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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9323437" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>Yeah a bit later, once kits really got rolling and detailed NWPs and languages and so on became more of a thing, it got surprisingly close to 5E in terms of taking a while to create a character. Especially as we tended to prefer PCs to have, not quite a detailed backstory, but a relationship to the world.</p><p></p><p></p><p>100% that is how it works lol. Don't throw anything at me unless the intention is to give it to me!</p><p></p><p>Luckily this has never happened to me as an adult. The last time anything got thrown in an RPG session it was actually by me, as DM, when I was 17, when my most munchkin player made a truly ridiculous suggestion as to what his character was going to be equipped with, and I playfully threw a eraser, you know the sort of two-inch long art kind at his forehead, knowing it would bounce off. It was an excellent throw and on-target but unfortunately he turned his head just as I released and it hit him in the temple and was thus incredibly painful (there's like a pressure point right there), and this poor guy was almost in tears from the pain, and I was utterly mortified. Suffice to say I never threw anything at anyone again (in any situation). Live and learn!</p><p></p><p></p><p>None of this is particularly likely in modern editions of D&D, and where it can happen, it's usually fixable - as is death - and it's only non-fixable stuff that's an issue. Losing all your magic items kind of the worst of them, but one would presume any DM willing to take all your magic items would be pretty easy-come-easy-go re: items so enemy NPCs would die with full sets of magic items on them and the like, and thus it might not be a big loss in the longer term.</p><p></p><p>I would definitely suggest the fact that this sort of thing became less common and more fixable (not that it wasn't fixable in 1E - much of it was, just less so) is part of what has allowed D&D to survive. There's a thread about "Neotrad" games and whilst they don't fully become a thing until like 2000, there's a real change in how characters in RPGs are regarded between the '70s and the mid-late '80s, as more and more effort becomes asked for from players in creating characters (games like HERO really started this, but ones like Cyberpunk, Shadowrun and Vampire continued it), and players generally start to engage with their characters <em>as characters</em> a lot more and less as sort of mere extensions of the player, who only jokingly have a personality. There's also a change in DMing from the DM being the adversary of the players, and out to get the PCs, to a more genuinely neutral role, or even one more akin to an arbitrator, who is trying to get to people to a goal (which is to say, an adventure enjoyed by all). If characters were dying and being maimed and deleveled in D&D 5E at the rate they used to in 1E there's no way it would have attracted all the streams and podcasts about it, because people would have to be changing characters far more often.</p><p></p><p>I do think there's a place for the more meat-grinder-y, disposable character kind of game, but outside of horror/CoC I'd say it's a small niche one now.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 9323437, member: 18"] Yeah a bit later, once kits really got rolling and detailed NWPs and languages and so on became more of a thing, it got surprisingly close to 5E in terms of taking a while to create a character. Especially as we tended to prefer PCs to have, not quite a detailed backstory, but a relationship to the world. 100% that is how it works lol. Don't throw anything at me unless the intention is to give it to me! Luckily this has never happened to me as an adult. The last time anything got thrown in an RPG session it was actually by me, as DM, when I was 17, when my most munchkin player made a truly ridiculous suggestion as to what his character was going to be equipped with, and I playfully threw a eraser, you know the sort of two-inch long art kind at his forehead, knowing it would bounce off. It was an excellent throw and on-target but unfortunately he turned his head just as I released and it hit him in the temple and was thus incredibly painful (there's like a pressure point right there), and this poor guy was almost in tears from the pain, and I was utterly mortified. Suffice to say I never threw anything at anyone again (in any situation). Live and learn! None of this is particularly likely in modern editions of D&D, and where it can happen, it's usually fixable - as is death - and it's only non-fixable stuff that's an issue. Losing all your magic items kind of the worst of them, but one would presume any DM willing to take all your magic items would be pretty easy-come-easy-go re: items so enemy NPCs would die with full sets of magic items on them and the like, and thus it might not be a big loss in the longer term. I would definitely suggest the fact that this sort of thing became less common and more fixable (not that it wasn't fixable in 1E - much of it was, just less so) is part of what has allowed D&D to survive. There's a thread about "Neotrad" games and whilst they don't fully become a thing until like 2000, there's a real change in how characters in RPGs are regarded between the '70s and the mid-late '80s, as more and more effort becomes asked for from players in creating characters (games like HERO really started this, but ones like Cyberpunk, Shadowrun and Vampire continued it), and players generally start to engage with their characters [I]as characters[/I] a lot more and less as sort of mere extensions of the player, who only jokingly have a personality. There's also a change in DMing from the DM being the adversary of the players, and out to get the PCs, to a more genuinely neutral role, or even one more akin to an arbitrator, who is trying to get to people to a goal (which is to say, an adventure enjoyed by all). If characters were dying and being maimed and deleveled in D&D 5E at the rate they used to in 1E there's no way it would have attracted all the streams and podcasts about it, because people would have to be changing characters far more often. I do think there's a place for the more meat-grinder-y, disposable character kind of game, but outside of horror/CoC I'd say it's a small niche one now. [/QUOTE]
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