Wofano Wotanto
Hero
Doesn't have much to do with game design theory or mechanics to me. "Classic" means something stirs up nostalgia for my gaming memories from the 70s, 80s, even 90s, and it sure isn't tied to just D&D or even fantasy. "Modern" means the game's actually reasonably playable without a calculator, the rules are written so I don't need someone to walk me through them, the layout doesn't look like it was done with scissors and glue, and the printing didn't involve a mimeograph - or a dot-matrix printer for the newer stuff. Needless to say it's all pretty subjective, and much like obscenity I can't define it but I know it when I see it.What does that mean to you? What elements of game design are modern, and what elements are "classic"? How much of the game needs to be "modernized" for it to count as "class feel with modern design"? How much is too much and the "classic" part is lost?
By way of examples, I could see myself applying "modern with classic feel" to Mongoose Traveller (although it's a little too art-heavy to quite hit all my buttons, I'm an LBB fan), Free League's Twilight 2000 and Forbidden Lands, Necrotic Gnome's OSE (sure, it's a retroclone but the layout and art is modern gold), Monkey House's Mighty Protectors (which is V&V) and the most recent edition of Talislanta. Probably quite a few other things I'm forgetting too, mostly small indie stuff.