Do TTRPGs Need to "Modernize?"

[Bedrockgames]

But Cyborg Commando is objectively bad and that's what I want everyone here to take away from this conversation.

but cyborg commando isn’t bad because it’s old, it’s bad because it’s cyborg commando

With 2E that is my preferred edition to run these days, I think RPGs are more like music. Some techniques might evolve, but the classics are still good. Some people prefer modern, some prefer older. It is also generational aesthetics. I find I can’t get into many movies sometime after the late 2000s. And I generally prefer older movies. Techniques in film making have evolved but Nosferatu still holds up, and to me is scarier than any modern horror movie. But that is subjective and also a product of my taste in aesthetics

[Edited for typos from phone post]

 

[Thomas Shey]

• Character sheets should guide you through character creation. And then walk you through the turns to help you learn as you play.

I can't help but think this is a super-inefficient use of character sheet landscape. I don't have a problem with a character gen cheat-sheet but I don't need to be taking up character sheet space with it.

 

[dragoner]

Sounds like Mothership

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I can't help but think this is a super-inefficient use of character sheet landscape. I don't have a problem with a character gen cheat-sheet but I don't need to be taking up character sheet space with it.

Oh man, this is one of the things I hate about Champions character sheets. So many needless effing numbers.

 

[MGibster]

but cyborg commando isn’t bad because it’s old, it’s bad because it’s cyborg commando

I saw Leonard Nimoy at a Star Trek convention in 1999 and here's what he had to say. "The episodes that were bad thirty years ago are still bad today. And the episodes that were good thirty years ago are still good today." I think someone had asked him about "Spock's Brain." Cyborg Commando is one of those games that was bad nearly 40 years ago and is still bad today.

With 2E that is my preferred edition to run these days, I think RPGs are more like music. Some techniques might evoke, but the classics are still good. Some people prefer modern, done prefer older. It is also generational aesthetics.

Most of us don't keep up with the ever changing preferences of a younger audience. I swore when I was younger that I'd never be one of those old people complaining that today's music sucks and I've kept that promise. But, man, I absolutely do not like a lot of the popular music younger people are enjoying these days. I'm not saying it sucks, I just don't care for it.

 

[Wolfpack48]

I saw Leonard Nimoy at a Star Trek convention in 1999 and here's what he had to say. "The episodes that were bad thirty years ago are still bad today. And the episodes that were good thirty years ago are still good today." I think someone had asked him about "Spock's Brain." Cyborg Commando is one of those games that was bad nearly 40 years ago and is still bad today.

Most of us don't keep up with the ever changing preferences of a younger audience. I swore when I was younger that I'd never be one of those old people complaining that today's music sucks and I've kept that promise. But, man, I absolutely do not like a lot of the popular music younger people are enjoying these days. I'm not saying it sucks, I just don't care for it.

Aww I love Spock's Brain. Now Mudd's Women...

 

[Bedrockgames]

Most of us don't keep up with the ever changing preferences of a younger audience. I swore when I was younger that I'd never be one of those old people complaining that today's music sucks and I've kept that promise. But, man, I absolutely do not like a lot of the popular music younger people are enjoying these days. I'm not saying it sucks, I just don't care for it.

I think it boils down to you are born into a particular culture of art and media. I grew up with a lot of practical effects, and movies with practical effects move me more than those with CGI tend to. I can still watch new movies, I can still listen to new music, but I share your experience where I just don't like a lot of it. There are exceptions of course. Also some of this is the technology. We probably both grew up listening to things on analog, recorded on tape, and played through speakers. That is a very different listening experience than something designed to play on an iPhone. Some of what interferes with the emotional impact of newer music is often the way it's mixed for me. Even stuff in genres that are trying to capture sounds from when I was younger, the mixes always feel off.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I saw Leonard Nimoy at a Star Trek convention in 1999 and here's what he had to say. "The episodes that were bad thirty years ago are still bad today. And the episodes that were good thirty years ago are still good today." I think someone had asked him about "Spock's Brain." Cyborg Commando is one of those games that was bad nearly 40 years ago and is still bad today.

Some of those classic Star Trek episodes were really well written. There are a few where I remember where I was when I first saw them because of the impact they had (and I was watching them on reruns in the 80s, not during their initial airing).

 

[Thomas Shey]

Oh man, this is one of the things I hate about Champions character sheets. So many needless effing numbers.

At least a lot of those are use-in-play things.

 

[Retreater]

Sounds like PF2.

Unfortunately it is very cluttered with design and not very approachable.
The other issue is that it isn't very well structured for limited run games. The default is that 20 level AP structure.