I have 3 dice game rulebooks from The World of Darkness sitting right in front of me, and one rulebook for a live action roleplay game for Werewolf: The Apocalypse. I always think of dice style games first when I hear RPG.

Rocket Propeled Grenades? I don't ever recall having confused RPGs with games of any kind. :)

Because those are more popular

Well to differentiate them from console games these days, Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire the Masquerade or Shadowrun are now termed as table top RPG's. I don't think it's people not knowing that those exist though, on Anserbag specifically, I think it's more an issue of not knowing in which section to go. I mean, there actually isn't ANY RPG section in the video game sections here, or any other gaming genre category, unless it falls under the name of a specific game, like Final Fantasy, but that "table top" seems elusive as a term to most may make them think the RPG section here is about video games. They should change that. :/ Especially since the video game section doesn't have one, though I must admit, slight inspection would clear things up for those confused about it. Still, I made the same mistake when I first came here lol. But no, they've not been erased, I still have my character sheet for my wizard somewhere, she was on level 16, and I just totally wasted things with puny Magic Missiles I was starting to have a near unlimited supply of lol. >_> I also had a Thri-kreen. That was awesome, I could jump like twenty feet in the air. This was in the Darksun realms or something-people living there never heard of metal, so all our weapons were made of wood, bones or rock, and I had these specifically Thri-kreen devised axe things, or could hit someone four times in a row without the weapons, since I had all those arms lol. I also had a Bariaur, and at one point even had some kinda demon, when we were playing in some sort of hell plane. You know like, with the seven layers, and they speak Infernal and Abysmal...there was some weird queen with a face made out of metal or something that ruled one of the levels, and just looking at her, we had to make a saving throw against like, going crazy or something. Also, the lord of that whole place gave us jobs to do for him, like kill certain people, and we did it for a while though after we escaped out of this realm, and like, three or four D&D sessions later, some of his wizards found us and totally wasted us-it was the end of the campaign lol. I forgot what the name of the race I was, but I had hoofs. And my hair had shifting lights in it. :D And it was the only character that I was able to use a katana with, since otherwise we played in Waterdeep or some other common and generic katana-less place.

I always think of rocket propelled grenades when RPG is mentioned. The Viet Nam war planted a lot of new words and meanings in our heads. This one stuck in mine.

Rifts!! NE heard of it I started out on D&D, then Rifts and Vampire the Mas.

Pretty much, but I still hear of people playing the old fashioned pen and paper ones, though now they're modernized into computer games and console games and given automated dice roll. Though it's funnier to play the pen and paper version because in the computerized ones, you just can't say "I Balthazar, pick up that chair and *rolls dice* *mutters 2* do 2 damage to Lord Mordok's face! And for splinter damage... *rolls dice* *mutters 4* do 4 damage to everything in a 3 foot radius".

I think for the most part it's gone, but there always will be the hanger oners that enjoy playing it the old-fashioned way.

It's not just an Answerbag phenomena. Far more people play computer or console RPG's (CRPG's) than ever played tabletop or PnP (Pencil and Paper). Probably by at least an order of magnitude. However, unlike 8-track or Beta, PnP is alive and well, and arguably superior to CRPG's (though I play and enjoy both). I tend to follow a fairly simple rule when trying to guess (assuming no other clues) which a person is referring to. Unless I'm on a site specifically catering to non-electric gamers, I'm going to assume RPG means CRPG. Of course, if discussing weaponry, it's probably a Rocket Propelled Grenade. The multiple uses of RPG can lead to some odd conversations at times.

well to answer that you got to think its like fashion trends they come and go i have played the original 1st edition dungeon and dragons 2nd 3rd 3.5, vampire the masqurade,rift wars, car wars, they are just not availiable like they use to be i had every book to every one mentioned above and some off shoot series RPG's i gave it all away one day just wasnt interested in it anymore moving can do that and quality of people for DM's specially the good ones hard to find they got to have story telling heritage i think so they can hold you spell bound plus pnp took time and preperation and it is more fast paced world these days btw i play vanguard saga of heroes online now and loving it i went through most online rpg's also usually played them until they just faded away. so yes i would say they are almost faded away they wil be around for a while longer but just not as popular as they use to be one old gamer peace

I do not assume that, wizards is probably making quite a bit of money on Dungeon's and Dragons. They have conventions, game days, and one can find means to play online via virtual desktop programs (http://forums.rptools.net/viewforum.php?f=19). So, to answer the question, no, they have not faded and are still in wide use.

I hope that never happens. People are more likely to be talking about the RPGs that are played on the computer but I tend to find the tabletop ones infinitely more satisfying. With computer games, there are only so many options for what a character looks like, much less any actually original characters. It's never the same game twice either, which I adore. The people sitting around the table tend to be friends, which tends to rule out the creepy stalkers and other creepy people category. I can't really discount the computer ones, because that would be hypocritical in the extreme. As one of the few girls in the gaming world, I feel obligated to admit that I play Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. I like the lore of and have installed World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade. But that usually is only when I'm really bored and have nothing better to do. And no, I do not have the expansion, because there really isn't a point in getting it when you have such low-level characters.

Hmmm... when is the last time you played a pen and paper rpg?

Yes. PnP's are pretty much out. What I mostly remember about them was those interminate waits (and heated discussions) when the game-master calculated the outcome of battles and spells. Booring.

It is a natural progression for the younger and less experienced to presume it refers to computer role playing games, regardless of the status of RPGs in general. It is just like telling your 12 year old to leave me a message and they will automatically presume texting to twittering or leaving a status on Facebook when you meant to call and leave a message. Pen and Paper (PnP) RPGs are alive and well. Wizards of the Coast released Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition a little over a year ago, which was met with mixed and fervent reviews (both good and bad). Paizo released a variant of D&D called Pathfinder this month at GenCon, and annual gathering of 40,000+ gaming geeks in Indianapolis every summer. This game was met with amazing fanfare, news media interviews, and their book is currently in the top 400 on the Amazon sales chart. This is still not in the same vein as World of Warcraft, whose 12 million subscriptions is a phenonenom of a different sort. The fact that WoW has an illegal gold-for-cash business going on (gold farmers) is its own strange circumstance. I expect that both computer and pen and paper will continue, although it stands to reason that unless pen and paper games digitize in some format with electronic aids, it will eventually go the way of the dodo.

Not in my neighborhood. There are many table-top RPG groups who play in each other's homes. Some even band together in larger groups and play at the local library and at certain game stores. I know guys who prefer the table-top games over the computer games saying the computer games are boring and not social enough.

It's DND.....never kissed a lady before!

I always think of Dice games when RPG comes up and usually hand in hand with LARP, but these days everyone is big on computers and its the automatic assumption that you are in the 'now' crowd. Not me! But for the most part yes Dice and paper has been reduced to the remaining people who have an imagination beyound point an click.

My husband played Advanced DND 2nd Ed when he was younger, myself, my husband, and our kids just started playing it together with the multi-sided die, and pen and paper, ordered the older books from ebay, we also play final fantasty on playstation, but I like the old school way of playing it.