I asked this question a few years ago. Roleplaying is an interesting phenomenon--it's not acting because it's not scripted. It's not storytelling because all the players are participants. In OTL, roleplaying evolved from miniature wargaming--people put personalities on their figures. But then you needed a GameMaster to run everyone else. That's a concept which came from refereed wargames.
The original roleplaying games were clunky things which betrayed their wargame provenance. There are still plenty of roleplayers who play as if their game is a tabletop version of WoW. They're just interested in the system rather than the story. I don't think that kind of roleplaying can evolve without wargaming first.
Other players, however, are much more interested in the story side of RPGs, and the system isn't very important. I think *that* sort of roleplaying game could have evolved from two places. One is the theater. Perhaps some school of improv hits upon the idea of having a "Stage Manager" who sets the scene arbitrarily. Mix that up with some fantastic element then in vogue (Pulps, science fiction, Hyboria) and you have a game.
Another tradition it might evolve from is group storytelling, but the group chooses a "Lead Storyteller. Both of these options could become popular parlor games like charades.
The only thing you won't get is profit. Roleplaying games are a business, and they make money because they involve systems which you need to buy to play. So if you have a roleplaying model which doesn't sell anything, it might become very popular, but it'll never be *commercial*.
But maybe that doesn't matter.![]()
Very good points. You can see the genesis of this in the simple parlour games people play that have people start with a simple phase like "It was a dark and stormy night..." and jointly complete a story. The idea of adding a lead storyteller is interesting. Don't worry about commercial success. If its a really good parlour game concept (like "Dictionary" or "Charades"), Milton Bradley or somebody else will figure out a way to box it up with pieces and a board and sell it fot 20 bucks a pop. You'd be amazed how many people will buy a boxed version of something they could do all by themselves if they wanted to.