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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rogueattorney" data-source="post: 5600137" data-attributes="member: 17551">I want to comment on one point of disagreement here, before I get to the rest of the OP, which I generally agree with...True retro-clones are attempts to be actual clones.  That is, as close to the original rules as legally possible.  They are not attempts improve on what has already been written, but rather attempts to get what's no longer in print back into print and have new support for those rules.  There are actually very few true retro-clones - OSRIC (1e), Swords & Wizardry (OD&D), and Labyrinth Lord (B/X D&D) are the main ones.There are a number of what you might call pseudo-clones and those generally are attempts to do exactly what the OP is describing.  (Whether they succeed or not...)  These would include such games as Castles & Crusades, BFRPG, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dungeon Crawl Classics, the new version of Hackmaster, plus numerous others.That said, I otherwise agree in large part with what the OP is saying.  I'm not entirely sure when I had a similar revelation.  It may have been after reading the rules for Encounter Critical (a mock-old school farce game) with a big, goofy smile on my face the entire time, feeling that those 30-ish pages did more to inspire me to WANT to play than any new game material I'd read in decades.It may have been while I was thumbing through 90 or so pages of my FLGS's copy of Space Munchkin, when one of the other customers held up the 500-some page Pathfinder core rule book, and I thought to myself, "Why on earth would I buy that instead of this?"It may have been when I picked up the brand spanking new 200-page 4e PHB, opened it up, barely glancing at the words before putting it down and thinking to myself, "I just don't care anymore."I, and I would assume the vast majority of veteran rpg-ers, have long known that we don't NEED a gigantic rule book to run a good game.  But more recently, I've realized that I don't WANT a bunch of rules.  They've become a burden to me, instead of a tool.  They detract from my fun.  B/X D&D was as complete a game as I've ever wanted, and the authors got the game across in about 120 pages, with a bit of duplication in the two books.  That included a sample dungeon, sample wilderness area, and a whole bunch of advice on running a game and procedural tutorials.  If WotC wanted to use the B/X template as their core D&D game, to allow someone who just didn't want to deal with all the other baggage, while still being able to use their core rules for a complete campaign, they could get me back in the fold.I was hoping Essentials would be that product.  It wasn't.  Nevertheless, I went to the FLGS in a fit of nostalgia, fully intending to get the Red Box.  I fought off the fit and bought Green Ronin's Dragon Age frpg instead.  It was almost everything I thought the Red Box should be.</blockquote>

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