[TML] ObRPG: Quotes from a Gygax obit

[Tom B]

On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 8:41 PM, Timothy Little <tim at little-possums.net> wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 09, 2008 at 07:53:26PM -0400, Jerry W Barrington wrote:
>  > And so much goes on at a table that you never see online.  Where a line
>  > might come to you and you blurt it out at the table, online you have to
>  > decide whether it's worth the effort of typing it, and the time to type can
>  > completely blow the effect.
>
>  A few groups I know use Ventrilo or Teamspeak to play RPGs online.
>  (By RPGs I mean games designed for tabletop, certainly not MMOs).  I
>  don't know any who use webcams, but that's quite technically feasible
>  and would come fairly close to a "virtual table".

I run two online games (one Trav, one Stargate SG-1) and I participate
in 3 others (Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, and D&D). One of those is by
email and the other 4 are supported by Skype, MapTool, an SMF forum,
PDF rulebooks, and KloogeWerks.

If you've got the broadband for it, Skype can make a pretty awesome
gaming environment, especially if you know the people you game with. I
play with guys I used to play with when I lived in a different town
and I can imagine the facial expressions that go along with the
commentary. Maps are still a challenge, but MapTool and Kloogewerks
threaten to resolve those issues.

On the Gygax vs. Creativity front: Some people will argue electronica
makers who take digital samples and then mix them in with beats and
sound effects are producing nothing new. Others will recognize that
the combination of previously created parts in new ways is in fact new
creation. I think what Gygax did was certainly in some fashion
derivative and owes credit to what went before, yet at the same time
there were enough unique things to make the game a work of creativity
on its own. And every gaming group and every game ends up being a
creative enterprise all on its own.

I'm also not sure how obscure these things are, if you count WOW,
Lineage, CoH/CoV, LOTR, DAOC, Evercrack, etc. in accounting gamers
these days. Add in us grognards who'd rather play an email or forum
game of Traveller and the others of similar ilk and you might actually
find a large percentage of the under 40 population RP games in one
form or another.

I find Skype passable, but it still is not being at the table. There's
an element of the human chemistry that happens FTF. We draw a lot from
tone of voice, body language, expressions, and other subtle clues and
cues... that aspect is diluted or lost over electronic mediums. But,
if my choice is a Skype game with old friends or no game with old
friends, then I say fire up the computer!

TomB