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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9647891" data-attributes="member: 7026594">I'm a few years older. Started with BECMI then rapidly jumped to AD&D, played AD&D a lot in the early to mid 90s. I had a break from it when I got into LARPing and then wargaming, probably '97ish to around 2002.  Then got back in with 3E when some of my (5-odd years older) wargaming buddies decided to get back into D&D, which they had mostly been away from longer. We played the hell out of 3rd, 3.5, and 4E.4E was new when I met Frank Mentzer at a convention and he introduced me to the OSR.  I then dove headfirst into reading several years of older posts on forums and then-super active blogs digging into the history of the game and all the new stuff people were producing.  Grognardia didn't start until around <a href="https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-game-license.html" target="_blank">six months before 4E was released</a>, for example (and Dave Bowman's wonderful blog<a href="https://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/2008/02/d-by-gygax-and-arneson.html" target="_blank"> just before that</a>), but Delta's blog dates to a <a href="https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2007/03/first-post.html" target="_blank">full year</a> before Maliziewski's, and the forums (Dragonsfoot, Knights & Knaves Alehouse, and Original D&D Discussion in particular) had been going full tilt for a few years before those, putting out new modules and play resources <a href="https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8804" target="_blank">since at least 2004</a>.  And of course the OSR produced the first retroclones (BFRPG and OSRIC) in 2006.I can see how 4E could look like the start point if you were just looking at the later blog explosion or the Google+ phase.No doubt the release of 4E triggered another wave of growth for the OSR, as some players jumping ship went to the new Pathfinder, and others went backwards and found the OSR.Right.  I think his perspective is A way to play, but he's simply wrong that it is or was THE way to play. <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/david-wesely-the-man-who-accidentally-invented-rpgs.703708/post-9320932" target="_blank"> Dave Wesely certainly considers </a>the Braunsteins to be roleplaying games. He originally intended the first one to set up a wargame scenario, but after seeing how people played it and enjoyed it, realized that didn't have to be the point, and ran the subsequent ones such that the focus was and stayed on the individual characters.  No wargame component needed.It does seem clear that Dave meant for Blackmoor to focus as much on domain and wargame play as individual character play, but it's also evident from reports of play that his players mostly were excited about the dungeon exploring and tended to neglect the larger wargame elements.  Hence Blackmoor town getting overrun by the baddies and the good guys having to flee to <a href="https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2012/08/blackmoor-in-era-of-loch-gloomen.html" target="_blank">Loch Gloomin</a>.And as you say, if AD&D had really been intended to focus on wargame/domain level play, why aren't there more instructions for how to run that kind of game?  Or any classic modules focusing on it?</blockquote>

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