Going back in time to play your novice days again

[Doug McCrae]

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?

Less. The thrill of the unknown, of discovering something new, was a big part of my enjoyment.

Would you replay the game like you did then

How would that even be possible?

Has experience jaded you to what/how you used to enjoy the game

Yes. Being a player in a D&D game, or any game containing material I know well, is less fun for me now. I know all the monsters, all the magic. I know that trolls regenerate, etc, etc.

It's harder for me to take pleasure in anything than it was when I was eleven. I've seen more, my standards are higher. The time gaps between the really good games are getting wider.

It would not be a good idea to put the jaded me of today back in 1982. I'd just think everything sucked. What was fresh and new and exciting at the time would bore me now.

 

[EvilQAGuy]

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?

I wouldn't want to replay the game, as that sense of wonder and discovery is what I fell in love with.

I'd like to go back in time and have a talk with myself when I started to DM, though. One good thirty minute conversation could have proactively prevented a slew of less than optimal campaigns.

I'm pretty sure the conversation with my eleven year old self would have went all sideways, though. "WTF, a beard?!?" he'd say, and then I'd end up choking him to death and causing the paradox that destroyed the universe.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I started in 1977, when I was in 5th grade. I was learning algebra, reading the lord of the rings trilogy for the first time, and falling madly in love with Kim M. and her big blue eyes.

I always thought Kim Mohan was a dude!

 

[S'mon]

If I were 12 again, knowing what I know now... I think it'd be way better. It'd be awesome!

...thinks...

Actually, it prob wouldn't be so different. Those were cool games. The not so good bits came later, after I got more 'experience' and 'sophistication'. I'm at the point where I've learned that the way I did it at 12 was good. The way I did it at 15, and much moreso at 22 (ugh), was not so good.

 

[Fifth Element]

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

It's not so much about what I know now, but what I enjoy now. I was 12 when I started playing; I'm 34 now. There are few things that I enjoy now in the same way I enjoyed when I was that age.

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?

Jaded is a loaded word, but my tastes in playing D&D have certainly changed over the years. We used to play a very cautious, 10-foot-pole oriented game. Now, I'm sure partly because I don't have endless hours to devote to the game anymore, I would find that style of play immensely frustrating and boring. My attitude is more "let's stop screwing around and get to the fun stuff."

 

[TheYeti1775]

While my tastes have 'refined' themselves as my hair has turned grayer, I think I could throughly enjoy reliving my youth.

Think about it, when was the last time you were hyped up on caffiene playing without a care in the world other than keeping it down so your parents didn't yell 'go to sleep' when your friends were over playing until you dropped.

I think one of my most memorable playing marathons was at age 10 my friends at my house and the snow storm of the year, about 2 foot outside when we woke up after a night of Atari 2600. After playing out in it all morning came in frozen, sat in front of the fireplace and proceeded to play D&D for the next 2 days. Mom and stepdad were just happy to have us out from underfoot and to not have to worry about keeping the wood stove fed with logs as we took care of it all night.

I miss those days.

ETA:
I would use my sports knowledge and become the present day Biff.

 

[Piratecat]

When I started playing, there was a three month period when another player (playing an anti-paladin from Dragon Magazine) killed my character every. single. game. And took his stuff, making it easier for him to kill my next character as well. Oh, except for one game -- when my non-psionic character was killed by psionic mindflayers, and the anti-paladin took my stuff afterward.

No, I'm not still bitter. Twitch. Twitch. It was -- twitch -- totally fun. But it's remotely possible I might be less patient if I went back to live it again.

Oh, and I'd stop rolling a d12 for a d20.

 

[El Mahdi]

I'm surprised you even kept playing! Or at the least, didn't roll up your own Anti-Paladin...

 

[Piratecat]

I'm surprised you even kept playing! Or at the least, didn't roll up your own Anti-Paladin...

Ahem. DM didn't let me. Believe me, I asked. I tried every other unbalanced class in Dragon, including the Samurai and the Cavalier.

This was the closest I've come to quitting. I survived the "if I die this game I'm out" game, I think, and then the DM changed and things got fun again. I've harbored a healthy skepticism of house rules, and a secret love for mechanically strong characters, ever since. This was also my lesson that role-playing limitations do an awful job of balancing mechanical bonuses.

I've since been in touch with the player, who is thrice-divorced and seems a bit embittered. He doesn't remember the game. I reminded him, laughed about it, and wished him well.

 

[Barastrondo]

Man, I would seriously miss playing with my wife.