Is "Old School" Overrated?

[Mallus]

If by "old-school" you mean getting together with friends to have a violent lark in a world of fantastical, quasi-nonsensical adventure, then no, it's not overrated. It's the soul of gaming.

If by "old-school" you mean the specific composition of those original violent larks, with their focus on the logistics of mining improbable treasures out of even more improbable locations, guarded by the unlikeliest of creatures, largely through the exploitation of local henchmen/war-dog populations, or the first-generation rules/tools used to facilitate them, then yes, absolutely.

IMNSHO, of course.

 

[Midknightsun]

3d6 in order, take what you get?
super slow advancement?
just say "no" DMs?

Yeah, I don't miss those days at all. I had fun, of course, but i think that was in spite of the system, not because of it. I even liked my DM at the time, but he was a hard@$$. When I started up playing again with 3e, it was a world of change for the better in many ways. I miss the newness that D&D had to me at that time, but I think now 20 years after I began gaming how much more fun i am having. So yeah, I'd say it is often looked at through nostalgia glasses by those who played back in the day. Not to say it wasn't and isn't still a fun style of play, its just not my style anymore.

 

[Jack99]

Old school is a design question, not a temporal one, IMO. I design adventures for 1e, 3e, and 4e. In each case I design differently.

1e I use old school design, 3e I use new school with a dash of old school, 4e is entirely new school.

YMMV

joe b.

Any chance we will see some more classical adventures from XRP, for 4e? (When I say classical, I mean not like Land of Darkness series)

 

[Doug McCrae]

If you don't have a party caller then it isn't old school.

 

[Umbran]

I am on record as thinking that the Old/New school thing, as I perceive it most often presented here and some other places on the web, is a false dichotomy that is more of a hindrance than an aid to understanding what folks like to do when they sit down at the table.

And, aside from what I find to be a division that doesn't match reality, as a practical matter trying once more to chop the world into Them and Us causes bickering and ill-will.

So, I find the sub-genre definitions to be overrated, I guess.

 

[Darrin Drader]

If you can embrace the simplicity of old school while using the common sense reworkings of the modern game systems (3rd edition in particular) then you have an "old school" game that doesn't feel like it's taking a giant step backwards. That's why the old school game I like (and the one my kids like) is Castles and Crusades.

 

[jdrakeh]

When people talk about X being superior to Y, I think X is always overrated. Especially when X is a matter of personal taste, as opposed to an objective measure of something.

 

[Melan]

Just to get this out of the way: while I feel nostalgic for a lot of the things I did when I started gaming, I am not playing "old-school" games because I want to recapture that bygone past. I play them because they give me a specific experience that agrees with my preferences. To me, my growing interest in this (inwardly very diverse) style and scene was mostly a process of discovery, not rediscovery. Just like I think 30s jazz is good music, and pocket watches are more bautiful and comfortable to use than wrist watches, I think there is a lot to learn from old gaming - and use it for new things.

Overrated? That is a meaningless question. I find it interesting and fantastic; not always worth imitating, but a treasure trove of good practice and a spirit that is fun and contagious - and therefore worth learning from.

Oh, and one more: first poster to use the T-model argument gets a javelin through the left eyeball.

 

[billd91]

Games that we played back when "old school" was the main game in town may be overrated, but the style of play isn't. There's a lot of lure in less-detailed rules, fewer fusses over future build decisions, and playing the stats you roll rather than crafting the optimal PCs. I push for at least 2 of those specific 3 factors in the 3.x/PF games I run. And I think the game's better for it.

 

[Melan]

Also, a case study on nostalgia: one of my current groups. It is made up of three people as follows:
1) Age 18, only slightly older than the time I have been roleplaying. Very much interested in old-school games, and running his own campaign - I have read his writeups, and they are authentic. Nostalgia?
2) Age 18, also interested, is more of a hang back and roll the dice tipe, but likes the campaign just fine. Nostalgia?
3) Age 38 or thereabouts, three kids, wife, small company. Mostly experienced with story-based games that were the epitome of not old-school, but very good at rules-independent problem solving; likes the campaign, although plays a bit too carefully for my tastes. Nostalgia?

These are people whose background doesn't include even the odd, brief period of quasi-old-school we had in Hungary ca. 1990-1993 before that style fell out of the vogue in between TSR's 2e junk and "more modern" rulesets, and yet they are sitting around my living room table and playing with obvious enthusiasm. I propose that they like what they do independently of rose-coloured glasses or long-suppressed memories from way back.