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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5459489" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is an interesting point.In my view the previous editions weren't Swiss army knives, but also had a focus. Look, for example, at the advice for players in the last section of the 1st ed AD&amp;D PHB. Not a game about basket-weaving. A game about operational play. If you don't actually play out your dungeon-scouting in 1st ed, you're not playing the game that Gygax is talking about.Or at the list of sample scenarios in the Moldvay Basic rulebook. Also not a game about basket-weaving, but similar in some ways to Gygax's AD&amp;D although a bit more light-hearted.On the other hand, earlier editions of D&amp;D don't particularly support hero-questing play - that is, a game in which the heroes travel back into mythic history in order to rewrite myth and therefore change the world - because (i) the structure of the planes tends to be treated as fixed independently of the gods, (ii) the gods tend to be treated as unkillable, (iii) the history of the gameworld is not generally presented as having a mythic aspect, and (iv) there are other reasons as well, of a more mechaincal nature, that can be elaborated if desired.I know not everyone agrees with me on this. Some people think that a simulationist ruleset can be plugged into any world. But that is not my experience. In my experience, a simulationist ruleset tends to create its own pressure to prioritise some, and subordinate other, aspects of the gameworld in the course of play.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5459489, member: 42582"] This is an interesting point. In my view the previous editions [I]weren't[/I] Swiss army knives, but also had a focus. Look, for example, at the advice for players in the last section of the 1st ed AD&D PHB. Not a game about basket-weaving. A game about operational play. If you don't actually play out your dungeon-scouting in 1st ed, you're not playing the game that Gygax is talking about. Or at the list of sample scenarios in the Moldvay Basic rulebook. Also not a game about basket-weaving, but similar in some ways to Gygax's AD&D although a bit more light-hearted. On the other hand, earlier editions of D&D don't particularly support hero-questing play - that is, a game in which the heroes travel back into mythic history in order to rewrite myth and therefore change the world - because (i) the structure of the planes tends to be treated as fixed independently of the gods, (ii) the gods tend to be treated as unkillable, (iii) the history of the gameworld is not generally presented as having a mythic aspect, and (iv) there are other reasons as well, of a more mechaincal nature, that can be elaborated if desired. I know not everyone agrees with me on this. Some people think that a simulationist ruleset can be plugged into any world. But that is not my experience. In my experience, a simulationist ruleset tends to create its own pressure to prioritise some, and subordinate other, aspects of the gameworld in the course of play. [/QUOTE]

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