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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 2397826" data-attributes="member: 2804">This thread doesn't really have a point at all. Its just me speaking aloud some thoughts I have had for the longest time.I am 28 and have been playing D&D off and on for 18 years. I remember fondly making dungeons to play with my friends that just had the most bizarre stuff. Like rooms with monsters just sitting in them. No ecology, no history. Just a room drawn on a piece of notebook paper with the word 'vampire' penciled in. And right next to it, another room with 'mongrel men' scribbled in. My players would go in, fight the monster, win and get some gold pieces and a wand or a ring for their trouble. It didn't really make any sense, but for some reason that was how we played. But it was fun. I can't really express why, though. And that has been bothering me. Where has that sense of wonder gone?And we played that way for years. I remember times when we would go months without missing a single weekend game. Every Saturday night we would gather at a friends house and play until the sun came up. Then we would do it all over again the next weekend. High level, low level, new characters, or old. It didn't matter. It was all fun.It was the same way for other areas of fantasy and sci-fi as well. For example, I don't really have any clear memory of first seeing Star Wars. It has just sort of always been there. It was and still is one of my favorite movies of all time. It seemed to capture that childlike wonder in a way.But then I grew up, went to college, traveled around, and now find myself married with a regular job. I still play D&D every week. And I have a blast. But its not the same. Our campign is serious and involved. Our characters are carefully constructed and every feat and skill point well chosen. By rights it should be the best gaming of my life. And in a way it is. But its missing that sense of wonder I remember from my childhood.I watch the new Star Wars movies and nothing. Even Lord of the Rings, a phenomonal series, is missing something for me. I watch it and enjoy it, but in the back of my mind I visualize the DVD extra telling me how they created the troops in CG, or built a model of Minas Tirith. When I watch the original non-SE version of Star Wars, even with dated 1977 special effects, I never find myself thinking about special effects guys blowing up models. There is something special about that movie.At first, I thought that perhaps this is just a matter of growing up. That as a child, I accepted things at face value, but as an adult I seek out a more in-depth explanation for things. And some of that is true to some extent. But when I watch the original SW trilogy, I can still experience that feeling of wonder. At first I attributed that to simply fond childhood memories of the movies. But when I first read Harry Potter, I also felt the wonder of childhood again. I realized it isn't necessarily childhood memories, but rather there really is some intangible quality that provides that experience.Likewise, when I played a D&D game with my friend Richard (known as SHARK on the boards), I also recaptured some of that gaming wonder from my youth. He is an awesome DM, and the way he described his world with vivid detail and imagination, rekindled some of those fond memories of gaming all night when I was 12 years old.So what is it? What is that intangible quality that's missing in other games, movies, or books? Some of it is just a matter of growing up and being more sophisticated. But some of it is not. Anyone have similar experiences?</blockquote>

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