# What Has Evolved in RPGs?



## Scrivener of Doom (Sep 29, 2013)

Actually, online gaming (in the VTT sense) could fall into the _Flexible Working Hours_ section.

Before your games were scheduled around the ability of your physical group being able to meet. Now you can have a virtual group at 3am if that suits your regular dose of insomnia.


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## Stormonu (Sep 29, 2013)

*Hoarded Information >> Shared Information

*This has also changed in who has what access.  For example, back in 1E, the combat matrixes and save tables were hidden from players in the DM's book - which was moved to the player's book in 2E (though the monster progression stayed in the DMG).  Likewise, in 4E, magic items moved from being the purvey of the DM to the player's side of the street.  Also, as 3E evolved and eventually done outright in 4E, 3E's prestige classes moved from the DMG to the PHB.


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## Ahnehnois (Sep 29, 2013)

Stormonu said:


> *Hoarded Information >> Shared Information
> 
> *This has also changed in who has what access.  For example, back in 1E, the combat matrixes and save tables were hidden from players in the DM's book - which was moved to the player's book in 2E (though the monster progression stayed in the DMG).  Likewise, in 4E, magic items moved from being the purvey of the DM to the player's side of the street.  Also, as 3E evolved and eventually done outright in 4E, 3E's prestige classes moved from the DMG to the PHB.



That's an interesting way of looking at it. Personally, back in my 2e days only the DM owned any books or really understood the rules; all our characters were made working with him on his computer. Then when 3e came out, he outright told us we weren't allowed to own a DMG. But as we did learn the rules and acquire books, we gradually became more democratic and (perhaps unsurprisingly) changed DMs.

I wonder how much that personal trend (a more collectivistic social dynamic) is reflected in the community at large.


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## Scrivener of Doom (Sep 29, 2013)

Ahnehnois said:


> That's an interesting way of looking at it. Personally, back in my 2e days only the DM owned any books or really understood the rules; all our characters were made working with him on his computer. Then when 3e came out, he outright told us we weren't allowed to own a DMG. But as we did learn the rules and acquire books, we gradually became more democratic and (perhaps unsurprisingly) changed DMs. (snip)




The DM who taught me how to play in 1981 had the following idiosyncrasies in terms of PCs:

- PCs were created by the DM using a strict 3d6 method and then allocating classes, races and levels with the levels theoretically within the range specified for the adventure he had chosen to run.
- Equipment seemed to be determined randomly, at least insofar as weapons for fighters, but he obviously had his own table for this.
- Any spellcaster had their spells randomly determined.
- Spells could not be relearned during the adventure because there were too many distractions. New spells could not be learned during the adventure for the same reason.
- Experience points were not earned because we were never going to be playing long enough to earn enough to go up in level.

Those were the main points. 

Anyway, I played two or three very frustrating sessions with him, learnt the game and DMed after that. He was actually good at running a game in a story sense but he had a limited grasp of the rules and an unwillingness to stretch himself to learn more.


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## delericho (Sep 29, 2013)

Scrivener of Doom said:


> Actually, online gaming (in the VTT sense) could fall into the _Flexible Working Hours_ section.
> 
> Before your games were scheduled around the ability of your physical group being able to meet. Now you can have a virtual group at 3am if that suits your regular dose of insomnia.




Damn, you beat me to it! For several years after we left university, our group had a standing appointment - we'd game every Saturday afternoon for 6 hours or so. As time went on, that group fell apart, and changes in lifestyle made that sort of a commitment impossible.

Now my current group makes use of a website to schedule our games, with people signing up to run games when they can, and people signing up to attend when they're available to do so.

The next step, I think (and something I'd _really_ hoped DDI could have pulled off with its Virtual Tabletop) would be to have a large worldwide network of games and gamers, so that a person could in theory get playing whatever he wants whenever he is available to do so.


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## delericho (Sep 29, 2013)

Radiating Gnome said:


> *Email is Primary Form of Communication >> Email is Secondary Form of Communication*
> 
> When I wrote a column about using Social Media alternatives like Facebook to communicate and organize your game group (taking advantage of event calendars and other functionality) the consensus response was pretty clear.
> 
> ...




I must have missed that column. Sorry.

Our primary means of organisation for the past few years has been our not-quite-Meetup site. Which has worked for us absolutely brilliantly - I probably would not now be gaming without it.


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## Radiating Gnome (Sep 29, 2013)

delericho said:


> I must have missed that column. Sorry.




LOL. No need for apologies for not having read an old column.  

At the moment, I've got two groups going -- one still organized by email (using the same Yahoo Group we've used for ten years or more) and the other organized with a Facebook group.  

In the end, the right answer is the one that works for your specific group, but there certainly are a lot more options today than there were 15-20 years ago.

-rg


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