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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 3795386" data-attributes="member: 467">IME, the biggest difference lies not within the games themselves -- sure, there's lot of niggling details that makle certain playstyles easier to achieve in certain editions (my tastes run toward the 1E style) -- but in the players/DMs themselves.Those that learned the game with 1E, or B/x or BECM (I am leaving out OD&D because, frankly, I don't know anyone who learned from that game -- I may be a grognard, but I am not that old) have an entirely different foundation on which their tnednecies and playstyles rest than those that learned in 2E and those that learned in 3E.  To be more specific (in a gross generalization kind of way -- I understand this is hardly encompassing) 1E players metagame a lot more (not ina  bad way) because that game was explicitely as much about challenging the players as it was about challenging their characters.  DMs, like myself, tend a little closer toward the RBDM mode because it was (and is) our job to challenge those players.  With 2E, "story" seemed to become king and players and DMs alike seem to focus on crafting a narrative.  incidentally, I think this explains the rise to prominence of White Wolf -- a lot of folks, very interested in epic, personal narratives -- left D&D for games like Vampire which were ostensibly about[/] epic, personal narratives.  3E learners tend, IME, to focus on mechanics more than the others, "leaning" on their character sheets and looking for combos and synergies that work, and not engaging in the kind of interacting with the environment you see in 1E learners or the deep role-playing in 2E learners. (Incidentally, I think White Wolf slipped in here, too, with Exalted -- which I wrote for by the way, when it was in its 1E -- becuase nothing does combos and synergy like Exalted does.)Again, I am speaking in generalities and there are going to be tons of people that don't fit that mold.  But havbing been DMing for 22 years, I can say I am confident in my experiences supporting the above assertion.What's kind of interesting are the people that have followed through all the editions and found that they either a) were changing a sgamers, so changes between systems weren't problematic, or b) found they could work any of the editions to meet whatever preferred playstyle they started with.  I am not one of those people, unfortunately.  trying to get a "1E feel" out of 3E has cuased me no end of trouble, not least because I have had players that prefer the mechanics/build driven, player focused, DM-recutionism of 3E to their liking so, when playing 3E, the last thing they wanted was the guy behind the screen treating it like 1E with a cohesive core mechanic.  Anyway, to sum up: yes, the game has changed, but the changes are particularly noticable in the players who came into the game at its various points of development and evolution.</blockquote>

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