Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6582441" data-attributes="member: 85870">Totally agree. At no point when I was "soul searching" for an RPG system back in 2010/2011 was "nostalgia" a factor. It was a highly pragmatic inquiry of, A) will this give me the kind of play experience I want, and B) even if it gives me that experience, am I willing to run it?I was open to pretty much anything....new stuff, old stuff, stuff in between. I looked at Runequest, True20, New World of Darkness, Arcana Evolved, GURPS, Fate/Legends of Anglerre.I even revisited my Rules Cyclopedia, and checked out old 1e stuff. Ultimately I realized that I didn't WANT to go back to an older version of D&D. Some of my fondest memories of roleplaying as a teen revolve around the Rules Cyclopedia.....and I had zero desire to go back and actually play or run it. Simply put, there were "better" systems out there now. The RPG world had evolved a great deal since 1989. In fact, my ultimate choice of Savage Worlds largely came to fruition because it provided a BECMI-like feel in play, but with radically improved resolution mechanics. Even now, my RPG purchasing decisions are based on the same criteria. The only other factor is even if I would never run the system / module in question, I might still purchase it if it provides enough compelling background / world building / inspirational / encounter material. To a point, I sort of understand the whole, "Get over your nostalgia and get with the times" argument. Claiming that a 1970s stereo with scratchy speakers and 8-track player is objectively "better" than a brand new set of high-end Klipsch speakers attached to a top-of-the-line Denon receiver is, on its face, ludicrous. The only reason for making such a claim really would be nostalgia----the memories of listening to music on that 1970s stereo trump the actual equipment used during the experience.But it's a bit more nebulous than that with an RPG system, for the simple fact that the emotional component is really at the heart of gameplay. Comfort, familiarity with a system and its tropes, experience working through its mechanics, all may lead to the "right" experience where the emotional resonance trumps everything else. An RPG produces an experience, it isn't the experience itself. To use the music metaphor, sound equipment is pretty much moot without some actual recorded music to play on it. I personally happen to think that newer RPGs make it easier to produce quality experiences, but someone who really groks 1e, for example, may likely produce an equal or better experience for his or her group than I do with mine using Savage Worlds. I actually think the stereo metaphor isn't all that inappropriate---the choice of recording is equivalent to the RPG "play experience" we want. If we don't want to listen to polka music, don't put one in the CD player (or turntable). Likewise, if I want to play a space opera sci-fi campaign, don't bring over your copy of Dread. But if we DO want polka music, the choice of equipment (i.e., RPG system) may determine in some regard how well that music is reproduced and consumed. In this case, a highly modded game of 1e would be the equivalent of someone taking that 1970s sound system and making their own self-made improvements---"See what I did to the speakers there? And how I soldered this diode on to the circuit here? That improves the sound reproduction."</blockquote>

Verification