After a short discussion on French forums, we wondered when the term "roleplaying" was used for the first time. The first appearance seems to be in Metamorphosis Alpha or in Dragon mag, in 1976. We didn't go through all the OD&D rules but didn't think that the word was used there.

Any previous occurence?

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary gives a  1949 quote from R.G. Lambert.

Thanks both!

So the first time in a RPG publication would be in O&W? Excluding the Merriam-Webster dictionnary reference.

faro wrote:Excluding near-misses such as "playing... roles"

Which start on the first pages of Men & Magic. Considering that we've got "playing roles" in use from the beginning, & the term "role-playing" already in common English usage (to describe children playing, actors on stage, & psychological exercises), an awfully wide net is cast.

I.e., it didn't require a creative spark to reverse the order of words, it's probably something early D&D gamers began saying without even noticing it. Considering that the printed matter of the time is mostly amateur/semi-pro, it could be an endless task to track down the first recorded use.

lokiwookie wrote:My question was the first published use because some French guys said that D&D is not a RPG, but a wargame... since the term "roleplaying game" was not used in the rules...

It is a fair point, though.

sauromatian wrote:Which start on the first pages of Men & Magic. Considering that we've got "playing roles" in use from the beginning, & the term "role-playing" already in common English usage (to describe children playing, actors on stage, & psychological exercises), an awfully wide net is cast.

Hardly "common use". Even in rare press appearances (e.g. Chicago Tribune and Miami News for 1971/72) the concept of a roleplaying game was presented in a framework of relatively limited scope and/or duration and it's not as though every college student had a copy of Fantasy Encounter Games lying by their bedside.

Neither were there many individuals in the gaming domain (psychologists didn't popularise "modern RPGs"... or even "modern RPing" ) who crossed the bridge in the other direction to realise that "freedom to redirect the action" (to quote John Cleaveland) could extend far beyond endlessly retelling the same scenarios/stories (WoW = MMORPG, really?).

sauromatian wrote:I.e., it didn't require a creative spark to reverse the order of words, it's probably something early D&D gamers began saying without even noticing it.

You'd think so, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At least not in terms of what made it to print... and I am including APAs with non-trivial LoC such as A&E, which should help amplify the individual voice.
The emergence of the term "roleplaying game" as applied to D&D is only apparent some time after other games similar to D&D were being published and /especially/ after other similar non-fantasy games started appearing. It is probably notable in that context that En Garde! is the O&W reference since until then - and indeed, some time afterwards - D&D was being referred to as "Sword & Sorcery wargaming" or more generically as a "(free-form) Fantasy game".

sauromatian wrote:Considering that the printed matter of the time is mostly amateur/semi-pro, it could be an endless task to track down the first recorded use.

Agreed. And trying to search only for a "first recorded use" whilst adopting a reductionist mentality (single-origin, single-threaded genesis such as Wesely->Arneson->Gygax, say ) is not best use of time perhaps. Tracking terminology as that parallels evolution is far more interesting IMHO.

02c, anyhow, and feel free to translate that if you wish, Géraud!

faro wrote:it's not as though every college student had a copy of Fantasy Encounter Games lying by their bedside.

Probably true, although I did just find an interesting fact about Jacob Moreno, credited with inventing psychological roleplaying games in 1932: he died in May 1974, just short of seeing the popularization of his work.

faro wrote:psychologists didn't popularise "modern RPGs"... or even "modern RPing"

Not entirely true, in that this kind of exercise has become pretty widespread on its own. To quote Wikipedia, "The psychodramatic method is an important source of the role-playing widely used in business and industry." My own employers use roleplaying to train supervisors; another use would be sales training, where one person roleplays being a difficult customer.

sauromatian wrote:Probably true, although I did just find an interesting fact about Jacob Moreno, credited with inventing psychological roleplaying games in 1932:  

Actually, I guess that, for a lot of people, RPGs are some kind of therapy in their social life