Interesting thought:
Back in the OD&D through B/X and the beginnings of 1E, back before Ravenloft and Dragonlance unleashed the potential of actual storytelling and logic for roleplaying games, the games were not that far from boardgames that you could play without the board, but often used a ‘board’ (map) anyway. The biggest difference between D&D of that era and boardgames were that the ‘board’ was optional for players to interact with, even if that made combat less tactical. (Lots of TotM back then, even if you were collecting a decent number of miniatures. Ironically, the spirit of the game was meant to be tactical since it was born of wargaming.)
Think about it: If you were just doing the ‘ol “kill the monsters, steal their loot” thing, then movement happened according to a map (almost a game board), you had combat using dice, and you recovered a certain amount of treasure for having done so. And while there was a greater latitude of things any particular ‘token’ can do, players almost always defaulted to a relatively predictable list of actions: search for traps; search for secret doors; attack; talk; take loot; run away…
Miniatures have always retained some of that flavor (tokens on a game board), especially the tactical side (chess, anyone?), but I feel like VTTs have officially made it come full circle back to almost being a board game again. Hell, the tokens on the VTT ‘game board’ are literally called “tokens”! The players move their tokens around the map, encounters may be dealt with by dice rolls, and there is often loot of some sort.
I’m thankful, though, that roleplaying and logical storytelling since Ravenloft and Dragonlance have continued to be a major part of modern roleplaying. I know some tables still stick with the dungeon-crawl for killing and loot only type of game, and that’s fine. I’m only speaking for my preference.
It’s just interesting to think of how so much of the mechanics of the game are like a really complicated board game, how much VTTs and their interface encourages that mentality, but that, ultimately, what makes D&D different from a board game is what the players and DM bring to the table…whether that table is literal or virtual. You make the difference.
What are your thoughts? Tell me below.
Heh. When I started (about 1982), I could only dream of having miniatures. But the idea of moving around a board – and drawing it based on the DM’s descriptions – was very real. Although, of course, D&D has always been more than that.
It’s one of the things that I find very different about my VTT play today compared to the old days – there’s no-one mapping; it’s the DM revealing the dungeon. (Much like my face-to-face play for the past decade). I guess the players could map themselves based on DM descriptions, but I don’t think it’d be great on the VTT when you have so many other tools at your disposal.
Agreed.