Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 389892" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well in the since that 3rd. edition is more flexible, 'elegant', complete, consistant, balanced, simpler, and in general meets the goals of good game design more fully than 1st edition ever did, sure 1st edition is 'inferior'.  But while I think the 3rd. edition designers would agree that 3rd. edition was more elegant, consistant, and so forth because those were in indeed the goals that they set out to meet, I do not think that they would snub 1st edition with a term loaded with negative conatations like 'inferior'.  Nor do I think any of the 1st edition players, including people like me who played 1st edition for 15 years before the problems with its mechanics drove me away, would readily focus on 1st edition's 'inferiority', and would prefer to focus on 3rd editions 'superiority'.  Even if those by logical necessity mean the same things, one carries different conatatations than the other.  Deprived of its historical position, 1st edition was a horrible system.  But, what do you expect of the first gaming system ever created?  First edition was never 'designed'.  It simply grew organically into being as people began to consider new ideas and problems to be solved.  The rules it adopted were not always the best solution to the problem in question, but they were each in and of themselves simple solutions to complex problems.  The complexity arose when trying to integrate all these disparate solutions.Dispite all its problems, 1st edition D&D was a remarkably enduring and attractive system - especially with new and young players.  It's basic mechanics were simple, and the game could easily progress in complexity as its players reexperienced and rediscovered the same problems that faced the original players and designers.  No other game system has ever managed to attract as many people to gaming, nor maintain a strong precence in the culture for as long a period.  Few even come close.  Vampire attracted a very large body of new gamers, but had in many ways the attributes of a passing fad.  Warhammer's system has been as enduring, but has never been a strong a presence.  GURPS has been a consistant strong presence, but has never managed to attract nearly as many adherents and is subject to endless rules generation that tends to overwhelm its basic elegance.D20 is a remarkably good gaming system, as good as GURPS in its own way, maybe even better than WEG's SW's (which I also loved).But don't thumb your nose at your elders. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification