Tabletops on Desktops
There’s nothing like playing a tabletop roleplaying game with friends on a weekend after a stressful week of work, school and relationships. There’s a soul-soothing sensation to being able to ease into one’s own imagination and take on the role of a heroic character much like the person you always wished you could be. There’s something to be said about roleplaying games and the way they capture people’s imaginations the same way well written novels do but with an interactive flare not available in any other media. Tabletop RPGs allow gamers to socially interact with storytellers and contribute to stories as well as take on roles of characters in stories. For many people this is something strange but for those who are “in the know” there is an unspoken understanding of this phenomena. It can be addicting, engaging, uplifting and even enlightening. Recently there’s been a second boom in the tabletop RPG realm and it seems that more and more of the public is becoming familiar with tabletop RPGs. However, with so many out there to choose from, it’s difficult to get people to unify under one game system to actually play games regularly. Recently, a new phenomena has begun appearing in the tabletop RPG community: video conferencing. Even though video conferencing has been around for a while, only recently has it picked up in popularity amongst tabletop RPGers. Online gaming has been around a while as well but always lacked the flare of seeing people face to face. Real social interaction is important for capturing a lot of the emotion and subtlety of roleplaying. This leaves one to wonder where tabletop RPGs are headed. Obviously video games have improved with interactivity in MMORPGs and competitive FPS games and now it seems tabletop RPGs are improving with their ability to reach people outside normal social interaction and across the world wide web. It makes one think that soon the gaming genres will inevitably fuse together in cyberspace just as more and more other aspects of our social lives do from online dating to random chats. Until then, try to remember to bring your own dice to the table.
