D&D General Younger Players Telling Us how Old School Gamers Played

[AbdulAlhazred]

Nah, that was just the shuffling, old, and dried out husks groaning above our head as we played in the basement. Also known as our parents that were younger than I am now.

Heh, my Dad was a pretty regular player. My Mother even played at times, though this was more like the early to mid '80s when I was in college, so I'll assume we were no longer such annoying brats. There were times when we had the whole family, my BIL, my best friend, my brother's best friend, etc. all playing together. Those were some good times. lol.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I'm 50 years old. I learned to play when I was eight. I used to tell people I played with, "I have dice older than you."
Now I talk to the teenagers playing 5E and tell them, "I have dice older than your parents."

Yeah, I still have the 'wax dice' that came with Holmes Basic. The D20 was all lopsided, so we had to go buy other dice so we could actually play, lol. I think we might have used a deck of cards for a while.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Obviously old school play isn’t just one thing. Different people play in different ways, so no, this rule or guideline or whatever you want to call it is not some Rosetta Stone to old-school play. But it is pretty much completely incompatible with modern play. So, discovering this rule may be huge in helping a new player understand that the game was not always played as it is now. Did this guy jump to a few incorrect conclusions? Sure. I still don’t think it sounds like the way he described “old school play” was really wrong, just far less prevalent than he assumed. We can’t simultaneously say both that old school play was diverse and that the style of play he describes isn’t old-school play.

I'm not sure it is INCOMPATIBLE with modern play. I think it is maybe mostly not super relevant to modern play. If you have a single party, well OK maybe time passes and they do nothing and you could measure that by 'real time' if you WANT. So, yeah, it may have had some slightly greater significance in 'the old days' for some specific people, but even then maybe not... Or more like they probably only used that technique fairly sporadically and retrospectively.

I take your point of course on the last point, but by the same token, I think it is then also impossible to say that some one particular minor 'rule' (suggested technique really) is very important or points to much. I could see maybe where you might invoke this sometimes in a starting kind of game where play is pretty restricted to one 'base of operations' and some sites that the PCs visit. Even then I don't think its central to that kind of play. Nor did setups like that usually persist for long, they would likely evolve. High level PCs generally branch off into a different sort of play.

 

[MichaelSomething]

How can we expect a youtuber to describe old school play when we can't seem to come to a consensus on it?

Is it wrong to use the books to learn how the game works?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

How can we expect a youtuber to describe old school play when we can't seem to come to a consensus on it?

Is it wrong to use the books to learn how the game works?

I mean I don't think we can agree to what 5e raw is on this site so how are we going to agree on multi editions ago

 

[Sacrosanct]

How can we expect a youtuber to describe old school play when we can't seem to come to a consensus on it?

While there isn't a consensus on how each table played, there is pretty much a consensus from us older folks that what is claimed in that video is flat out wrong, especially when trying to ascribe it to how everyone played back then.

Is it wrong to use the books to learn how the game works?

For 1e, sure is!

Seriously, the books are all over the place. It's doubly wrong to use one rule out of the book to override all the other stuff. I.e., saying that early DMs didn't build worlds but only dungeons while ignoring the robust section in the DMG that explains how to build worlds...

 

[jasper]

Yet another example of TSR following rather than leading.

I paid attention to the rule for just long enough to decide it was bunk, and have remained aware of it since as one of those dumb ideas in practice that somehow must have osunded good in theory...

impractical idea

Someone (and I'm not volunteering!) needs to run a D&D bootcamp, mandatory for all players who have only played 5e, where they spend six weekends playing old-school D&D in some form or other. Could be 0e, could be BX, could be 1e, whatever; the point being to expose them to the game's roots and make them aware of how it has since changed for both better and worse.

/impractical idea

Oh my gawd. I have TRS80 and printer I could give this project. But the ribbon is dry and I have seen tractor feed paper in a while.

 

[Maxperson]

How can we expect a youtuber to describe old school play when we can't seem to come to a consensus on it?

That's just it. Old school play was so varied from table to table as we old timers have been saying that it sure as hell couldn't have been, "Everyone played with this one obscure rule." like the guy describes.

it wrong to use the books to learn how the game works?

No, but it is wrong to say that we all used a specific obscure rule when all he had to do is ask a few people or use Google.

 

[jasper]

No!
If people under 50 make mistaken assumptions about what people did in the 70s, it's because there is very little interest among the grognards to engage with them and share their stories of the olden days.
People are eager to hear them, but there seems to be no desire to reveal their secret lore.

hehhe. calmmy old voice. Do don't have enough Jim Beam for the stories I can tell. YOU COULDN'T HANDLE THE LORE!.
Sorry the cute nurse says dinner in 8 minutes. Bye.

 

[jasper]

Dude, we played hiding in basements specifically so he wouldn't do that!

You RICH A!@#$%^&()!@#$%^& We were so poor we didn't even basements. We had play outside in sand pile.!