The advent of the internet was a lifeline for old school gamers. All of a sudden it was easy to find fellow enthusiasts. It could be 1983 forever. Online gaming was a major force in fostering the old school movement. However, just like anything, online gaming has its challenges for people interested in older games. Even if you don’t care for older games or editions, most of the points in this article should be applicable to all online gaming.
ADVANTAGES
LIFE SUPPORT — Many adult gamers wandered away from rpg’s for a while. They were kinda occupied getting educated, working, and starting their families. However, their love for the games never went away. Online gaming through virtual tabletops (VTT’s) allowed them to keep the older games alive. Without geographical limitations, it was much easier to fill a table.
NO LEARNING CURVE — Odds are that most of your players will know the rules system as well as you do, maybe better. You’ll still need to occasionally look up a rule or spell effect. However, you won’t be starting from zero in most cases. This can help you get up and playing faster.
CAMARADERIE — Ever meet someone from your hometown when you are away? It’s great to talk about all the old stomping grounds and hear how Charlie’s Pizza finally closed (I’m still sad). Online gaming provides that sort of rapport in the gaming area. Pursuing a niche hobby can be a lonely affair, and online connections are one way to alleviate that isolation
BUT…
There are some concerns and challenges that come with old school, online gaming.
GROUP CHALLENGES — If you are running a game for older adults, well, they often have responsibilities beyond those of a college student. Often folks will not be able to make it because they have family, work and schooling commitments. Sometimes you can even go a month or two without getting enough players. Curse you adult responsibilities!!! (Shameless plug: A backup game can help with this. Go read about it here.)
OBSCURE GAMES — No one can guarantee that you will find enough players for EVERY old school game. Cyborg Commando will be a hard-sell whether you are online or face-to-face. Star Frontiers? Maybe.
STAGNATION — While it’s great to play the old games, stagnation may be a concern. Many people avoid newer games because of different, often more complex, rule systems. In all honesty, I do as well. We stay with the older systems, because even if they have quirks, at least we know where they are. However, it still might be good to occasionally try something different. It’s like an artist trying a different medium once in a while. It helps once you get back to your preferred medium. My watercolors are much better for my graphite sketches.
NOT GROWING THE HOBBY — None of us has any responsibility to grow the hobby. We should play what we enjoy period. Supporting rpg companies is great, but not a requirement. That being said, old school gaming could become a bit insular. Any outreach one can make to bring new players to the hobby will help keep the player base large for the future. Plus it helps us share the joy we find in the hobby.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The internet is a major player in keeping old school games alive. It is easier than ever to find players, and many retro-clones are helping keep the old rules systems up and running. However, there are still a few things to keep in the back of your mind if you are running an old school game.
How about you? What are your experiences with online old school gaming? Are we just a bunch of geezers babbling about coloring our dice? Or does the internet help us broaden our experience of all gaming, including old school systems? Let us know below.
I keep wanting to try and get a few of the old players together online to do some of the old stuff we used to play, but I suspect time zones and family/work restraints will scotch it pretty quick.
Black Campbell, don’t give up on the online game. It’s not as dire as it sounds. And if you are willing to blend some new people into your campaign, it just may work.
Keep on trying! I’ve been running online for about six years now, and sure, the player roster has changed. Some folks move on, or their schedules get in the way. But new folks have joined. I’ve been very lucky with my players.
Tell me about it. I’d love to run a game with my old mate Paul (in the UK) and a newer web-only mate Paul (somewhere in Australia).
I am, of course, running on East Coast time.
So: When I convene a game on Sunday at noon, Paul is juggling his game stuff while eating his Sunday dinner, and the other Paul is fast asleep in the early hours of Monday morning.
Not only that, I can’t shake the suspicion that because Aussie Paul is almost a day ahead, he’ll already know what the outcome of the game is before we’ve convened it.
It is all very trying.
This article is pretty off base in almost all of the supposed negatives. This seriously leads to me to question if this person has ever played online.
Seriously? The only “off-base” comment in the disadvantages section I could identify was the one about avoiding new games because they have more complex rules.
My personal observation is that the last two generations of RPG (and perhaps more noticeably board) gamers have been raised to be so functionally illiterate as to preclude complex rules in any product that a game company wishes to sell well. The odd exception seems to be card-based gaming, in which the participants seem to glory in the most fiendish complexity and more power to their elbows.
That is, of course, a swingeing generalization, but no-one could look at, say, fourth edition D&D and claim it represented a *more* complex game than AD&D or Traveller any more than one who has played (and enjoyed) old school Avalon Hill games could entertain claims that Mansions of Madness is “a complex game”.
At least, not with a straight face.
The rest of what Mr Fredericks said about group challenges, obscure games and not growing the hobby seem spot on from where I am sitting, and apply to gaming in general, no matter the medium in which play takes place, in my opinion.
The internet (or more specifically the world wide web) widens the search field for possible players, but adds in complications a-plenty peculiar to the medium: unexploded lunatics masquerading as sane gamers waiting to detonate mid-game, wildly disparate time zones screwing with energy levels “at table”, serious language issues – these are just the most obvious I could recall.
I do know that play-by-forum-post games are cursed: every single one I’ve been involved with (including one I convened myself) fell apart very early on in the process, and in each case it was the GM who baled (yes, me too) usually citing lack of available time but in one memorable occasion just vanishing into the silence.
Of course, everyone’s mileage may vary, and I sincerely hope everyone else’s is better than mine (though people rarely believe me when I say that).
Thanks for the good words, Roxysteve. I really liked the additional thoughts you added to the article as well, all great points. Well articulated as well.
Thanks again.
(Just quick side note: The link to the backup game article is non functional)
One of the other draw backs to old school gaming I’ve encountered a few times is some of the expectations the group has for the style of campaign isn’t always met by GM, (The group expecting an old school dungeon crawl when playing AD&D and getting more of an interaction based campaign;) So it’sw worth having a short conversation before hand to mange any discord that might otherwise arise.
Silveressa, I’ve hit this too. Different players and GM’s have different expectations and may not stick with a game long term. That’s fine. And you are right that having the discussion beforehand may help head that off.
Agree, but that is a problem endemic to RPGs in general, not just “Old School” RPGs. Some newer game systems head this off by either tightly themeing the game (e.g. Serenity/Firefly) or by incorporating The Talk into the character/world generation (e.g. Dresden Files, A Song of Ice and Fire).
In my opinion.
I think the internet has tremendously boosted the ‘old school games and gamers’ For me it has given me access to games I would never have encountered before, not just small indie publishers, but also more mainstream companies. Whilst there are dedicated software packages for running RPG’s just about anyone with Google + or Skype can participate in games without needing any more than a webcam. The only draw back I have ever encountered is that sometimes the tech gets in the way of the game: internet lags, webcams screwing up etc. One only has to watch some games on Twitch to see that happening 😉
The caveat about player expectation, short vs campaign is a valid one, but it always was, regardless of wether technology was involved.