music TV & Film games books food pubs science sport
Search Random post Register Login E-mail FT rss

July 5th, 2006

I WAS A GOBLIN: Schisms And Isms

A minor point of terminology:

In yesterdays’ comments I noticed a couple of references to rollplaying - whether this is a rediscovered bit of jargon or a spelling mistake I’m not sure, but it was a term actually in use in the 1980s, mostly as a derogatory sneer at D&D.

D&D, and every other game, called itself a role-playing game, because the player is adopting a character role. Those gamers who became disillusioned with D&D adopted rollplaying, or rule-playing, to jibe at the process- and dice-oriented style of gameplay D&D was supposed to encourage. There was no equivalent sneer in the other direction - presumably the ‘rule-players’ didn’t care.

Written by Tom on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 | 862 views |

Responses

  1. FT's Magnus on July 5th, 2006

    Spelling mistake. Oops.

  2. FT's stevietee on July 6th, 2006

    I realised this morning that I always read the title of this series in a Billy Bragg voice:

    I was a goblin
    I was a halfling
    I was a twelfth-level magic user
    before the War of Wrath…

  3. FT's mark sinker on July 6th, 2006

    the phrase “100-sided dice” fits the metre of the last line if you begin with an anapaest and accent the first “i”

 

Add a comment

(Register to guarantee your comments don't get marked as spam)