D&D General D&D Editions: Anybody Else Feel Like They Don't Fit In?

[Lakesidefantasy]

I've been interested in Shadowdark since I first heard about it shortly before the Kickstarter ended, but I wasn't in a position at the time to participate. I've since had an opportunity to get it, and to me it really hits those classic play vibes i appreciate. The problem is that my wife is much more interested in the modern style of play where a character's story is paramount, and bad luck isn't just going to kill her PC (a real possibility in Shadowdark). To her, that's what an RPG is. So I hit upon a solution recently: I asked her to not think if Shadowdark and similar games as RPGs as she understands them, but instead as a kind of boardgame, and your PC as a game piece you control. You can if you want give characterization to your game piece, but ultimately its no different from the character you control in Betrayal at House on the Hill (a game she loves), and those folks die all the time.

This isn't how I see classic RPGs, of course, but it will help here have fun with them I hope.

I have run two Shadowdark adventures.

The first I created myself and I ran it like any other 5e game. We had fun. I didn't really focus on the darkness; although their was an interesting scene where the Characters fought the Medusa in the dark, which neutralized her ability to petrify them.

The second time, I ran Kelsey's Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur, but while preparing, I noticed that the adventure was very procedural and more like a board game. So, I ran it that way. It was a little jarring at first but we had fun.

The procedural nature of the game seems to be a result of the crawling rounds system where you are always going in order---like a board game.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

have been playing and DM'ing "Dungeons & Dragons" since the early-80s, and I am feeling more and more like there is no place in the hobby where I truly "fit" anymore.

Big deal, I never felt like I fit in this or any hobby. My whole life is a history of trying to make myself place in the hobbies full of people that fundamentally despise my existence without knowing me. My disillusionment with comic book fandom and video game fandom and anime fandom can be all a long history of me trying to force myself to fit in places that were clearly hostile to me, and see all the "friendships" I thought I have made evaporate whenever I reminded these people I'm a human being with opinions that sometimes don't fit the majority. Your generation did not welcome me, neither did mine or the next one. Any space in the hobby I had to make for myself, and mostly with IRL friends, not stangers online.

 

[Distracted DM]

Of course that's just another reason some people don't like to GM. They don't want that distance.

Oh absolutely... frankly, I don't enjoy playing as much ever since I went forever-DM :'D
I much prefer GMing, but it has greatly reduced my ttrpg enjoyability as a player.

 

[Zardnaar]

Prepped tomorrow nights game. New campaign group 2.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's fine, but its potentially the way your players may, and you have to just accept that may be something you need to deal with.

I deal with it as needed, thank you.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Prepped tomorrow nights game. New campaign group 2.

View attachment 400650

That is a beautiful picture.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So how did your wife respond to your suggestion? Did she think that looking at Shadowdark, et al. that way would help her enjoy it more?

Yes, actually. I think we'll be able to make this work.

 

[Zardnaar]

That is a beautiful picture.

Yeah hopefully cut down the carry load.

 

[Kain_Darkwind]

Oh absolutely... frankly, I don't enjoy playing as much ever since I went forever-DM :'D
I much prefer GMing, but it has greatly reduced my ttrpg enjoyability as a player.

I think this happened to me. I learned to play (2e and 3.0) in the Army, and became the DM when most of us (but not the DM) got transferred to Korea. I played sometimes then, but literally the only campaign I enjoyed was run by a sergeant of mine who was about as different a DM from me as you can get. And once I got out of the Army I just really didn't have the time to run or play, but whenever I get close, it's about a campaign or adventure I want to run, not a character.

 

[Lanefan]

This reminds me a bit of the issue that a number of people have with video games, including MMOs. A lot of people had fun discovering and exploring MMOs for the first time but there is a point where that feeling fades. When previous players try to go back to the game, that feeling is no longer there because by that point, the game is now a "solved game." While Classic WoW is still popular,* just as many people realized when they went back to play it, their feelings of nostalgia also came with the realization that the "magic" was no longer there and the challenges weren't as challenging as they remembered because the game had also been "solved" and they had also improved as gamers in that time. That same sense of discovery, exploration, and learning with the game wasn't there anymore.

Part of it might be based on how well (or if at all) one remembers the game on returning to it. If you've completely forgotten almost everything about it, it actually can feel new all over again.

I had this experience with the old text game Colossal Cave/Advent a few years back. I played and beat it in college, but in the intervening 40-ish years managed to forget about 95% of it other than a few commands. Then just for kicks I tried playing it again (there's a phone version out there) and didn't have a clue what I was doing - I had to learn it all over again and it really did feel a lot like it did in 1980.