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A Historical Look at the OSR
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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8511966" data-attributes="member: 19857"><p>I'm sorry, but the idea that 2nd edition can be considered "old school" still blows my mind. That the Planescape and Ravenloft games I played in during the 90s could be characterized as "old school" is just plain weird given how radically different they felt from the D&D I had been playing in the 80s.</p><p></p><p>As I said in the other thread, I actually think that the term "old school" is very subjective and has to do as much with when the individual first came into the RPG hobby as anything else. But I think if you're drawing a dividing line that isn't somewhere around when Dragon magazine started publishing and the hobby moved from "everyone trying to figure the game out on their own" and into "TSR employees trying to produce content on a monthly basis" I think it's got to be sometime prior to the publication of 2e personally. </p><p></p><p>Some milestones I'd consider separating old and new school beyond the Dragon magazine publication date would probably be the publication of Unearthed Arcana or Oriental Adventures (1985), the publication of the Dragonlance books and modules (1984), or possibly the publication of the Dungeoneer's/Wilderness Survival Guides (1985/1986) as where things pivot away from old school styles of play being assumed by the books being produced. UA and OA assumed something that wasn't dungeon crawling in their setting material and new subsystems, Dragonlance assumed a narrative form of play as the default rather than a one-off (which is why I don't peg it with Ravenloft or the Desert of Desolation series - which were less influential on everything that followed), and the Survival Guides introduced the idea of having some kind of "skill system" into the game which I personally find to be one of the big breaking points from old school D&D rules to newer rules styles. (EDIT - just remembered that OA introduced the proficiency system, so another mark in its favor I suppose).</p><p></p><p>But of course part of that is because I am old and lived through these changes in published content and expected play style, and watched how these publications influenced what was published after. Also I don't think that "old school" is necessarily a good thing or a bad thing - it's just a thing. I'd really like it to be a descriptor of a tangible point in history and not a marketing term because that makes it somewhat objective and useful to me. (But really, it's a marketing term - so I know I'm tilting at windmills with that).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jer, post: 8511966, member: 19857"] I'm sorry, but the idea that 2nd edition can be considered "old school" still blows my mind. That the Planescape and Ravenloft games I played in during the 90s could be characterized as "old school" is just plain weird given how radically different they felt from the D&D I had been playing in the 80s. As I said in the other thread, I actually think that the term "old school" is very subjective and has to do as much with when the individual first came into the RPG hobby as anything else. But I think if you're drawing a dividing line that isn't somewhere around when Dragon magazine started publishing and the hobby moved from "everyone trying to figure the game out on their own" and into "TSR employees trying to produce content on a monthly basis" I think it's got to be sometime prior to the publication of 2e personally. Some milestones I'd consider separating old and new school beyond the Dragon magazine publication date would probably be the publication of Unearthed Arcana or Oriental Adventures (1985), the publication of the Dragonlance books and modules (1984), or possibly the publication of the Dungeoneer's/Wilderness Survival Guides (1985/1986) as where things pivot away from old school styles of play being assumed by the books being produced. UA and OA assumed something that wasn't dungeon crawling in their setting material and new subsystems, Dragonlance assumed a narrative form of play as the default rather than a one-off (which is why I don't peg it with Ravenloft or the Desert of Desolation series - which were less influential on everything that followed), and the Survival Guides introduced the idea of having some kind of "skill system" into the game which I personally find to be one of the big breaking points from old school D&D rules to newer rules styles. (EDIT - just remembered that OA introduced the proficiency system, so another mark in its favor I suppose). But of course part of that is because I am old and lived through these changes in published content and expected play style, and watched how these publications influenced what was published after. Also I don't think that "old school" is necessarily a good thing or a bad thing - it's just a thing. I'd really like it to be a descriptor of a tangible point in history and not a marketing term because that makes it somewhat objective and useful to me. (But really, it's a marketing term - so I know I'm tilting at windmills with that). [/QUOTE]
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