Role-playing games are back

Pen-and-paper role-playing games have been undergoing a renaissance lately.

Rime Of The Frostmaiden.

Pen-and-paper role-playing games have been undergoing a renaissance lately as people look for more personal ways to connect with each other and share experiences distinct from their everyday lives.

Dungeons & Dragons, affectionately known as “D&D” to its fans, is the best known of these games. It has been going strong since it was first released back in 1974, and has been published by Wizards Of The Coast since 1997.

While the game initially peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, it has been undergoing a resurgence of late, partly initiated by its key appearance in the popular TV series Stranger Things and partly due to the game expanding its adventures beyond traditional High Fantasy tropes, a renewed focus on diversity and inclusion, and embracing the opportunities the internet presents, particularly for remote gaming.

Senior story designer Chris Perkins describes Dungeons & Dragons as “a game of collaborative storytelling” – an apt description – and its continued popularity has brought an ever larger group of players to the table from all walks of life.

Normally, there is an annual fan convention in Los Angeles but the COVID-19 pandemic rolled a critical hit against that plan, so the event was taken online in the form of D&D Live 2020: Roll With Advantage, which ran from June 19-21 (Australian time) via internet video streaming.

The event featured a range of virtual panels and most notably games featuring celebrities, comedians, and even WWE wrestlers. Among those drawing up character sheets for the event included actors David Harbour and Karen Gillan, wrestler Alexa Bliss and comedian Melissa Villasenor, as well as several members of the Game Of Thrones cast.

D&DLive - Social Post. Supplied.

Across the entire weekend, more than 6.5 million people tuned in to watch various elements of the event, including product reveals, panel discussions and live game adventures being run via video chat.

One of the big announcements from the event was the adventure Icewind Dale: Rime Of The Frostmaiden, set for release on September 15.

While the specifics of the new adventure are still under wraps, players have suggested that John Carpenter’s iconic 1982 horror film The Thing would be worth watching to help get them in the mood for it, with HP Lovecraft’s 1936 cosmic horror novella At The Mountains Of Madness also cited as an inspiration. Mr Perkins noted the themes of the adventure included paranoia, isolation, and secrecy.

For computer gamers – and unsurprisingly there’s a huge crossover between computer gamers and pen-and-paper role-playing game fans – there was extended gameplay from the anticipated Baldur’s Gate 3, which is expected to go into early access release around August.

Two highlights from a more general perspective were the virtual games featuring well-known players.

I particularly enjoyed the ‘Lost Odyssey” adventure featuring David Harbour, Brandon Routh, Karen Gillan and Pom Klementieff, with Mr Perkins as the Dungeon Master (narrator) and the ‘Cast of Thrones’ adventure featuring Game of Thrones actors Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Natalia Tena (Osha), Daniel Portman (Podrick), Kristian Nairn (Hodor) and Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy) with game designer Kate Welch as the Dungeon Master.

It’s another game with Ms Welch guiding a band of comedians through an adventure was also particularly entertaining too.

D&D is one of those things that’s usually more fun to play than to watch, but the way the streams from D&D Live 2020 came together so well is a good example of how the game has evolved into a pop culture cornerstone with widespread and well-deserved growing appeal.