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Mark Buetow
United States
Du Quoin
Illinois
Best game company ever?
GMT Games, of course!
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You can't limit the questing imagination to the mere contents of an adventure game's box. Read on to see what I mean.
It was late in my high school years and I was hanging out at a friend's house when I noticed he had a copy of Talisman sitting there. I asked if I could borrow it. Several years before, in the gaming career of my late elementary and middle school years, I had received Talisman and played the heck out of it. When I played it again these several years later, however, it just didn't strike me as really great fun as it once was. Fast forward to today. A friend of a friend has the newest version of Talisman. We played once. It was, frankly, dull. How come? Have I outgrown it? Is it the mere case of "you can never go back" to the magical feeling of when you first played an epic game like that? That's probably part of it. But answer is really this: Talisman isn't really fun for me because we play roleplaying games (RPGs).
A few years back, at a big sale at a Barnes & Noble, I grabbed a copy of Return of the Heroes. The first time we played it, it was fairly interesting. Though my daughter really enjoys it, subsequent plays haven't generated any excitement for me. Why is that? Well, like many of these games, once you've seen the monsters and quests and things, you anticipate them and know what's coming, if not always in the same order. Besides, our regular group had embarked upon some adventures playing Dungeons & Dragons (4th Edition). Even though we were using a published module (H1: Keep on the Shadowfell) the adventure unfolded according to the actions of the players, generating a tapestry of unscripted action and humor.
I run a Tuesday gaming group with some teens at a local library. Included in our gaming was some more D&D 4E (a homebrew campaign that has faded) and some Tunnels & Trolls (7th - 7.5 Editions). After diving headlong into the hobby, one of the guys, Josh,(fonebone10) said he wanted to GM a game of Call of Cthulhu (2nd - 6th Edition). We began with some of the stock adventures included in the book and recently finished a short adventure which Josh had written himself. I recall one of the coolest parts of one of the stories. We were headed up into the attic of a house. One of the kids' characters was about to peer up in there when he was grabbed and pulled up. In a moment his body was flung back down to the floor, a hole where his heart had been! The player was stunned. We were all shocked. It was hilarious and freaky at the same time. Cthulhu is an easy RPG and a creepy sort of fun (attended by all the campy RPG jokes that are typical of a group). So when my regular group (includings kids of my main gmaing buddy) got a copy of Arkham Horror they really loved it but I didn't. I've played one full game. To be honest, I didn't read the rules myself so part of my play was that I was being pulled along by others who knew what they were doing. Yet the game was fairly predictable: they directed us as to what we should do and the monsters they encountered in multiple playings they already knew how to handle. It was a bit of rote dullness as a game experience. Why? Because I've played the RPG which has limitless possibilities!
In expressing my thoughts here on the genre of the "adventure/quest" game, I don't mean to disparage any of those games. They are fine games. Back in the day I loved Dungeon!. I've never played Descent: Journeys in the Dark, or Runebound (First Edition), or Prophecy. And I don't think I'd really want to. The fact is, adventure games with a board and a finite pool of cards and encounters just aren't that fun for me. (And, let's face it; expansions just give a bump of interest and are too soon a known quantity). When you first play, they are interesting because you haven't seen everything yet. After that, they become for me exercises in tedium as you go through the material in a mechanical fashion. In a roleplaying game, the possibilites are endless and the story is going to unfold much differently and with a whole different atmosphere at the table. (An exception might be something like DungeonQuest (third edition) which is not an attempt at "serious" adventure but a lighter version of the theme for laughs).
We all have our favorite genres of games. I love epic fantasy and sci-fi. When it comes to enjoying the "adventuring" game, I find I am drawn to the roleplaying experience as the best way of enjoying the "quest." And that's speaking as one who pretty much does all the GMing! The fact is, for certain themes, RPGs are the better choice for creating the "narrative" that every good game should create. After all, one of the best parts of the hobby is the ability to retell the events of a game. Sometimes it's as mundane as "Hey, Grandma, remember that time we crushed Grandpa and Dad because I had that doulbe-marriage in Pinochle?" Other times it's more action packed as in "Remember that time that Smythe ran throught the German trenches with that flamethrower?" Sometimes it's the epic tale of a bad die roll. "Remember when the party was approaching the gate quietly and Kragnok rolled a '1' on his stealth check? 'Kragnok! Stop banging the pots and pans!'" Games are fun because they make memories from which you can tell good stories. And RPGs by nature do the best job of this, in my opinion. (Pehaps what finally spurred me to write this post, which has been percolating in my mind, is that we've just begin a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game campaign using the Serpent's Skull Asventure Path.)
I guess, in some sense, those adventure games constricted by a familiar deck don't spark my storytelling imagination like a good RPG session does. That's not to say that all boardgames lack this ability. (One of those examples above comes from Combat Commander: Europe which paints vivid pictures of battle.) It's not even to say that those of you who like those games aren't able to tell stories from what happened. It's just me. Just my opinion. I prefer the open-ended "undiscovered country" of a good RPG to the limits of an adventure game constrained by what's in the box. Sometimes, the box is too small. It can't contain all the amazing possibilities that an RPG opens up.
So how about you? Do you like adventure games? Have you taken it to the next level and played an RPG? Is there room in your gaming universe for both or do you prefer one over another? Of course it's great we have all kinds of games both board and RPG. The hobby is richer for having both types. But my own experience is richest in those particular settings when we're roleplaying.
I'll play an adventure or quest game with my daughter or my friends although they're not my cup of tea. But set up the GM screen, get out the polyhedrals and crack open a well-written module and we are transported to a world where anything is possible and an epic saga will be written and told. And that's epic fun!
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