An RPG Forum Lexicon: Clarity of terms

[Thunderfoot]

And to throw some more mud in the water, I'm not so sure that "old school p new skool" are truly definable terms rather than more of a personal defining of gaming parameters that you personally experienced through your gaming career.

For instance, I started with OD&D/1eD&D/BE Moldvay rules (depending upon who I was gaming with). We had dice, paper, pencils and a couple of rule books. No minis, no strategy, no clue, just go to town, find a quest, complete the quest or die trying, and repeat. To me, this is old school, rules light, long-term campaign with little arguing at the table of "the meaning of rules, etc." Just a does it make sense? Yes, continue, if No, then debate. It wasn't that our adventures were one-shots, we campaigned just like they do now a days, it's just we blew through the adventures quicker.

Once 2e started to add splats, options, etc, I noticed that games became longer, not that the adventures changed much, but the bickering, the perception of what was and wasn't broken/fair/workable and the power the players felt they were entitled to when it came to rules changed.

From 3e on, it's been more about the player than the DM. So from someone who remembers when the area behind the DM screen was akin to the Jewish tradition of the Holiest of Holies (the area in the temple where the Almighty actually lurked in his splendor and anyone entering without proper instruction/permision would immediately die.), the idea that a player could even fathom talking back to a DM when a rule was issued could be construed as old school vs. new skool. Or the idea that an adventure should have a party of around 13 people including followers, henchmen and hirelings vs 4 people who can move mountains. I don't think it is solely either (these are just examples of, maybe???), but I think you can follow what I mean, perception rather than quantification.

 

[tuxgeo]

< snip>
What a shame though, a player never having to re-roll a character due to premature campaign departure. (I think I just created a new term. No longer is it a character death it's a PCD. TPK, not anymore, it's a Group PCD or Mass PCD.)

"PDC" (for "Premature Campaign Departure") needs to be added to the list of acronyms on EN World, along with "raw," "wotc," etc.

[Alas, I cannot give more XP to Thunderfoot at this time.]

 

[tuxgeo]

"Grognard," linguistically:

The "-ard" suffix comes to us from the French language. A couple of simple examples should suffice:

• In Vietnam (formerly part of "French Indochina"), the Montagnard people were the people from the "montagnes," or mountains.
• In dancing, a "galliard" is a dance from France, or "Gaul," or "Gallia" (as in, "Gallia omnia in partes tres divisa est." -- the first sentence of Julius Caesar's commentary on the Gallic Wars.)

The term "grognard" originated within the armies of Napoleon, and there it referred to people who tended to "grogn," or "groan."

Hence, Grognards are defined by the sounds they make: they "groan" or "grumble." All of the rest of the things that everyone else has said about that word follow from that.

 

[Desdichado]

I don't think it is solely either (these are just examples of, maybe???), but I think you can follow what I mean, perception rather than quantification.

I think this is very true, that perception more than quantification is the key to old skool, which makes it a somewhat dubious label in many ways, but there you have it. From all appearances, it seems Gygax and Arneson ran their incipient D&D campaigns very differently, and certainly by the time we had the Holmes boxed set vs. the Gygax books, there were numerous apparent differences in the playstyle that they assumed, even though the games had a high degree of compatibility between them.

 

[gozer87]

One of the terms which carried over to my groups from my Warhammer days is "beardy" and "bearded git". Pretty much a min-maxer who designs characters/armies to optimize results, exploiting loopholes and ignoring fluff if the rules don't enforce the fluff. Usually also taking maniacal delight in defeating fluff faithful characters, armies and scenarios.

I don't see it as a compliment. Fluff is the whole point of the game, IMO, otherwise, take up checkers or chess.

 

[S'mon]

I've never seen anyone call their preferred game 'new school'.

'Modern', 'contemporary', 'Storytelling' and 'Indie' are all terms that could be used in opposition to 'old school' gaming.