Back to the future

[Melan]

A game having a certain feel is not rules dependant, the rules make a game better or wrose, in some cases the lack of rules makes it worse thus the evolving of the game makes it better.

A common fallacy oft repeated doesn't cease to be one. System does matter, and it has a substantial influence on the play experience, or "feel". It is possible to mold a system to do something else than it was intended to do (I've done it with 3.0), but only to a certain limit, and never without difficulties.

 

[RFisher]

Umm- one question- Why?

It took me a lot of time reading things at Dragonsfoot, Rob's Kuntz's forums, & various other places, examining my own experiences, & re-reading the old rules to answer that question myself. I don't think I could distill it all into a brief answer.

(As the quantity of words I've spewed on my website about the merits of classic D&D demonstrates. (^_^))

Although, trying to understand its appeal is itself a reason for playing the old game. Even if--or especially if--you'd played the game before but haven't in years. But that can sometimes only have the effect of reinforcing your criticisms rather than giving you new insights.

For me, a lot of answering that question may have come down to this: I know people enjoyed this game. I know there are people who know & have tried the alternatives who still find this game more compelling. So, let me read it again & figure out how I can interpret it so that it is compelling.

MonsterMash, you may want to look at the Gygax OD&D 2005 thread at DF if you haven't.