Roleplaying in the 80s

TristramEvans · November 02, 2013, 12:22:42 PM

THIS is pure liquid nostalgic.

I audibly groaned when I saw some of the awesome classic products on the shelves.

The part with 'frothers' (gamers who stop by game shops to talk about their characters) is hilarious. The games workshop guy was spot on when he said 'its like someone describing a movie to you that you have no interest in seeing'.

One surprising thing was the amount of girl gamers featured. For a hobby that was supposedly in a patriarchal dark age until the SJWs came along to war for inclusion, this news report doesn't seem to paint that picture.

Simlasa · November 02, 2013, 01:01:41 PM

Quote from: TristramEvans;704753One surprising thing was the amount of girl gamers featured. For a hobby that was supposedly in a patriarchal dark age until the SJWs came along to war for inclusion, this news report doesn't seem to paint that picture.

I never experienced that boys' club stereotype with RPGs back then. Our High School group was about half female and they weren't there because any of the guys were their boyfriends, they were just fantasy nerds like the rest of us.

dragoner · November 02, 2013, 01:37:01 PM

It was my sister and her friends that taught me D&D back in the late 70's.

TristramEvans · November 02, 2013, 01:41:04 PM

Quote from: dragoner;704771It was my sister and her friends that taught me D&D back in the late 70's.

Yeah, I was taught by a friend's older sister.

dragoner · November 02, 2013, 01:55:09 PM

Quote from: TristramEvans;704773Yeah, I was taught by a friend's older sister.

It was a pretty classic: "we need another player" situation and my sister volunteered me. Though I was already chess club and all that.

Shawn Driscoll · November 02, 2013, 05:31:15 PM

Few girls play Traveller compared to fantasy RPGs. That has always been the case. There were hardly any girls wargaming in the '70s. D&D had girl players from the beginning.

Gronan of Simmerya · November 02, 2013, 06:34:36 PM

The very first time I played D&D with Gary Gygax back in 1972 there was a young woman (college age) playing.

Her elf was already a Hero/Magician, so she'd been playing a while, too.

thedungeondelver · November 02, 2013, 06:52:40 PM

Girls, then later women, have gamed with the various groups I've been in pretty much from the start.

Iosue · November 02, 2013, 10:23:49 PM

Just to add to the pile on, an older friend introduced me to D&D. I borrowed his copy of Moldvay, went home, read it, and then ran a game for my sister. She then DM'd many of our games afterwards.

JeremyR · November 02, 2013, 10:33:59 PM

Quote from: TristramEvans;704753The part with 'frothers' (gamers who stop by game shops to talk about their characters) is hilarious.

These days, that sort of person talks about their fantasy football (or baseball) team.

While I can't say that I miss them, it shows how RPGs have shifted from being somewhat mainstream to niche

TristramEvans · November 02, 2013, 10:41:19 PM

Quote from: JeremyR;704827These days, that sort of person talks about their fantasy football (or baseball) team.

While I can't say that I miss them, it shows how RPGs have shifted from being somewhat mainstream to niche

Or thier 4th edition character builds. At least in the 80s when people droned on about thier imaginary alter egos you could understand what they were talking about.

ggroy · November 03, 2013, 12:24:15 AM

Quote from: TristramEvans;704753The part with 'frothers' (gamers who stop by game shops to talk about their characters) is hilarious. The games workshop guy was spot on when he said 'its like someone describing a movie to you that you have no interest in seeing'.

When I worked as a bartender, this type of customer behavior was quite common. The "frothers" rambled on just about any topic, whether politics, the weather, their day at work, troubles with kids and/or spouse, television shows, movies, their sex life or lack thereof, current events, popular music, etc ...

A part of many bartenders' jobs, is being an unofficial shrink. :rolleyes:

Just Another Snake Cult · November 03, 2013, 01:31:40 AM

I started gaming in 1981 in a Midwestern American college town, and I am very sorry to say that around here the stereotype was very true: Female gamers were extremely rare... until Vampire: The Masquerade at least doubled their numbers seemingly overnight in the early 90's.

Omega · November 03, 2013, 02:06:09 AM

When we weren't dodging D&D Witch Hunts... One of the early groups I gamed with had about 50/50 male/female ratio. When I was GMing D&D boxed it was an all girl crew. My two sisters and grandmother... aheh.

Ravenswing · November 03, 2013, 02:36:17 AM

The stereotype was true in a lot of places. I vividly remember a point when I was running a game at my alma mater (this being something like 1987). In talking with some of the freshmen who had joined one of my sessions and who were flabbergasted that I Had A Female Player!, I mentioned that historically, about a third of my players were women, that I'd never had a group that didn't have at least one female player, and that I'd had two all-female groups at varying points. The three's jaws dropped almost in unison, and they looked at me with the same reverent gazes that they might on some Superstud Surfer God, because obviously I had to be some sort of man among men to attract that much female attention.

The same thing held true at my FLGS, several years before. The fellow who ran the counter daytimes asked me what my secret was, once. I probably gave him some manner of bewildered "Huh?" and he went on to explain that I seemed to *always* come in there with a different woman. So what was my secret? It took me a bit of time to convince him that no, I hadn't been dating any of them, that they happened to be my friends, that most of my friends *were* women, and that I must have just shown up with a few separate friends who just happened to be women. I'm not sure I did convince him.