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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 7034872" data-source="post: 8537913"> <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I really like the original stuff from the 70s and 80s, even acknowledging how imbalanced the game gets and how dated some of its material feels.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I strongly like alignment and disagree with eliminating penalties for failed alignment checks (the deed is long since done, though, so I'm not going to make a house rule that brings them back). Such penalties keep players honest about playing their characters instead of just using them as extensions for themselves.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Along with alignment, I like the Great Wheel and have liked it since the 80s.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I even like racial alignments and ultimately disagree with their critics (but not harshly or nastily). I don't regard these as stereotypes; I regard them much more as Jungian archetypes that work at a very deep psychological level--one that predates humanity. All those monsters we encounter are, one way or another, distilled traits of our own selves reflected back at us in a generally alarming form. I've no quarrel with using players and NPCs that break these patterns, mind you; I just refuse to jettison the patterns altogether in the interests of a fashionable moral/political fastidiousness. The game is bigger than me, so it needs to be bigger than my beliefs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">If the world, the game, and the NPCs never escape my control, I'm not satisfied. I tend to think players are supposed to break the game and take it places for which I am wholly unprepared. I want the NPCs I create to shock, surprise, and even sometimes disgust me. If they don't get away from me, I haven't made them well enough.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I'm fine with PC death. Maybe because I started back in the early 80s I am very comfortable with some PCs actually, truly, permanently, irretrievably dying. I've had lots of my own characters do that. What's the big deal? I've added greatly to the drama and tension of the game, plus I get to roll up a new character, which I've always enjoyed.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">As per point 1, I'm generally okay with the game being imbalanced (up to a point). In the games I've played, wizards mostly die early on. So do halflings. So long as it never gets boring for anyone, I don't see why all PCs ought to be equally powerful. If people want adventures in which they are, that's fine. I just don't see why we always must have it that way.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I'm with John R Davis: I like Bards, too.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I miss using XP. I mean, I get why it fell out of favor and all, but it did introduce a level of background competition between party members that made things a lot more interesting. That's why I also miss awarding XP for gold and treasure; it made all the players a bit greedier in the midst of their overarching teamwork and collaboration.</li> </ol>I guess that's most of it.</blockquote>

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