Mind's Eye Theatre
Here there be (figurative) Dragons.
In my article on Dungeons and Dragons, I mentioned other role-playing games, but only those published around the same time. Should D&D be the only RPG game in the list? That’s certainly an argument; but RPGs are so culturally dominant that it feels like more games deserve consideration.
But which ones?
There are settings that deserve an award. The World of Darkness (started by Vampire: The Masquerade) helped expand role playing from fantasy to modern day; added a focus on intrigue and politics, and broadened the appeal of role playing games . Sure your favorite RPG was great, but did it get produced as a TV series?1
Vampire the Masquerade rode the upsurge in vampire interest; it didn’t make vampires suddenly popular again2, Anne Rice did. But it probably helped a bit, at least in gaming circles. Most RPGs latch onto a setting instead of creating it; but the best add and expand to the mythos. Cyberpunk (the game) clearly borrowed from Cyberpunk (the genre), but it also invented Johnny Silverhand, portrayed by Keanu Reaves in the videogame and accurately portrayed violence, with one-shot-kills and loss of limbs instead of magically replenishing hit points.
Similarly “Broody vampires” was already a thing, but Mark Rein-Hagen’s Vampire the Masquerade built a mythos on top of the framework that existed, and explicitly stated that RPGs were not only “Man vs Nature” or “Man vs Environment” but “Man vs Self.” In an audacious marketing move, White Wolf games put a multi-page rip-out-insert into gaming magazines that proclaimed “A monster I am, lest a monster I become.” Yes it is shlock Nietzche, but it also grabbed the zeitgeist by the throat and drained it.
Setting should absolutely factor into the decision; but it is not enough. To be on of the most influential games of the century, a must have impact (besides a cancelled half-season on Fox).
Vampire did. The World of Darkness published the first (I believe) Live Action Role Playing (LARP) system, with Mind’s Eye Theater. 3
I don’t think anyone surreptitiously played D&D in a crowded nightclub. With Mind’s Eye Theater it happened, no dice needed. Conflict escalated verbally with a few words, before resolved via Rock-Paper-Scissors (or some other unobtrusive method). The game — as befitting the theme — encouraged vampires to posture and preen before submitting just before violence broke out, lest they “break the masquerade” (the belief humanity has that Vampires Are Not Real). Sometimes these games were helped by the DJ queueing up songs from Dead Can Dance and other “genre appropriate” groups.
Before then, the “interactive fiction” branch of LARPing4 were events attached to Science Fiction Conventions (before getting big enough in the 1990s to become LARP only events).5 Each game (usually over a weekend) used whatever system the designers felt worked best (or stole) and typically depended on game masters. Mind’s Eye Theater could (mostly) be run solely by players.
Sidebar — I’ve had thoughts that LARPing should be included, but should some other …. non-game … get the award? Maybe those boxed Murder Mystery Games or …. the Society for Creative Anachronism? I mean, they started the entire “run around the woods/fields/whatever and hit people with non-lethal but still painful weapons” school of games6. There are other “run around the woods but let’s not actually use painful weapons” games, but I know nothing of their history.
I think there’s a reasonable case for either of those, but given that they are possibly not-games, I suspect Mind’s Eye Theatre is a reasonable choice.
Groups sprang up. Gamers played. Goths played it (naturally). Theatre groups played it. In my experience, women were much more likely to play a World of Darkness game instead of D&D back then. (The gender balance of D&D seems much improved this century). LARPs are still sometimes big events, but Mind’s Eye Theatre came and out and said “Nothing is stopping you from doing it.”
So — it’s not just about the setting. Mind’s Eye Theatre didn’t bring LARPing to the masses … but it tried and in the process significantly expanded the reach of RPGs. I am certainly be biased, but Mind’s Eye Theater was on Pyramid Magazines “Games of the Millenium” list, by that metric I’m being relatively humble in only suggesting that it (and Vampire the Masquerade) combine to get one spot in the Top 100 Games of the 20th Century.
Nowadays “based on a game” is a tried-and-true tactic … video games are after all a bigger industry than Hollywood. But back then it was a surprising.
Assuming they were ever not popular.
Mind’s Eye Theater is credited to Mark-Rein Hagen (and Stewart Wieck, who was the business side of White Wolf but also a designer). I strongly suspect that the list of developers was much wider.
Which is more the “play indoors kind of like a free-form murder mystery,” instead of the “run around the woods with foam weapons” branch.
I am not an expert; but I was involved in the Interactive Fiction scene. I played in several LARPs, wrote about half of a 100+ person game, and helped playtest what became Mind’s Eye Theater.
Although you could argue those are more sports, and should sports be in the list? That’s a whole other can of worms and I’m going to say no, but not automatically put the SCA in as a sport. It’s a platypus, let’s not try to classify it just yet.