mantle of (hopefully) brave adventurers and venture forth into the world created by the DM. From what I have read (having seen no gaming session in my life) is that the players used to create their own maps, keep track of their character(s) - yes a player could have multiple avatars in the game and actually develop them over the course of gaming sessions.

Now, some people seek to bring about a revivalist trend - bringing back RPGs to where they belong - on the table. Of course - they are using modern methods. So forget the paper and pencils to draw a map, and let those lead figurines stay in the box (where hopefully, 20 years down the line, they will become rare collectibles) and bring out the Lego. Yes, you read right - Lego. The new format of tabletop gaming seems to be BrickQuest. Here, the dungeon, characters and monsters are recreated using lego blocks and stick figures.

Later all - and keep your blocks sharpened!