D&D General Defining "New School" Play (+)

[UngeheuerLich]

Since it comes up a lot (A LOT), I will also note that the dictum to "be a fan of the characters" does not mean simply handing the players wins with no effort.

My favorite example is Spider-Man. If you're a fan of Spidey, you're going to want to see him in stories where he's stressing out over Aunt May's health and whether he can beg enough money out of J. Jonah Jameson to make his rent. And sure you want fights where he can clown around and wisecrack and make the villain look silly, but you also want to see him in situations where he's beaten down by overwhelming odds and has to dig deep to rise to the occasion; the image of him bloody with his costume torn to shreds is classic for a reason.

Being a fan of the characters means understanding the characters and the situations that make them shine, and providing them with opportunities for those situations.

Same page here!

 

[Oofta]

What about Ancient School Play? The really old stuff.

Right? Like back in the day when hobbits were thieves, dwarves were fighting men and elves were already OP because they could dual class?

 

[GobHag]

I think I see a valid point there, but the wording isn't a good representation of what happens in play. Specifically, the fictional game world overall does not necessarily revolve around characters in new school play. Play revolves around the characters.

And I mean that in the sense that, in old school play, characters are semi-expendable, they come and go, and that doesn't really impact the focus of play much. In more new school forms, if we replace characters, we expect the focus of play to suit their narrative needs. It is not that the actual world changes, but the things we concern ourselves with in play changes.

True. The world changing might not literally happen during the table, but I do think designing the fictional world(more likely just the immediate region and then some) depending on what the characters are is more common in New School than Old School.

But that can be constructed as prepping the support for play around the player characters.

 

[Corinnguard]

Right? Like back in the day when hobbits were thieves, dwarves were fighting men and elves were already OP because they could dual class?

This reminds me of the line from Hitchhiker's Guide of the Galaxy about men being men, women being women, and little creatures from Alpha Centauri being little creatures from Alpha Centauri.

A lot of stereotypes about the various species in D&D got broken over the various editions.

 

[Krachek]

School for me intent a common share of knowledge and usage. That make a common reference we can talk about.

So for DnD I would say that the Common reference these days is Critical role.
It’s an observation, I’m not a fan of the show!

It match the OP list and my understanding.

• characters that feel special
• A lot of interactions of any kind.
• death is a national event
• Everybody collaborate to the story and the session

 

[jmartkdr2]

Personally I think that due to the post 2e booms there are 4 branches of NSP

The 3e branch
The 4e branch
The 5e branch
The PBTA/BITD branch

I'd almost call the 3e and 4e branches Middle School Play.

If I had to do a timeline, it'd be Old School (DYI ethos) > Silver Age (high crunch) > Modern (focused play).

But as other have noted, all three are fairly popular in the hobby at the moment.

 

[Mallus]

Using that definition, most of my groups have been playing in the New School style since roughly 1990. I recall my first impression after being introduced to tabletop RPGs a few years prior was, "Oh, these are games where you play the main characters of a genre novel."

 

[Krachek]

Still thinking!

I follow ShadowDark for a while even if I didn’t play yet.
In some way it fit New School.

Rather to propose dozens of options and big balanced scores, ShadowDark go back to 3D6 and minimalistic character sheet. But it did work to make character feel special.

SD force always on initiative and continuous table turn. It’s a great way to involve everyone in the game.

SD turn death into an event. It’s no more a failure. Some reports 0 level character session with a dozen a PC death. The death become a cool thing rather than the obvious sign of failure we seen in old school mentality.

 

[Minigiant]

That would seem highly misleading - while PbtA and BitD get a lot of discussion around here, they are relative latecomers to the party, from 2010 and 2017, respectively. Meanwhile, Cortex is from back in 2007, and Fate is from 2003. I am sure folks could identify several other "New School but not-very-D&D" games that predate PbtA too.

You might want to just call that last, the "Indie Games" branch. It lumps things together in a way that's not descriptive of any particular style, but it makes it more clear that the point of the category is more "Not D&D" than anything else.

PBTA/BITD/DH as NeoNew School?

 

[Gorck]

In its current state, I wouldn't consider D&D old or new school, its a blend of both.

So, you’re saying D&D is just “school.” Great, now I don’t want to play it anymore.