Creativity, where has it gone?

[JoeGKushner]

I think Digital M is way off here.

Back in the day we had all sorts of unofficial D&D products, most of them through the Role Aids line, but some through the old Arduin Press and various other areas like Judges Guild, Companions, etc...

This doesnt' count the number of things people borrowed from fiction to throw into their own work. Sure, coming up with gaming stats is an art of sorts but it's hardly original.

When I find game mechanics that work, it lets me work on the story.

 

[rounser]

To cater to the cranky old gamer who pines for mythical "good old days?"

Maybe it's for people who aren't stupid enough to think that one size fits all.

 

[Hussar]

They ended in 1978, with the publication of the AD&D Player's Handbook.

If you read Gygax's words written at that time, it was to provide a basis that everyone would be familiar with, so that people from across the world could play D&D without getting into big arguments as to what the rules were - especially at conventions.

Is creativity merely creating rules then? I prefer to use my creativity for the aspects of D&D I'm good at - roleplaying, creating exciting adventures and storytelling - rather than the mundanity of the rules. I let people who are good at that do it for me, and use their excellent work to inspire and help me.

Quoted for truth.

Let's see. I bought naval combat rules because I was running a naval campaign. I know very little about ship to ship combat, and, I don't have the time, energy or inclination to write my own rules, playtest them and then rewrite them umpteen times. I'd rather sit down with my buddies and play. Leave the designing stuff to thems wot like it. Does that mean that my campaign is somehow less creative than the next guy's who spent umpteen hours developing a ship to ship combat system?

I don't bloody think so.

 

[Quasqueton]

I just want to state for the record: I heart MerricB.

Quasqueton

 

[Digital M@]

First, I thank you for correcting "baited" with bated, I don't know if I had ever seen it in print. and if I had, I had obviously forgotten. I neither attacked people who bought books (Buttercup), nor said the rules were unimportant, I just asked the simple question of why do we, myself included until about a year ago, feel this need to buy so many books for a game that really does not need them. I have bought 1 book in the last year and my games have not suffered, nor can I think of a book of rules that would really add anything else to it.

Common rules are nice, I enjoy D20, but in the end, no two games play the same anyway, and rule 0 makes any adaptation to the rules as legitimate as anything else. This was just a question and challenge to look at yourselves and your games and consider your purchasing habits. Sometimes we become slaves to our buying habits.

For those of us who are HS graduates, college graduates, have kids, are married, have full time jobs and other hobbies, and anyone else, there are books that will have value, but if your time is really pressed, do 50 books of rules really solve any time issues? Niether does the $1300 spent on those books usually eqate to efficient family money management.

Now, a few of you remarked that you enjoyed reading the books and pooled ideas or inspiration off of them. That was a legitimate answer to the question. I used to find this, but I still found I usually only looked at the 3 core rule books and 1 or 2 others.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

For those of us who are HS graduates, college graduates, have kids, are married, have full time jobs and other hobbies, and anyone else, there are books that will have value, but if your time is really pressed, do 50 books of rules really solve any time issues? Niether does the $1300 spent on those books usually eqate to efficient family money management.

$1,300 / 50 Books = $26 a book.

Man - where can I get deals like that?

 

[Digital M@]

$1,300 / 50 Books = $26 a book.

Man - where can I get deals like that?

If I put a larger $$$ amount down, there would have been 20 responses about how they don't pay list price and how they buy from Amazon and then someone would have said you should support your game store, and then a guy would come in and say why should I support them, they don't do anything for me except try to rip me off. And that last guy is right because all game store owners drive $50,000 cars and live in mansions.


Going back to other comments by other posters.

Furthermore I never said back in the good old days!

 

[kingpaul]

Furthermore I never said back in the good old days!

Yes you did...very first post.

what happened to the good old days?

 

[Hussar]

Now, to be fair, after the release of 3.5, my buying habits changed considerably. Well, really, my habits had been changing for a while. I no longer buy books just because. I buy what I'm going to use in my campaign. Dragon fills my need for other stuff that might perk my interest, but, as far as going out and buying a book, I'm pretty choosey anymore. If I don't need it, I won't buy it.