When I used the term 'RPG maturity,' I wasn't refering to chronological age. The RPG hobby is at point now where new recruits didn't go through the whole dungeon crawl mapping, severely chart-based concepts, and wargame-esk era to finally break-on through to role-playing that didn't involve charts, dungeon crawls, or board-tied adventures.
I think that people that started playing RPGs in the 70's and 80's kind of went through phases or stages of role-playing.
This is only an opinion and severe generalization. Of course, there are always exceptions. Personally, I kind went through this type of catharsis in my role-playing style and tastes.
As a young role-player, I needed charts, pre-made adventures, and rulebooks in order to GM or play.
These days, I can take as little or as much from a rulebook and modify to my tastes. I can create senarios and campaign settings without any outside influence or reference. I can create adventures based upon roleplaying with no combat, or based upon non-combat skills. I can adapt, modify, or create completely new rules for an existing game, or none at all. If I have as little as BRP booklet, I can create a vibrant game and setting with no problem today. I can wing-it as a GM now and run my games with confident fluidity, whereas, twenty years ago I would have floundered.
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