Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Old school/new school definitions -- meaningless?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 3043720" data-attributes="member: 13892"><p>I think that, for a lot of people, the term "old-school" once meant "reminescient of how we played way back when" -- but today the terms seem to be used largely by people who have an intense desire to be viewed as better and/or different than their contemporaries (be those contemporaries other products, actual designers, or players). This usage has, of course, been exaggerated to extremes by thousands of screwball fans. </p><p></p><p>You don't hear too many self-prclaimed desciples of the old school say nice things about newer products and, similarly, you don't hear a lot of new school devotees clamoring to praise older games. Such fanatics praise one school or the other as the One True Way and, often, takes back-handed swipes at those who they perceive as adhering to the other school -- I know, for example, that at least one online community charmingly refers to anybody who plays the current edition of D&D as a "3etard" <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/paranoid.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":uhoh:" title="Paranoid :uhoh:" data-shortname=":uhoh:" /> </p><p></p><p>The problem with using these words as a penile enchancment where RPG fandom is concerned, of course, lies in the lack of meanignful definition (as you astutely notice). D&D 3x, for example, has many of the same mechanical elements as AD&D 1e (from classes and levels, to spell lists and experiecne points, hit points, etc, etc, etc). There are even "save or die" rolls in certain modules, as well as "no saving throw aloud" deus-ex bits. All of these are things that die-hard haters of the new claim are hallmarks of "old-school" -- yet there they are, in products for a game published in 2000 AD. </p><p></p><p>So... in fan circles I think that the labels in question are almost always (but not exclusively) used as a plaintext representation of a given individual's johnson. In marketing, I think that they're used almost the same way (which, really, is a very good indicator that publishers know their fanbase). There do still seem to be people who use the terms to mean "how we used to play way back when" or "how most people play today", but I think the vast majority of gamers bandy about the terms for purposes of ego inflation. </p><p></p><p>Too many gamers are terminally hip.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jdrakeh, post: 3043720, member: 13892"] I think that, for a lot of people, the term "old-school" once meant "reminescient of how we played way back when" -- but today the terms seem to be used largely by people who have an intense desire to be viewed as better and/or different than their contemporaries (be those contemporaries other products, actual designers, or players). This usage has, of course, been exaggerated to extremes by thousands of screwball fans. You don't hear too many self-prclaimed desciples of the old school say nice things about newer products and, similarly, you don't hear a lot of new school devotees clamoring to praise older games. Such fanatics praise one school or the other as the One True Way and, often, takes back-handed swipes at those who they perceive as adhering to the other school -- I know, for example, that at least one online community charmingly refers to anybody who plays the current edition of D&D as a "3etard" :uhoh: The problem with using these words as a penile enchancment where RPG fandom is concerned, of course, lies in the lack of meanignful definition (as you astutely notice). D&D 3x, for example, has many of the same mechanical elements as AD&D 1e (from classes and levels, to spell lists and experiecne points, hit points, etc, etc, etc). There are even "save or die" rolls in certain modules, as well as "no saving throw aloud" deus-ex bits. All of these are things that die-hard haters of the new claim are hallmarks of "old-school" -- yet there they are, in products for a game published in 2000 AD. So... in fan circles I think that the labels in question are almost always (but not exclusively) used as a plaintext representation of a given individual's johnson. In marketing, I think that they're used almost the same way (which, really, is a very good indicator that publishers know their fanbase). There do still seem to be people who use the terms to mean "how we used to play way back when" or "how most people play today", but I think the vast majority of gamers bandy about the terms for purposes of ego inflation. Too many gamers are terminally hip. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Old school/new school definitions -- meaningless?
Top