h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay, kats-eyes, GW7EN and I are looking to write a guide entry re: roleplaying games, but we need your input! Any takers?

I'm thinking that a timeline of creation, expansion, and development of RPG's should be included, at least in an abbreviated form. Any other suggestions?

To start a time line, I suppose that we have to start with Gary Gygax and the original Dungeons & Dragons. I had a friend in high school who's older brother had the original box set. How cool, eh?

No kidding! As far as I know, the original rules for Basic D & D haven't changed much, either. (Whereas AD&D is now, annoyingly, heading into it's THIRD edition. My god, if it ain't broke... And don't even get me started on White Wolf.)

Yeah, the timeline stretched out from there, into Warhammer, Ars Magica, and Cyberpunk, if I'm not mistaken. Then Palladium showed up, and expanded like the American Frontier with it's multiverse. The last major roleplaying games to come out were Shadowrun and the World of Darkness campaign world. Everything else has kinda sucked bricks.

hej folks, you were busy over the weekend, I see
I'll post a link to the thread on my page too, whatever good that'll do - Do we want to just introduce the big rule-sets, and make kind of an addendum of other games who basically follow the same rules only in other settings/multiverses? I don't have the basic D&D rules in originals, just a version which could be quite faulty... (AD&D I have, middleearth should be lurking somewhere and the rules of a basically german game, DSA (Das Schwarze Auge, the black eye that means)...) - should we keep to the games that developped as such, or include those that were shaped after some books/movies?

k*

I think that we should stick with what we know best. That way, we can all share our knowledge and expertise with each other. Or something like that.

Don't leave out all the wonderful video game rpgs - Final Fantasy 1-8 (not very final, eh?), the Legend of Zelda, Chronotrigger..etc... that list can go on and on and on....

I don't know - should we include all those too or just the ones where you have to sit around in a room, drinking to much, throwing crumbs all over the pituresquely drawn maps and occasionally throw a dice with far too many sides on it which always comes out at the unlikely numbers? btw - I have one of those adventures (AD&D) continuing by email and chat, we started in real life, but 2 players moved....

Having done both, there's much less difference than you might think, at least in terms of sitting around the room and drinking too much! The maps and dice are optional with the computer - although when I think about the maps I drew with Myst and Riven...

I think that we should stick with the dice games in this forum, and maybe discuss the computer versions in another. Any other thoughts?

agreed - not because I see much difference, but it would be so much more work to do! we do have an adventure here in h2g2 going, did you know? Jinx made the "sinking ship", and she's wonderful

I didn't know there was one on line. What fun!

Okay, so: we're sticking to dice games, and including a (basic) timeline of development. Regarding the rules sets, I think it depends on how specific we want to get in the article. We should probably include a description of how the rules usually work (i.e. - attributes, skill tests, how the dice system works, etc...), as well as some of the more popular games.

This may be a good time to ask... 1.) How much space do we have to write this thing, and 2.) How DO you get onto an online game?

Uh-oh... One more thing.

Just found out from Frink that there's already an official guide entry on role-playing. Just checked it out, and it's pretty complete. Do we want to continue?

No reason to stop this discussion, certainly. And we have as much room as we want. There are often multiple entries on the same topic anyway. This just won't be "official" is all.

I have three boxes of the original myself. And I've played my share of AD&D (2nd edition) with some friends of mine. We even slightly altered the rules for some added fun... Was great to do, too.

The PC-party was rather small (a Cleric, a Fighter and an elven Fighter-Mage) and the world was quite big, so our DM was a little flexible with the rules (he created his own worlds). We had more NPC's at our disposal than normally was to be expected, and the DM even allowed us to control one or two of them more directly than was normally intended.
You could say that the three of us played five characters.

Unfortunately the game came to an end when the DM moved out of town.

Have an original box set myself ( bought it when it was all there was. GOD, I'm getting old!!!)
Anyway would love to get in on this. Used to play with friends. Do advanced now with my teenagers and their friends.

I wish I knew some people right now to play the game with again. I'm old enough to have some teenagers myself, but alas, it never came to that. Ah well, there's still H2G2 to fill my empty hours with

Isn't it good that only the body gets old.
Ok, it sucks when the body gets old!
I was thinking about how ones mind/persona can be as young as one chooses.

Been hanging out in your closet, hope you don't mind.
Wondered if Annonymouse knew of your breeding senter, guess she does.
I'm a cat fan, too. I have but one. she is a mix, but looks just like a Russian Blue.
Her name is Ashes. She runs this house!

Good to meet you, see you 'round.

Luna

Hi Luna!

Yeah, it sucks when the body grows old, but it's a fantastic thing indeed, that our minds can choose at which stage they don't grow older anymore... I stopped growth somewhere around 10

Ofcourse I don't mind you stopping by at my closet. Nice having you around! Nonnie knows about my mice alright... She tried to mess it up, too!

Russian Blue are great, they are very choosy about who can get close to them. My mother once had a real RB But any cat is fantastic, actually. I have my house ran by cats, too. Makes life much more fun!
Mine are called Tommy and Pooky, both female

I'm sure we'll see more of eachother Luna, good to make your acquaintance.

The small groups can be the funnest. I'm in two games right now - alternating Saturdays. We have a ShadowRun campaign that has been going on for three years now that has five players - I'm the only original player left! Our AD&D campaign has been going for about two and we alternate between 4 to 8 characters, depending on what's happening in any given week. Fun bunch of folks! Skeleton, if either you or Luna ever make it to Denver, you're both welcome to sit in on a game, if you want to!

Thanx for the invitation, Gw7en!

However, flying in from holland would really be only a one-time experience. Not much to go on for an RPG-session, eh?