The Point - Tabletop vs. Gaming

Until we can actually construct the games ourselves this isn't going to happen.

I mean games are visual. They are consumer products. But tabletop games are not. You can have a guide and rules or anything but for any swapping of descriptions and development of the process, every single person sitting around the table will have a slightly different view of the world which they are creating for themselves.

Even if I was to say five guys are all sitting around a camp fire. Every single person will take that piece of information and draw a slightly different version of it. Five different characters, different locations, different situations.

But if you are inside a game, it will be a completely different story. Because everyone will need to see the same world if there is ever going to be any co-operative functionality. For five people to meet around a camp fire in a table top game you just have to say it, in a game you have to create a fire which has coordinates, and five spaces around it for the five people to meet.

It honestly sounds like this is one of those things that can only JUST be done with some of the higher uber science fiction around. Neural implants style and endless computing power.

Somehow I doubt Minecraft or even a vibrant MMO is going to cut it. There are simply too many restriction and not enough computing power in the world to pull off such a job. Unless someone has a way of actually creating the matrix, where rules can be bent to our will that is.

We have set up a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay team of 6 players in the past 2 years and believe me, the fun you can have in a RPG pen'n'paper session is not even comparable to playing a video-game. The laughs, the hilarious situations, the strange choices of the players... It's all so unpredictable and exciting that it's not even fair to compare it to Skyrim or Baldur' Gate or anything else. It is something unique. I recommend it to everyone who can find a few willing friends to try it.

I would always take tabletop over video games.

Table top games are actually what got me into gaming. I played D&D with my friends, and then got Baldur's Gate for the PC (for those evenings when we were not playing D&D). Now 13 years later, I still love both. Got a PS4 and XBone on preorder, but still play RPG four times a month.

TableTop gaming is actually something I've always wanted to get into, but none of my friends would be interested in anything like that. Does anyone know of ways to get connected with role-playing groups?

Thanks for the video, Johnny.

The timing is nice; I was just having a conversation with my housemate about this subject a couple of weeks ago. He and I both grew up with video games (he's 35, I'm 39) but he has plenty more experience with tabletop gaming than I do.

All of the tabletop gaming I did when I was younger was solo; a few publishers had created game-books based on the Lord of the Rings, and these books had their readers/players design a character to navigate their way through the story. Character parameters and battles were decided by rolling dice. Maps were included, and readers/players turned to specific pages to get descriptions of their environments -- as well as any items or enemies that might be found there. These were enjoyable books/games -- something of a scaled-back, text-based Skyrim.

My housemate, on the other hand, played the old D&D tabletop games with groups of other people -- and it was cool to hear how all of that worked. The creativity required from players in a situation where there are actual people to interact with (instead of a mere controller) gave the games a decidedly more "organic" feel than video games.

It is, after all, the goal of many developers to develop an AI system which makes players feel like they're dealing with real friends and enemies in their video games. With tabletop games, that isn't an issue: you've got real people to play and (hopefully) have fun with.

Tabletop gaming (especially D&D) was one of the "nerdiest" things a kid could do when I was growing up. Not only was it misunderstood and demonized by some parents (who believed their kids were participating in witchcraft), but it was also frowned-upon by the "cool" kids at school who mocked anything that involved reading or math. (Sports and popularity contests were "where it was at" for them.)

In hindsight, no one seemed to understand how awesome tabletop games were -- except for the people who played them. I wish I'd played more of them on a social level. Even the Magic: The Gathering matches I've played (on and off since 1993) have provided as many fun (and frustrating) memories as video games have.

I've played my share of PnP RPG's, but here are a couple of my favs:

For content, my favorite has always been RIFTS. It's sort of an "anything goes" kind of RPG when it comes to story lines and character classes, as it combines the whole of fantasy and sci-fi, and more. There are some great story lines, and RIFTS Earth provides a great catalyst for all of those supernatural/sci fi elements to meet. The downside is that the mechanics of the game were pretty lame, and required some heavy math at times.

For mechanics/gameplay, I give it up for the White Wolf universe, such as Vampire: The Masquerade, Mage, and Werewolf. A small but optionally expansive set of skills, relatively simple rolls and values, and a lot of room for improvisation makes it easy to pick up, understand, and play. I often use it's model to modify other RPG's I've played over the years.

Tabletop>>>video games
/thread

the point is when is your rpg coming out jonneh???

Playing RPGS on a LAN server is kind of like playing a tabletop games with your buds, with most the dice rolling aspects taken care of under the hood. I've had similar fun playing Neverwinter Nights with my brother, given that game is based on D&D 3.5. However, I will admit that tabletop games are hell of a lot of fun, and better interactive experiences that what most games will give you.

I miss tabletop gaming. As friends moved to other states I find that telecommuting my gaming experience has been far more miserable and disconnected as ever. Major thumbs up for the video, it made me nostalgic for the 'good ol' days'.

Holy crap, where did you get those awesome, metallic looking dice?

Great. Now I just have to find a bunch of these "friends" you're talking about. Whatever those are.

Me and my friends actually just started tabletop gaming about 2 weeks ago and even though some of us has no idea what we were doing it was still fun because we usually just laugh on our character interactions and mistakes and we wasted 5 hours just wasting away in the adventure.

I played my first game of Lords of Waterdeep with my girl last Friday on fun fungus and higher than giraffe fanny. Aside from Cards Against Humanity, it was easily the most fun card/tabletop/board game I think I've ever played. I played it again on Sunday and it was still fun moderately sober!

Grew up on both video games and table top games, particularly war strategy games like Risk and Axis & Allies, and RPGs like HeroQuest. It's only a matter of time before video games and table top games begin to crossover/merge; just look at the iPad (providing an electronic table top) and Skylanders (providing figures). I should create such a game...

I have been gaming for years, but have only gotten into tabletop games in the last year. For me, they are completely different experiences, and one couldn't fulfill the role of the other. I enjoy them both for different reasons, but the social aspect of tabletop games is what really does it for me, as Johnny says.

I'm a bit burned-out on PnP RPGs from a decade or so of them, but I still have fond memories of those times. On one occasion, when running a game of the Star Trek RPG, I left my crew chewing over a problem whilst I nipped to the loo. One of the players, needing some info, called out 'Computer?' without thinking, which told me I was doing something right!

The Almighty Dice still have me in their grip, though, but now it's WH40k and a side of Warmachine.

Nice job, Johnny :) Once I have friends as shamelessly nerdy as I am, I'll be sure to try tabletop gaming.

My wife and I have game nights with our friends. We never thought we would be one of those couples. But it's a lot of fun. I used to play Dungeons and Dragons 2e back in the 90's. Good times. Watching this kind of makes me want to go into the crawlspace and dust off the old books.

There is no way in the world Video Gaming can beat the entertainment , excitement , creativity of Tabletop RPG games with these developers.

Our only hope for now is "Project Spark" but its limited with the size they gave us. But creativity will be our own. But still tabletop will beat it.

And like Johnny said , every single person on this planet who claims to be a "GAMER" should at least try couple of sessions with a proper DM.

role a D12 for a journalism comment add +2 charisma points.

Nice Vid, Johnny! However you also forgot to mention card gaming in the list. I, too, was pulled away from video games for a time by a collector card game called: Magic The Gathering. I still play MtG at local shops now and then because it does offer a different style of down time other than online video games.

Screw yourself on twitter.

Fact: America has stolen your Danny.

Adding that to the Revolutionary War, and the tally is America 1, United Kingdom (of Buttheads) 0.

GO RED WHITE AND BLUE.

@moakie That can be solved by creating some sort of online dice roller that shows the result to everyone looking at the page, or something like that.
Some probably made something like that. If not, making one yourself is not that hard.

EDIT:
Here, I even found one for you. Don't know the gamespot rules about posting links so I won't, but if you google "rpg dice roller online multiplayer" it's the first result. You can open a "dice room" there, have your pals join and you can all see eachother's dice rolls. simple as that

That's why Local Co-Op will always beat any form or shape of network multiplayer and in this matter, tabletop does beat vídeo games. It is always better to have friends close and laugh out loud about something stupid.

Otherwise it is like each one opening a beer in their own houses and telling the others about it via skype...it seriously lacks soul.

If there were more 2 player table top games I'd be all for it, but other than my wife I really don't have friends. Work and School is most of my time, and the free time I do have is spent playing video games or doing something with music. You need to have a good pool of reliable friends to play table top, I have never been able to find a single friend that was seriously into table top gaming, must not exist in lower S.Cali.

I can't agree more. I was recently introduced to Don't Rest Your Head, and Dungeons and Dragons, and was amazed at how much fun it was to actually build my own story. With a bit of an imagination, and some good friends, it was really fun. I consider videogames to be a different category however, and I like both for different reasons. Sometimes you can't have everyone come over because of work/school/etc. so videogames are fun as well. I've never heard of Deadlands, but I'll certainly give it a try.

Johnny...Your a Legend. Always watch your show. Keep the sarcasm coming

I'd never played a tabletop RPG until Johnny introduced me, now he's the GM of our Deadlands campaign. Can confirm it's fracking great fun.