"First Edition Feel"

[Edena_of_Neith]

(smiles wistfully)

Ah ... there is someone here besides me who still remembers Waldorf.

 

[Henry]

(smiles wistfully)

Ah ... there is someone here besides me who still remembers Waldorf.

You mean that guy who was a 365th level magic-user and who blew up Grayhawk and has an asteroid floating in the void with a bunch of the Gods chained up working in the iron mine in the basement?

Never heard of 'im.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

That sums up my personal view rather nicely. I really prefer that style of play to games where I have to find my fun - I don't like chasing clues or being in a situation where I don't know what to do next.

Fair enough, but it also deteracts from a certain ammount of versimilitude in the setting.

DM: You're in Saltmarsh, a frontier town, filled with danger and adventure around every turn.
PC: Is there a magic item store?
DM: Oh, yeah, a big one. It'll take some time to ge to though because you have to go around the ferris wheel and there's a huge crowd assmbled for the regatta down by the harbor.

And it doesn't have to be like that. You can still get your hack on and have the setting stand up to more than minor scrutiny. I think this is an area where RttToEE stood out as exemplarly, you'd have to be a economic wack-a-doodle like me to find holes there.

I have an idea brewing to run a weekly game of D&D, starting with the 1974 white box set and progressing through the years to 3.5e. I think it would be fun to look at how the game has changed over the years and how that has altered the feel. Ideally, I'd do it over consecutive days, but I doubt I can pull that off.

Why not try this at a convention (as francisca suggested)? I'm sure the organizers would rush at the opportunity and only be too delighted to make that happen for you.

 

[Kanegrundar]

You mean that guy who was a 365th level magic-user and who blew up Grayhawk and has an asteroid floating in the void with a bunch of the Gods chained up working in the iron mine in the basement?

Never heard of 'im.

Now I remember the reference! That was funny.

Kane

 

[francisca]

Why not try this at a convention? I'm sure the organizers would rush at the opportunity and only be too delighted to make that happen for you.

Is there an echo in here?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Is there an echo in here?

No, just a guy who read your post, wrote up a thing about D&D, and then forgot where he got the idea in the first place.

Mea culpa.

 

[francisca]

Mea culpa.

Meh. I forgot the smiley.

You're still sexxy.

 

[Henry]

Fair enough, but it also deteracts from a certain ammount of versimilitude in the setting.

DM: You're in Saltmarsh, a frontier town, filled with danger and adventure around every turn.
PC: Is there a magic item store?
DM: Oh, yeah, a big one. It'll take some time to ge to though because you have to go around the ferris wheel and there's a huge crowd assmbled for the regatta down by the harbor.

And it doesn't have to be like that. You can still get your hack on and have the setting stand up to more than minor scrutiny.

OK, but in demonstrating your point, your example is a bit out of proportion with what Mearls and Francisca are talking about. It's very different to go from not knowing what the chief export of the town is, to it having a harbor. Seriously, having a magic shop, all kinds of out-of-character businesses, etc. would be unlikely in the first place, as the DM set it up as a back-water "filled with danger and adventure."

What they said was moving straight past extraneous details and going to the adventure, more in the style of the Lord of the Rings movies versus the Lord of the Rings books. In the movie, you don't find out that hobbits are the best rock-throwers around, nor what kinds of songs they sing at various occasions, or why the Fangorn Forest has the history it does, etc. etc. Just as I can sympathize with a D&D game having a setting with tons of detail and self-consistency, I can sympathize with a D&D game that says, "You have been asked by the Local Lord to deal with a Hill Giant Invasion Force" instead of going into why diplomacy hasn't worked, why didn't we try to reason with them, whether the Hill Giant leader will compromise or take bribes, etc. There's a time for each type of game, and a simpler setup doesn't have to be 100% realistic.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

That reminds me -- do you AL guys have a regular ENWorld Gameday going?

Not that I'm aware of. I'm trying pretty hard to get together a regular group for a Freeport-in-F.R. game. Someone putting together a regular ENWorld Gameday would have their work cut out for them.

 

[SweeneyTodd]

I agree with Henry. The idea that a roleplaying game should simluate a world in complete detail is just a preference, not the only way to play. It's certainly the most espoused method of GMing, but there are other ways to do it.

Some people want as much detail as Tolkein. Me, I'm happy do it more like Robert E. Howard -- the world at large is painted in broad strokes to set a general tone, and the detail's just focused on the adventure at hand. Just because "Tower of the Elephant" doesn't tell us much about what the city it's based in is like doesn't mean it's not a fun read. That's "1st edition feel" to me.