Going back in time to play your novice days again

[pawsplay]

When I started playing, I hadn't even started puberty yet. I don't think I can meaningfully compare what i liked then to now. I do know that I learned many valuable lessons, some the hard way, and I am happy I don't have to make those same mistakes again.

 

[Stormonu]

I've changed so much since that time, I have a difficult time remembering how I used to game, and I'm not sure how well what I know would have gone over back in the day.

On a completely different note, if I could go back to those days I might have made a left turn and avoided RPGs entirely. They make up so much of what I am now that sometimes I curse that I missed out on the "good things" I could have been doing because I too involved with them.

 

[Klaus]

More fun, because I'd try to make campaigns that lasted a while longer. And because I'd know the rules better. Back in 1987 I had no idea clerics didn't have spellbooks!

 

[Lhorgrim]

I'd love to be able to go back to that time with the purple boxed set in 1982, but it wouldn't be as good.

I can't be scared and excited like I was back then. I didn't know how dangerous a giant ant was, so it took real bravery to attack the thing! Same thing with the skeleton and the goblins. I know too much now, and I don't think I can recapture the time when a giant ant was an unknown threat instead of a carefully balanced challenge.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

About the only thing I would change is to flesh out my PC's more. The first character I made, Olaf the Stout, doesn't have a lot behind him, other thans his class, skills and stats. I could go back now and add in that info but it just seems wrong doing it 14 years after the fact. Heck, I can't really even picture what he looks like!

Everything else I would leave the same though. The games I played in back then may have been different to the game I run now, but they were still a lot of fun.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Odhanan]

I'm not really the kind of person that just goes off into whatifs like this.

I had enormous fun when I started playing. I made many mistakes, some of them very entertaining and memorable themselves, others a lot less, and I just learned from there.

Today, I still have enormous fun playing RPGs. I do not play them the same way, but I still find that same thrill playing them as I did many years ago. It's just felt and expressed in other, still evolving, ways. I'm not into looking backwards, but look forward with an eye for what pleases my fancy and brings me the outlet, creative and otherwise, I enjoy through this hobby.

 

[Festivus]

If you have been playing D&D for more than 10 years:

If you could go back in time to your first days, weeks, months, years of your gaming career, and replay the game, knowing what you know now, with the experience in the game you have now, would those early games be as fun, more fun, or less fun?

Would you replay the game like you did then, or would you change things based on what you know now?

Has experience jaded you to what/how you used to enjoy the game, or has long experience confirmed your enjoyment of what/how you used to play the game?

Bullgrit

Oh my, I can still remember that feeling I got the first time I played D&D. I was playing a rogue, my brother a wizard, and we were sneaking into a crypt of some kind when skeletons rose up and attacked us. I had recently watched a Harryhausen flick (Sinbad perhaps?), so I had a vivid visual in my head of them, and it scared the crap out of me... and I was hooked.

I think there are two things now: 1) that sense of mystery and suspense is gone, 2) I put more importance on story than hacking up stuff and getting the loot. So I guess, no I don't really want to go back and relive that experience, and if I were forced to it would be a different game than what I ran back then.

Ah ha! This was it! Probably a rerun, which was common when I was a kid.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiTSyZbIjAg]YouTube - Sinbad VS Evil Magician's Skeleton from the 7th Voyage of[/ame]

 

[Vegepygmy]

Has experience jaded you to what/how you used to enjoy the game, or has long experience confirmed your enjoyment of what/how you used to play the game?

Yes.

 

[Alcamtar]

Would it be as fun? Heck yes, I haven't really changed that much. Well, I did change but I've mostly come full circle.

The thing is, it wouldn't be the same. I always DMed, so the game was really mine. As I have grown and changed, I wouldn't run it the same way. I always over-think things, and it gets worse as I get older. So it wouldn't really be going back. (Unless of course I got amnesia to "reset" my brain, but then what's the point!?)

What I would REALLY like to do is go back and watch my younger self. It's hard to remember how I really did it or what I really thought. Being involved in the OSR is a somewhat idealistic pursuit and probably colors my memories. So I'd like to go back and see what the truth is.

 

[Starglyte]

My very first adventure was the one that came with the Hollow World box set, where we had to chase down a sun-wight.

I hope I would have enough sense to get my magic-user climb up a tree to avoid the pack of wild boars instead of wacking them with my staff. Maybe I should of saved my Magic Missile for something else.