Quote:
Originally Posted by mearls  I think that, for me, "old school" means:
1. Player choice drives the game.
1a. Really bad player choices lead to TPKs.
1b. Really clever player choices lead to rewards and advantages beyond the norm. |
I'd say that yes, sandbox is as much "old school" as it gets. I'd add a feeling of constant danger and a little player justified paranoia as well
What's sad is that,
RAW, the
4e rules make 1a and 1b very difficult. A because you really can't do much more to a player which lasts more than a few minutes apart from make him face a much higher level monster and kill him blow by blow. And B because the books are always stressing the need for everything to be balanced.
Yes, you can houserule it or ignore the mandates of the
DMG, but I don't need to spend 90+ bucks on books just to be able to ignore them. I can ignore things for free, thank you very much
Quote:
2. There are strains of an almost Lovecraftian incomprehensibility to many gods and demons, a la the chaos temple in Keep on the Borderlands.
3. The forces of evil gather on all sides of the Realms of Man.
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... And that would be "Sword & Sorcery" against "High Fantasy". As Howard predates Tolkien, one could say S&S is in fact more "old-schoolish"
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