RPGs: Boards, Boxes, & Cards
Posted on Feb 1, 2010 | 0 comments
In June 2008, Dungeon and Dragons: 4th edition was released and, love it or hate it, was a revolution in Roleplaying. D&D 4e brought new conventions from board games and collectable card games into Roleplaying. The new D&D emphasises miniatures and tactical maps.
At the end of last year, November 2009, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay upped the ante, with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd edition. The game is a huge box set with D&D 4e style action cards, Talisman style character cards, and special dice.
It seems that the big game companies are attempting to make our hobby more accessible. Do box sets and fancy dice make RPGs more accessible? Green Ronin’s new box set, Dragon Age RPG, seems show that they think so, but I remember the Basic D&D box set. This isn’t exactly a new approach, so the real question is, will it work? The ICv2 Review didn’t seem to think so and the RPG.net Review was a little more reserved. I think it would be great if it did; I would love to see more people playing RPGs, but I doubt it.
It seems to me that the difference between RPGs and Board Games is not the addition of fiddly-bits, the cards, and the dice; rather it is in the casual vs. campaign style play. Most Board Games are one off experiences. You play once and when that game is over, it is over. If you want to play next week, you play the game again. It is a series of evenings, playing games while most RPGs are a serial experience; you play one game that continues from session to session. Series versus serial Gameplay is the gap they’re trying to jump and I guess we’ll see if they’re jumping in the right direction.
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