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<blockquote data-quote="Ourph" data-source="post: 4736385" data-attributes="member: 20239"><p>I have a pretty strong appreciation for the "old school" when it comes to D&D and remember a lot of good times being had playing in the lateral-thinking, game-within-a-game style. However, I have to say that most of these Old School Rennaissance blog posters make it seem like every second at the game table was a tense, intellectual, knife fight between the DM and players with brainstorming and underhanded schemery taking the place of thrusts, parries and ripostes. </p><p></p><p>While it was awesome when someone at the table came up with an idea about how to use a barrel of water, a 10ft pole and three dead orcs to build a cunning trap to slay the dragon without a single sword swung or spell cast, the vast majority of "old school" gaming (in my experience, at least) was still the PCs wading into battle, killing things and taking their stuff (preferably magical stuff) on a very personal level. The idea that combat wasn't very common "back in the day" or wasn't intended to be a main focus of the game is completely anathema to everything I experienced as a kid immersed in gamer culture in the late 70s-early 80s. If someone had come to our table in 1980 and told us that actually rolling dice was a sign that we "weren't doing it right", we probably would have thrown several handfuls of said dice at their head. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ourph, post: 4736385, member: 20239"] I have a pretty strong appreciation for the "old school" when it comes to D&D and remember a lot of good times being had playing in the lateral-thinking, game-within-a-game style. However, I have to say that most of these Old School Rennaissance blog posters make it seem like every second at the game table was a tense, intellectual, knife fight between the DM and players with brainstorming and underhanded schemery taking the place of thrusts, parries and ripostes. While it was awesome when someone at the table came up with an idea about how to use a barrel of water, a 10ft pole and three dead orcs to build a cunning trap to slay the dragon without a single sword swung or spell cast, the vast majority of "old school" gaming (in my experience, at least) was still the PCs wading into battle, killing things and taking their stuff (preferably magical stuff) on a very personal level. The idea that combat wasn't very common "back in the day" or wasn't intended to be a main focus of the game is completely anathema to everything I experienced as a kid immersed in gamer culture in the late 70s-early 80s. If someone had come to our table in 1980 and told us that actually rolling dice was a sign that we "weren't doing it right", we probably would have thrown several handfuls of said dice at their head. :D [/QUOTE]
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