?Pen & Paper <-> Mouse & Screen?

[Merdarion]

I for myself don\'t know what is the \"Better Way\" of role playing. On the one hand the Pen & Paper RPGs have big advantages (Like sitting together drinkin\' coffee), but on the other hand it\'s very hard for the DM to be completly fair (And to make the players think that he\'s fair| I just rember someone saying: \"Hey your\'re unfair, i loose each time\" and storming off, just because his try to climb a wall failed the third time). The MMORPGs lack of direct communication (you don\'t typ in so much, you would say) and the feeling of playin\' with \"real persons\", but there are no questions about fairness.
So what do you think is the \"Better Way\"?

[Androgos]

Personaly, I think it\'s up to the invidual.
I prefer IT games online, since you can assemble so many people around the world and buid a secondary \"real\" world.

I don\'t agree with the typing though. I would say that you type a lot of things here, since you have to role play a character, you can\'t just demand that everybody knows you, without introductions, NPCs, quests, groups and stuff like that a game would be quite boring. Text brings all those things to life and open for us to implement and for you to complain at

That\'s just my 2 tria\'s

[leji]

You forgot the best advantage ever with paper RPG, it\'s the freedom.
If you want to crush open a door in a village, you can... whereas, online, if the devs didnt design the inside of the house, the door will be totally unbreakable..
You can also create your own spells, imagine the effects, design a sword, write things on it. On the net you can only use the ones the devs designed and so on... to me paper RPG will always be the best ones.
On the other hand, internet enables us to gather large number or people and create a \"real\" community, with many fascinating sides (such as guilds)... but this will never compensate the lack of freedom with the computers, in my opinion of course

[Kiva]

I\'d chose P&P anytime, however I like having loads of real people in the world at the same time, and not just the same small 4-man adventurer group. But I guess you have to take the good with the bad. Can\'t have it all.

[Phinehas]

I never had the joy of playing pen and paper RPGs. I want to, but there\'s no one to do it with. So I\'d have to say computer games are better, in my sitation at least.

[Seytra]

The beauty of online games is that you can play even when you are scattered over the world, which you can\'t in PnP. However, I think the constant typing that needs to be done is annoying (at least to me), because it takes a lot longer than speaking and also is more work, which means that I\'ll be doing less of it. Anyway, obviously flexibility in todays computer games is very limited, which is a drawback, but OTOH they can provide much more pre-designed stuff than the PnP GM can, as well as meeting many more ppl (which can also have drawbacks as you can\'t get rid of annoying ppl. as easily as in PnP). Also, there are nice graphics, which PnP tends to lack. So I see them as serving different purposes, so that a combination of both is a good way IMO.

[rorian]

Personally, I have never had the oportunity to really play D&D or any other PnP game   (well, once when I was young but it never really took off).   I hear a lot of cool stories from friends who used to play PnP all the time...

On the other hand, I have a lot of fond memories of MMORPGs.

Now, here are a couple of ideas:
Regarding having to type a lot - Teamspeak (google it) is a very nice, relatively low-bandwidth chat program - it allows voice-activated talk and required about 2kb/s up, 2-3kb/s download speeds and near telephone quality.   Also, a friend just suggested \"Ventrillo\".   Because PS itself has such low bandwidth usage, I think it would be quite possible to run a voice-chat program along side it, even on 56K.

As for having the ability to design your own weapons etc.. perhaps for a lot of Tria, you could upload an image to be made into a texture for a generic weapon model, and uploaded to everyones client (either with the psupdater program or when they view it in game).   The only problem with this is it would put load on the artists to create these custom textures (depending on how much it costs of course).   It would also raise issues such as some clients having un-available textures, I think you would have to have the ability for the server to send new textures in-game.

[ForteX]

I like both, they are quite different. I usually play some PnP with my friends on the weekends (Exalted, pretty fun system) and when I\'m alone I play mmo\'s. I like the fact that the other characters are controlled by players, gives a better roleplay ambient (unless they are annoying... and keep saying things like \"STFU! Giv money to me u *** u hav a lot of money I want free stuff, heal me, plz gimme money\") since it is easier to visualize what the GM/dev wanted to show. Sometimes it is very hard to understand what the hell the DM means... specially when he tries to draw it and you still can\'t understand. MMOs are massive, PnP is more private, I like both  but I believe I like MMOs better. One fact that kinda ruins PnP is when the DM has to talk with a particular player and you stay there waiting with nothing to do. That doesn\'t happen in MMOs.
I was playing Guild Wars, for example, the fast-paced action combined with interesting quests were a lot of fun. I guess it pretty much varies from player to player. I have to agree that PnP gives almost unlimited freedom, which is probably one of the best things about it.

[Myrtl]

They both are equal in my opinon

[XpYtZ]

I prefer paper to video in most cases, however now that I am ?all grown up? my friends and I do not have the ability to just go over to each others houses and play whenever we feel like it. I think that video RPGs fill the void left by that. Also they make it so that I can meet and RP with people from all over the word. The only things that V-RPGs would need to make me happy are voice chat (so I don?t have to type every damn thing) and some way of filtering out the folks that are obsessed with leveling and being the ?leetest? and ?pawning?. All the campaigns I played on in PnP I never once found a legendary item and I think that V-RPGs make it to easy to come by something amazing.

[Merdarion]

I used to like P&P (actually I do like it) but my group has become a pack of puberteral scum. For example when I say \"A cold breeze runs trough the room. The tavern apruptly becomes quiet. A young sorceress ste-\" some player interrupts me and says \" I **** her!\" OK they are fourteen ,but they don\'t do any role playing they just talking about sex, while a guy (me the DM) tries to tell them a story. And after that they make jokes about me. But another Question. What do you think is the best campaign Setting (Greyhawk, The Forgotten Realms, etc.) I for myself really like DSA (Very famous in Germany, less famous in Austria, and outta there nobody knows it. DSA is the short form of \"Das Schwarze Auge\" which means as much as \"The Black Eye\".)

[Typhorean]

I personally prefer PnP, but rarely get the chance to arrange a run.  When I was younger, though...I played all the time.  While on the subject of PnP, though, I just have to share...
\"Can you heal him, phyldenn?\"
\"Damnit, Jim, I\'m a magician, not a doctor!\"

Pen and paper RPGs have something that computer games lack, while the reverse can also be applied.  I think it\'s just a matter of personal preference, although I see that most people on this thread agree with me.

[Adeli]

IMHO: Pen and Paper, hands down.
I like the freedom, to do whatever your GM/DM will allow. It adds such an amazing element to it.  No restrictions from coding or anything, you be whoever/whatever, look like whatever you want. So much freedom (unless the GM is an anally retentive jerk).
The sole advantage of electronic... it\'s easier to get together an play, as no one has to leave home if they have a capable PC.

Ever play a PC game, where you and another elf sneak into a tavern in a place where elves are hated, one by pretending to be an old lady, and another by acting like a madman with a bell, stick and a scarf around his head.

My friend was the woman, I was the madman... My GM made me act like a fool until I left the town.
That\'s something impossible on a PC

[Merdarion]

You could try to shout around madly (Won\'t recomend it ) on Hydlaa Palza. But You\'re right. I myself had some funny hours (Trying to persuade a dwarf of not trinking alcohol, Using water arrows to take out a torch which enlighted an orc cave then shooting stolen orc arrows in the mass of orcs killing a lot (inclusive Leader) then watching the pack of orcs killing each other --> facit: One survived, realized that it was me who shot the arrows came up to me and died just a meter before me because a torch from above fell on his Head (I was badly wounded, playing an elf->getting cathced by orcs->getting tortured->playing a trick on warden).
I also enjoyed it to be DM \'till my group got mad!

[Cohdra]

Pencil and Paper:

My hubby and I have been running/designing a Fantasy campaign for about 16 years.  We have created our own system...the rules were created in such a way that makes it difficult for a DM to show any kind of bias towards a particular player.  We have not been playing much in the last few months due to RL issues, but hope to resume soon.

MMORPG\'s, I believe, have gained in popularity because most people simply do not have the time to develop a campaign world, write/learn modules, etc.

Any DM on here could probably tell you how difficult it can be to come up with enough material for 1 or 2 games a week; Not an easy task, especially for a good DM.

I use MMORPG\'s to fill in the gaps when I don\'t have enough time or people to game traditionally.

It is possible to run private games on the internet. I do believe there is software that they have created that will roll dice, etc   This is a good option for those that prefer a more traditional gaming experience but lack people to play with.

Incidentally, some MMORPG\'s are so bad, that I find it impossible to believe that the designers have ever played traditional games, designed them, or ran them.  I have not played \"PlaneShift\" yet, so I have no idea; except the comments I\'m reading on this board sound really positive.  I think it\'s awesome that they are creating a free gaming world on their own time.

I\'m referring to my experience with ACDM.   I find it hard to believe the Devs for this game have any traditional gaming experience..it just keeps getting worse.  So, I\'m shopping around right now, trying to find something better.  

PnP rules.....but MMORPG\'s fill in the gaps nicely