Can You Go Home Again? +

[Blue Orange]

Dug up the original quote, it appears to be from Heraclitus, one of the pre-Socratic philosophers:

Heraclitus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

As with most very old things nobody's quite sure what the original version was, but seems to be some version of "you can't step into the same river twice". The bit about not being the same person seems apocryphal, though it's still very much true.

The Zocchi dice in Dungeon Crawl Classics seem to be an attempt to get some of the experience of playing with 'weird dice' back by coming up with more 'weird dice'. I'll let anyone who's played it comment on how effective it is, but it strikes me as at least a creative attempt to resurrect one of the tactile elements of the experience.

But...yeah. It's not the same game. I wasn't really expecting it to be after all this time. One thing I haven't seen commented on that may be causing some of the resistance is the confusion of the various rule changes after you've seen enough editions. How many feats do I have again? What's my BAB? Oh wait, that doesn't exist anymore. What does a spectre do? Remove levels, give negative ones, or cause exhaustion? What do you call the class with the spellbook that uses Intelligence as its prime requisite--ah, SAD-- again? There's a row of 6 numbers written down here, what comes after Strength, Intelligence or Dexterity again? How does Drow magic resistance work? What's the damage cap on a fireball? I cast Fire Shield and jump into melee--oh wait, it doesn't do any damage anymore. I've got AC 10--oh well, that's always bad.

 

[Reynard]

Dug up the original quote, it appears to be from Heraclitus, one of the pre-Socratic philosophers:

Heraclitus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

As with most very old things nobody's quite sure what the original version was, but seems to be some version of "you can't step into the same river twice". The bit about not being the same person seems apocryphal, though it's still very much true.

The Zocchi dice in Dungeon Crawl Classics seem to be an attempt to get some of the experience of playing with 'weird dice' back by coming up with more 'weird dice'. I'll let anyone who's played it comment on how effective it is, but it strikes me as at least a creative attempt to resurrect one of the tactile elements of the experience.

But...yeah. It's not the same game. I wasn't really expecting it to be after all this time. One thing I haven't seen commented on that may be causing some of the resistance is the confusion of the various rule changes after you've seen enough editions. How many feats do I have again? What's my BAB? Oh wait, that doesn't exist anymore. What does a spectre do? Remove levels, give negative ones, or cause exhaustion? What do you call the class with the spellbook that uses Intelligence as its prime requisite--ah, SAD-- again? There's a row of 6 numbers written down here, what comes after Strength, Intelligence or Dexterity again? How does Drow magic resistance work? What's the damage cap on a fireball? I cast Fire Shield and jump into melee--oh wait, it doesn't do any damage anymore. I've got AC 10--oh well, that's always bad.

I am currently running a Pathfinder 2E Remaster game that is very intentional about learning the rules, so we stop and look up stuff all the time -- especially if it sounds like something from some other version of a d20 fantasy RPG. It is sort of like parsing the weird rules of AD&D after starting with BECMI way back in the day -- trying to understand how it works and what is unique about it.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Ah, missed that part. I even searched the page for "Legend of Grimrock 2" to make sure he hadn't mentioned it. Didn't think to search for "sequel."

He can ramble a bit, no denying it. Sometimes it's a good ramble, sometimes not so much. Mostly depends on how interesting you find the current post. These days I mostly read him for the magazine reviews, which are undeniably nostalgic for me.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I stared playing TTRPG’s when I was in elementary school and I played through junior High, High school and then college. Most of my best gaming experiences were during that time. I wasn’t in my career and hadn’t started a family yet so there was a time where my focus was mostly on my hobbies. Even though for a period much later on I found a great gaming group my focus has always been split between family & career and other obligations more than focused on this hobby that I love.

I think that the people I was gaming with in my youth AND the systems we played had a lot to do with the level of fun we had. There was little aversion to crunchier systems and math. Whenever a system lacked something we needed or wanted we made house rules for it for our table and kept it moving. We played our games not to say we were better than other groups or to say to other people that they were “doing it wrong” but for our own edification and FUN.

I think that those times are LONG GONE and newer gamers are a different breed. And that breed while not bad is, I’m finding, not to my tastes. I also feel that some older gamers are stuck in nostalgia and are constantly trying to relive / remake the past, which is also not my cup of tea. I hope to find my next group of gamers somewhere in between and have newer and different experiences.

 

[Andvari]

He can ramble a bit, no denying it. Sometimes it's a good ramble, sometimes not so much. Mostly depends on how interesting you find the current post. These days I mostly read him for the magazine reviews, which are undeniably nostalgic for me.

I thought it was a good read. Besides, anybody who likes Legend of Grimrock has a good taste in games, as far as I’m concerned.

 

[kenada]

I still remember the first campaign I ran fondly. Is it the best one? I don’t think I’d say that. I wouldn’t mind playing 3e (not 3.5e or PF1) again. I don’t think I’d want to run it.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I thought it was a good read. Besides, anybody who likes Legend of Grimrock has a good taste in games, as far as I’m concerned.

Accurate.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

So, I just experienced a bit of this with my son (adult now, well...almost 20) as we watched the '86 Transformers Movie. Plot holes abound, cheesy lines, but you know, there was still some smiles, as we watched something together, that I watched when I was a kid. I'm pretty easy when it comes to my viewable media, I still play a ton of old games as well, maybe I'm just not that discerning.

My wife and I have been watching our childhood classics with some friends of ours and their son. Movies like Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, The Black Hole still have the power to completely entrance a little kid.

Other than a profound love for Peter Cullen (RIP).

Thankfully, Peter Cullen is still alive. And still doing voice-acting. His voice really is one of the key voices of the 80s.

I wouldn't want to "go home again" because the players I have now are better and more creative than the ones I had 30-40 years ago.

I'd say that as well, but one of my players is one of the ones from 30-40 years ago!

 

[Distracted DM]

Thankfully, Peter Cullen is still alive. And still doing voice-acting. His voice really is one of the key voices of the 80s.

Oh wow thanks for that! I don't know why I thought he passed- maybe im still scarred by Kevin Conroy's passing.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'm going to do what I do a lot.

It depends.

There are older games I ran that I could probably run again and get good value out of them, and those I couldn't. Usually the factor in the latter is that I've gotten used to having tools in operation or (more likely) character definition I'd really prefer not to do without. I'm not sure I'd get a good game out of running RQ3 these days for example for multiple reasons even though I got a heck of a lot of good gaming out of RQ and some other BRP offshoots back in the day--but it doesn't supply me some things I want these days.