14 Year old You vs The Today You

[Bisquet]

I'd say that there has been an overall improvement in quality in what I do. I think I pay more attention to the details and specifics than I did when I was 14.

However, I think I am far less creative and spontaneous now. Not really sure if its a product of aging, or possibly the evolution and requirements/expectations of the systems I play. Being old gamers, we'll sit around and tell stories of old adventures that I DM'd, and I'll think to myself, "How on earth did I come up with that on the fly?"

I guess the main difference is that now I prepare, and back then, 14 yr old me reacted and improvised. Both of us had a ton of fun.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

 

[Al'Kelhar]

I didn't have a group to play with then, it was pretty much whack Bargle and my imagination ...

OK, I have to admit when I first read that sentence, in a topic about doing stuff when you're 14, my mind immediately leapt to... well, stuff you do when you're 14. "Whack Bargle", indeed.

I also like the "less boobs - but still lots of boobs" quote.

Then, maybe after more than 2 decades, I still have the mental age of a 14 year old.

 

[S'mon]

I think my 12-13 year old games were super-cool and imaginative, constantly throwing out new ideas, settings et al. I think they were even better when I was running a simple d6-based homebrew or the nearly rulesless Fighting Fantasy RPG, before I got into AD&D.

Sadly at 14 I didn't have a game group, I was new in school and it took me a year or two to get settled in. The campaign material I created back then really does not stand up well to analysis.

 

[OchreJelly]

In all honesty, when I was 14 I was pretty much in my gaming prime... or just starting my gaming "golden age". The main difference between then and now is a pretty big factor: TIME!

At that age I had so much time to be creative. I remember being really inspired by "The Paladin in Hell" picture and creating an entire adventure based around it complete with drawings for each room.

Moreover DND was very fresh then, and I was just bursting with ideas. Now-a-days everything that was new then is ho-hum now. Don't get me wrong, I still have a blast with DND today, but I feel nostalgia will always be a big part of this hobby.

 

[orsal]

Then: my characters were packages of abilities.

Now: my characters also have personalities.

 

[Scribble]

I think I blatently ripped off more things as sources for my character/adventures/campaigns back in the day...

I don't do that as much anymore. I think I should start doing so more often.



Ironically I also used to kind of make fun of the people who "wasted so much time arguing back and forth in the Dragon Magazine forums section..." Those guys were just taking things WAY to seriously... Ahhh Karma.

 

[tvknight415]

Ahh, yes, the mid 80's.... and I was half the man I am now. Seriously, 140 lbs then, and now... oh dear!

When I was 14, my dungeons contained 50 deep pits filled halfway with green slime.

Thankfully, I've changed a lot since then... the pits are now 100' deep and filled 1/2 of the way with green slime, with an anti-magic field right above the slime level, covered by a concealed trap door, covered by an illusion of a plain stone floor, with a misty archway right before it so the rest of the party doesn't see someone falling in, and a silence spell at ground level, just above the anti-magic field, so they don't hear them scream either. Oh, and did I mention the quite mundane grease that covers the walls 3 feet above slime level?

I like to whimsically call it... encounter 1.

 

[Stormonu]

I think I blatently ripped off more things as sources for my character/adventures/campaigns back in the day...

At 14, I stole stuff (or should I say converted?) from TV shows, movies and the like, without bothering to change a thing. My first character was Hawk the Slayer, complete with Mindsword.

At least now, I know to at least change a few things to make an attempt to disguise it and look semi-original. And sometimes I'll combine two or more things to get something original, rather than do a blatant ripoff.

Though I don't think I'll ever drop Hawk from my own campaign world.

 

[Marx420]

Well, I'm usually much higher now that I can afford the finest of strains and put them through my volcano vaporizer (fun for family and friends!)

What I'm ashamed of? Well I only just recently began to pronounce kobold properly .

That and npcs that aren't all the same person yet vaguely different ala pokemon.

 

[Vanifae]

Man those were the days, well they seemed like the days. Hanging out in the garage playing games all weekend. I would say the biggest thing about my 14 year old self, is that I was more prone to just going with what I thought was cool, we probably played more Palladium games than we did D&D or I should say AD&D at the time. We were much more prone to big ideas, gonzo settings, and house ruling. Death happened but it seemed to happen to the same people over and over.

We never worried too much about the rules, we liked big stories, sweeping epics and looking cool. They were adolescent fantasies with hot chicks, big guns/swords, and cackling evil villains. These were the days of the 10+ hour sessions, the all-nighters, and hand made characters sheets.

Present me is more interested in the story and presenting cohesive ideas and probably more planning then I ever did back then. Seat of our pants gaming was the norm back then, now I need a little more stability and planning to keep my ideas straight and make sense to me. Characterization is important to me where as then it probably was an after thought unless said character seemed important.