14 Year old You vs The Today You

[TarionzCousin]

D&D didn't exist when I was 14, but hey

I am telling [MENTION=2885]diaglo[/MENTION]. Does he know that there is someone on these boards older than him?

Whoever said that is a retard.

When I was fourteen I was stealing cars, getting plastered in beach parties, burning down cane-fields (what? they were gonna burn anyway...), selling drugs at my high-school, riding dirt-bikes through back-streets and down river pathways and nicking stuff from department stores.

Actually, you know, my life is pretty boring now, I'm basically a recluse... maybe there's something in that philosophy of adventure writing after all.

Quoted for posterity.

When I was 14, my dungeons contained 50 deep pits filled halfway with green slime.

Josh, is that you? With poisonous spikes and a rule that "Nobody gets any treasure until at least one character dies"?

 

[TarionzCousin]

So what kinds of gaming and gaming related things do you guys do differently now vs when you were 14?

Is there anything you do now, that 14 year old you would look at in disdain?

Is there anything you did then that the now you is slightly "ashamed" of doing?

At 14, I was playing AD&D, and it was a "Root Beer and Pretzels" sort of game. We kicked down a lot of doors. Also, we thought that the XP notes in the back of the DMG meant that you got hit points when you killed a monster. After all, it read "600 + 2/hp."

Nowadays, my 4E group is a "Beer and Pretzla: Lite Pretzel Substitute" sort of game. We still kick down doors, but there is an actual ongoing campaign, not just a series of dungeons, shopping, and meeting in taverns.

--And the 14-year-old me would say "Dude, you still have all your hair and an immensely awesome wife. Congratulations. But you really should lose some weight."

 

[Ulrick]

At around 13, I felt like I finally understood what it meant to be DM. My players were enjoying my adventures. And the adventures I wrote didn't seem so lame--they had action, drama, backstories, and I started using soundtracks in my games! Being 14 just seemed like a continuation of that, but with more ANGST.

 

[The Human Target]

I didn't play DnD until I was 16, so I'm having a lot more fun with it now then I did when I was 14.

 

[The Shaman]

I turned fourteen in 1979. That was the year I bought Traveller and Boot Hill, and realized there were roleplaying games I liked much more than D&D.

And I still do.

 

[Shades of Green]

The 15-years-old me was a lot less sophisticated than the current, 28-years-old me, but had one great advantage: back then I had no DM burnout at all, while now I have to fight to recover from it.

Back then I could very easily put together a fun adventure in 30 minutes of prep and run three (!) 2-hour sessions per week with no problem. Today I find myself running into a writer's block every time I try to design an adventure, and when I last ran a game we only played once a month. I think that part of the problem is me growing more sophisticated, perfectionist and self-critical, no longer satisfied with the simple, cliche' but fun adventure concepts I used to run 12-13 years ago.

I wish I could go back to that raw creativity, albeit tempered by some maturity and sophistication. I wish there was a way to get rid of my writer's block and DM burnout once and for all...

 

[Mr. Wilson]

My 14 year old me didn't play DnD much (it was 3rd or 4th on the RPG list).

Instead, it was all about BIG GUNS (Rifts), Angst (Vampire), and saving the universe (Star Wars d6).

Adventure wise, what seems like old hat and cliche now was still fresh and exciting then.

 

[Agamon]

I'd say that there has been an overall improvement in quality in what I do. I think I pay more attention to the details and specifics than I did when I was 14.

However, I think I am far less creative and spontaneous now. Not really sure if its a product of aging, or possibly the evolution and requirements/expectations of the systems I play. Being old gamers, we'll sit around and tell stories of old adventures that I DM'd, and I'll think to myself, "How on earth did I come up with that on the fly?"

I guess the main difference is that now I prepare, and back then, 14 yr old me reacted and improvised. Both of us had a ton of fun.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

Sort of, but in reverse. Back then, I ran modules as they were written, changing very little, if anything. Created very little myself.

Now I'm more likely to be creative and adaptive.