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Eh? What do you mean?I’m extremely skeptical of this, tbh.
Eh? What do you mean?I’m extremely skeptical of this, tbh.
This is the first time I have ever heard anyone refer to Dragonlance as "old school."
EDIT to add: in fact i would go so far as to say, in my experience, Dragonlance IS the break from Old School.
While it might seem highly unlikely to those who have not been involved in fantasy adventure gaming for an extended period of time, after the flush of excitement wears off - perhaps a few months or a year, depending on the intensity of play - some participants will become bored and move to other gaming forms, returning to your campaign only occasionally. Shortly thereafter even your most dedicated players will occasionally find that dungeon levels and wilderness castles grow stale, regardless of subtle differences and unusual challenges. It is possible, however, for you to devise a campaign which will have a very minimal amount of participant attrition and enthusiast ennui, and it is not particularly difficult to do so.
As has been mentioned already, the game must be neither too difficult to survive nor so easy as to offer little excitement or challenge. There must always be something desirable to gain, something important to lose, and the chance of having either happen. Furthermore, there must be some purpose to it all. There must be some backdrop against which adventures are carried out, and no matter how tenuous the strands, some web which connects the evil and good, the opposing powers, the rival states and various peoples. This need not be evident at first, but as play continues, hints should be given to players, and their characters should become involved in the interaction and struggle between these vaster entities. Thus, characters begin as less than pawns, but as they progress in expertise, each eventually realizes that he or she is a meaningful, if lowly, piece in the cosmic game being conducted. When this occurs, players then have a dual purpose to their play, for not only will their player characters and henchmen gain levels of experience, but their actions have meaning above and beyond that of personal aggrandizement.
A lot of this is table variation, with CR being a table that the others have shared in.It's like the language / cadence. Or maybe the things they "expect D&D to be". A few examples:
Again, my DM is really amazing (I introduced D&D to him many years ago), and I'm having a very fun time, but I'm just...not...quite...connecting.
- the interchange with merchants is not not something I'm accustomed to - this seems to be a big part of the experience
- the depth-of-character is really impressive, but again, I'm simply not accustomed to it - the group is "really in character" at the table
- the killing move, "how do you want to do this" is something new to me
- the mechanics of the game seem to be less important than the story of the game
Rather than bog this thread down, I made one dedicated to the question of "What is Old School?"It's 2022. D&D 3e is old school now. Dragonlance is nearly 40 years old. It's positively archaic.
It's not hex-crawling, mega-dungeon, OSR, OSE, OD&D, morale-movement-missile-magic-melee, B/X retro-clone, Principia Apocrypha Old School™. But it's definitely old school in the plain meaning of the term.
That's just generational. As a teacher I find I'm constantly having to relearn the language of the young.It's like the language / cadence. Or maybe the things they "expect D&D to be". A few examples:
Story and character driven games have always been around. CR didn't invent that mode of play, they just publicised it.
- the interchange with merchants is not not something I'm accustomed to - this seems to be a big part of the experience
- the depth-of-character is really impressive, but again, I'm simply not accustomed to it - the group is "really in character" at the table
- the killing move, "how do you want to do this" is something new to me
- the mechanics of the game seem to be less important than the story of the game
Every DM is different. Learn to enjoy the different experiences.Again, my DM is really amazing (I introduced D&D to him many years ago), and I'm having a very fun time, but I'm just...not...quite...connecting.
Weird. I wouldn’t call it skilled play. Skilled play is when the players solve the problems via thinking and interacting with the environment rather than engaging the mechanics. The opposite of how CR plays. They’re obviously quite skilled as actors and voice actors, but that’s not an essential part of play. Role-playing is, sure. But role-playing is more than pulling a voice.
Story and character driven games have always been around. CR didn't invent that mode of play, they just publicised it.
The idea that you can reliably point out when they're "pretending" to be excited "for the camera".Eh? What do you mean?
IME, only people in the OSR movement think of the words "old school" as exclusively referring to a specific playstyle. Everyone else just uses it to refer to old fashioned ways of doing things, and/or things that came out a long time ago.This is the first time I have ever heard anyone refer to Dragonlance as "old school."
EDIT to add: in fact i would go so far as to say, in my experience, Dragonlance IS the break from Old School.