Dr Midnight
Explorer
I've been choking on a huge pork-like chunk of "why am I playing this game?" lately. Losing the feel, wondering what the feel used to feel like, when I felt it.
About a month ago, I was looking through a friend's Erol Otus-cover copy of the 1E Basic red book, and flipping out. "Dude," I duded. "Dude, we've GOT to play this!" I'd never played in anything before 2E, and the 1E book just oozed with the 70's style and flavor of fantasy that I think is missing from today's fantasy epics/games. I haven't been able to put my finger on exactly what it is, but there's something there that I just don't get from reading the 3E PHB.
The plan was formed: Gather a small group of friends and play a small game late into the night. We grabbed an old friend, I printed out my copy of White Plume Mountain and gave it to Seth (the DM). I hadn't read MUCH of it. I bought tons of Mountain Dew, which was the carbonated beverage staple of the OLD gaming days, when we were 16. Mountain Dew was in our blood back then. The concept was to recreate, in almost every way, the gaming sessions we had when we were young. Barely realized characters, playing late into the night until you collapsed, not really adhering to alignment issues, getting incredibly silly in-game, and using tactics to solve problems that there are really no rules for.
Game-day comes. We sit around and make characters. I make Figwit, an elven fighter-mage (of course, elves are all fighter-mages) named Figwit. Yes, I stole the name from this site: FigwitLives.net. (Naming characters after popular fiction heroes is commonplace in young'un games, so I did it up.) I had a great time rolling up a 1E basic character. The other characters are Alla, another elf, Thindel, an NPC thief, and... uh...didn't catch his name, human cleric.
The game! We start right outside the Mountain's entrance, just about to go in. No reason to do it or prior characterization. Yes! We plunge in. Right away, we start getting hammered with dangers. Right away, I'm feeling something come back to life within my head. I'm solving problems like a kid, not getting caught up in the rules so much that the fun sufffers. The dungeon is huge and dangerous. I don't know why, and I'm not worried about its ecology or reasoning, like I am in 3E. This was also good.
The dungeon was really tough. In fact, we all died. Died died died. TPK. However, since we weren't really caring, we shrugged and kept playing from a "save point" earlier in the dungeon. Just kept playing. We started doing better once I beat a number puzzle and gained a loyal flesh golem. He was golem number 9, so we called him "9". He became our official trap-tester and creature-killer.
In the kelpie room, we tied a rope around his waist and said "now, 9, I want you to go down there with this spear and attack WHATEVER you see moving. Okay?"
"Uhh." Then I kicked him into the water. Five minutes later, pulled him up.
"Did you kill whatever was down there?"
"Nuh." Kicked him back in. When the kelpies were finally dead, we gave him a new mission.
"Did you see anything shiny down there?"
"Uhh."
"Good. Go get it." Kicked him back in. Eventually we used him as a walking treasure chest. We shoved all the riches we found down his throat. We'd worry about how to get it back later.
At this point, I was starting to adorn 9 as one of us. He had chainmail on, a pretty hat, and a locket we'd found in the murk. It had runny paintings in it. I pointed to one. "Hey, 9! See this? This is you..." and then I'd point to the other painting. "and this is me. I made this locket for you, buddy. Always keep it close to your heart." I put it around his neck and gave him a hug. The people around me began to snicker madly. We were all pretty silly at this point.
Then, we came to the big crab room. I took 9's pointy weapon away and gave him a hammer to use instead. "Hey, 9, ol' buddy... see that?"
"Uhh."
"GO KILL IT!" He rushed forward and was pretty much snapped in half, but in that time, we managed to find the crab's weak spot and blast at it until it croaked.
We won the day, eventually. I mean, we'd been killed, sure, but after that we were fine. We beat the dungeon and made it out. I had an incredible time just getting back to the basics and fun of D&D without getting bogged down in having seventeen tomes of rules to sort through any time anyone attempts to blow their nose. I really found what I'd been missing, and I intend to go back. It's reenergized me for my 3e games, and reminded me that players should be encouraged to think of solutions that there aren't rules for. A creative solution to a problem doesn't have a chart in the DMG to reference.
So- for all the people out there mourning the slow dying of their "libido" for the game, I advise taking a one-shot trip back to when gaming was fun. Put your head back to when you were fourteen, and just play the game with friends. Kick down some doors. Slay a dragon. Get some treasure. Use a crossbow bolt to knock down stalactites onto a bugbear. Try to seduce that tavern wench. Torture that goblin. Don't worry about the rules so much. Make Monty Python and Dead Alewives quotes in-game. Make called shots that actually matter. Play till you fall asleep on the couch.
Mourn your dead flesh golem buddy (see sig)...
About a month ago, I was looking through a friend's Erol Otus-cover copy of the 1E Basic red book, and flipping out. "Dude," I duded. "Dude, we've GOT to play this!" I'd never played in anything before 2E, and the 1E book just oozed with the 70's style and flavor of fantasy that I think is missing from today's fantasy epics/games. I haven't been able to put my finger on exactly what it is, but there's something there that I just don't get from reading the 3E PHB.
The plan was formed: Gather a small group of friends and play a small game late into the night. We grabbed an old friend, I printed out my copy of White Plume Mountain and gave it to Seth (the DM). I hadn't read MUCH of it. I bought tons of Mountain Dew, which was the carbonated beverage staple of the OLD gaming days, when we were 16. Mountain Dew was in our blood back then. The concept was to recreate, in almost every way, the gaming sessions we had when we were young. Barely realized characters, playing late into the night until you collapsed, not really adhering to alignment issues, getting incredibly silly in-game, and using tactics to solve problems that there are really no rules for.
Game-day comes. We sit around and make characters. I make Figwit, an elven fighter-mage (of course, elves are all fighter-mages) named Figwit. Yes, I stole the name from this site: FigwitLives.net. (Naming characters after popular fiction heroes is commonplace in young'un games, so I did it up.) I had a great time rolling up a 1E basic character. The other characters are Alla, another elf, Thindel, an NPC thief, and... uh...didn't catch his name, human cleric.
The game! We start right outside the Mountain's entrance, just about to go in. No reason to do it or prior characterization. Yes! We plunge in. Right away, we start getting hammered with dangers. Right away, I'm feeling something come back to life within my head. I'm solving problems like a kid, not getting caught up in the rules so much that the fun sufffers. The dungeon is huge and dangerous. I don't know why, and I'm not worried about its ecology or reasoning, like I am in 3E. This was also good.
The dungeon was really tough. In fact, we all died. Died died died. TPK. However, since we weren't really caring, we shrugged and kept playing from a "save point" earlier in the dungeon. Just kept playing. We started doing better once I beat a number puzzle and gained a loyal flesh golem. He was golem number 9, so we called him "9". He became our official trap-tester and creature-killer.
In the kelpie room, we tied a rope around his waist and said "now, 9, I want you to go down there with this spear and attack WHATEVER you see moving. Okay?"
"Uhh." Then I kicked him into the water. Five minutes later, pulled him up.
"Did you kill whatever was down there?"
"Nuh." Kicked him back in. When the kelpies were finally dead, we gave him a new mission.
"Did you see anything shiny down there?"
"Uhh."
"Good. Go get it." Kicked him back in. Eventually we used him as a walking treasure chest. We shoved all the riches we found down his throat. We'd worry about how to get it back later.
At this point, I was starting to adorn 9 as one of us. He had chainmail on, a pretty hat, and a locket we'd found in the murk. It had runny paintings in it. I pointed to one. "Hey, 9! See this? This is you..." and then I'd point to the other painting. "and this is me. I made this locket for you, buddy. Always keep it close to your heart." I put it around his neck and gave him a hug. The people around me began to snicker madly. We were all pretty silly at this point.
Then, we came to the big crab room. I took 9's pointy weapon away and gave him a hammer to use instead. "Hey, 9, ol' buddy... see that?"
"Uhh."
"GO KILL IT!" He rushed forward and was pretty much snapped in half, but in that time, we managed to find the crab's weak spot and blast at it until it croaked.
We won the day, eventually. I mean, we'd been killed, sure, but after that we were fine. We beat the dungeon and made it out. I had an incredible time just getting back to the basics and fun of D&D without getting bogged down in having seventeen tomes of rules to sort through any time anyone attempts to blow their nose. I really found what I'd been missing, and I intend to go back. It's reenergized me for my 3e games, and reminded me that players should be encouraged to think of solutions that there aren't rules for. A creative solution to a problem doesn't have a chart in the DMG to reference.
So- for all the people out there mourning the slow dying of their "libido" for the game, I advise taking a one-shot trip back to when gaming was fun. Put your head back to when you were fourteen, and just play the game with friends. Kick down some doors. Slay a dragon. Get some treasure. Use a crossbow bolt to knock down stalactites onto a bugbear. Try to seduce that tavern wench. Torture that goblin. Don't worry about the rules so much. Make Monty Python and Dead Alewives quotes in-game. Make called shots that actually matter. Play till you fall asleep on the couch.
Mourn your dead flesh golem buddy (see sig)...
