Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaltab" data-source="post: 9379391" data-attributes="member: 6775806">I haven't had time to read the whole thread, but I think 'Old School' and 'New School' is part false distinction and part oversimplification. When Arneson and Gygax were first inventing D&D, they were coming at it from the perspective of a war gamer. Gygax referred to the DM as a 'Referee' in OD&D and even later mentioned not caring for the fact that in 3E, the DM was meant to be an 'entertainer'. In early versions of D&D, there was even essentially score keeping in the form of treasure. Players were competing, not directly against each other, but against the randomly-rolled elements of the dungeons in order to have the most wealth and power. The fact of the matter is that D&D and later TTRPGs invented a new genre of game that has been gradually evolving. There are more 'Schools' than just old and new 50 years later, and I would argue that many things you might consider 'New School' play are just the result of this sort of game ending up in the hands of people that weren't immersed in war gaming and thus didn't approach the game as a competition.</blockquote>