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[Irda Ranger]

Rule-Set vs. Game-Style arguments are like Nature vs. Nurture arguments. You always have both, and they aren't mutually exclusive, but it's the end result you care about.

4E Rules + Old School Style = Different Game than (1E Rules + Old School Style).

You mix different ingredients, you get a different bread. That's just how these things work.

For me I don't think it's possible to get the game I want using 4E rules, even if I play it with Old School Style. And I tried. I tried running B2 using 4E rules and it just wasn't the same. It "worked", in a sense, but it wasn't what I was looking for. For other people it will be good enough, and for others even trying to run B2 with 4E rules is "one step forward, two steps back." As with so many things on the Internet, YMMV.

Originally Posted by Mercurius

Is it possible to combine the innovations of the last 35 years with the free-form attitude of the original D&D? I personally think that D&D, as a rules system, has evolved; the core d20 mechanic, in my view, is better than THAC0, and much better than the combat charts; Defenses are better than Saving Throws, etc. But I also like to improvise and dislike when the rules get in the way of role-playing and creative thinking from the players. So, as I start my first campaign in years, I plan on taking a somewhat "old school style" to a 4E game: Or to put it another way, an improvisational and imaginative game style using a slick-running game engine.

Yes. Here is one attempt. There are others. Arguably Castles & Crusades is very much an attempt at this too, though I am on record disagreeing with certain choices they made.

The main problem with games since OD&D is that the designers weren't content with making the rules that existed easier and more streamlined. They kept adding new twists and complexities as well (e.g., Exceptional Strength, Attacks of Opportunity, Critical Hits, Tumble, etc.), so instead of 25 slightly-unintuitive-but-useable rules you have 300 really well engineered rules. If you just went back to OD&D and converted over what was there to current state of the art without adding any of the additional complexity that came later, I think you'd have what you're looking for.