Going back in time to play your novice days again

[Amphimir Míriel]

Sadly, if I returned back in time to the year I started playing, I would have said goodbye to the sadistic DM I had and bought my own rpg books!

Really, the style of antagonistic DMing that was en vogue during the 80s was something that we took for granted, yet today it seems so wrong...

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I think the game I play now would be pretty different from back then.

Way back when, role playing was virtually non-existent for us. Personality? What is that? Character? Meh, just gets in the way of strip mining the latest adventure for all the wealth we could grab.

I don't really play like that anymore. Honest.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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

Player since 1977.

The answer to your question would depend precisely upon what adventure I was transported back in time to play.

My first EVER adventure? Wouldn't change a thing.

A couple of years later? I'd excise all the Monte Haulism I found myself entangled within.

 

[DragonLancer]

I remember my first ever gaming session and just how awesome it was. But that's with rose-tinted glasses. I'm too jaded now to go back and relive it.

 

[ggroy]

Sadly, if I returned back in time to the year I started playing, I would have said goodbye to the sadistic DM I had and bought my own rpg books!

Really, the style of antagonistic DMing that was en vogue during the 80s was something that we took for granted, yet today it seems so wrong...

Same here.

In my early D&D games, the DM had us make up as many as a dozen characters at the beginning, all to be slaughtered.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I had an absolute blast, back then, and it hooked me for life, but I'd have to say that it would be even more fun, going back with what I know, now.

My understanding of knowledge of the game is vastly improved. (Not just the rules, but the *why* behind the rules and concepts in the game.) Since I'm currently playing TSR D&D, just like I was back then, I have a pretty good basis for comparison. I know I'm a better DM than I was, back in the day. There's just no question. If you could combine that knowledge with the youthful sense of wonder and a bunch of friends with all the damn free time in the world and metabolisms that can stay up an entire weekend eating junk food during marathon D&D sessions…well, it would be beautiful.

What can I say, I'm an optimist.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Much more fun because I would buy stock in Microsoft, Google, etc., and be rich!

 

[Zelligars Apprentice]

If I could go back, the main thing that would be different would be I would take more chances on things. That is, I would accept more opportunities to play (or do other fun stuff) than I did because I was too shy and awkward.

Of course, there would be hundreds of mistakes that I made that wouldn't happen. Whether that would be better or not is debatable. It would certainly be different.

 

[Aus_Snow]

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?

More.

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

Change.

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?

Neither.

 

[Zelligars Apprentice]

One more thing I would do: Go back and actually READ everything on the 1e DMG Inspirational Reading list. I am ashamed to admit that I never got to read all of it (most of it, yes) and now it's almost impossible to find some of those works.