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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark CMG" data-source="post: 5858650" data-attributes="member: 10479">It's not that GMs were given little info and thus "New DMs are left out in the cold without it. They can make grievous mistakes that end up wiping out entire parties, and campaigns can become unbalanced by a powerful magic item."  It's that player character survivlbility wasn't thought to be as much of an issue.  The game wasn't thought to be a forum for PCs to be groomed from 1st though higher levels as a given or even the norm.  It was more of a "game" where players did what they could to make their characters survive and less of a pastime where players created characters that were expected to survive unless the player made bad decisions.And this was no matter whether it was story driven play as outlined in "modules" or sandbox play as created by GMs who simply populated worlds and allowed players, through their characters, to explore them for what they were.  In either, very little was done to tailor obstacles, monsters, opponents, or treasure to players or PCs.  Perhaps more was done in modules where the cover would give some vague outline as to level of PCs and numbers of them to increase survivability.  Players made choices, went where they went, found what they found, and made the most of what their explorations and discoveries gleaned.  Players didn't have expectations that if they created a fighter who focused on swords their GM would be sure to purposefully place a plus-whatever sword that would suit the PC leveling structure in the path of the PCs, no matter choices the players made.That Monte writes of it as if this was done as a series of mistakes completely misses the point of how gameplay progressed in those games prior to "the last fifteen years."  And, again, this wasn't dictated because of some design flaw of sandbox play or because "modules" (adventures) were poorly designed, it was simply an expectation of the game that players, through their PCs, would make the most of what they explored and discovered rather than have particularly advantageous "finds" placed in their paths (no matter the chosen path) out of consideration of a system meant to ensure certain milestone expectations of players for their PCs.  If a player decided his PC was pursuing a fighting style that required a certain type of weapon, research was done by the PC or his compatriots in-game to discover that type of weapon and the group agreed that it benefitted the group as whole to seek such a item, then they went out to find it.Honestly, the expected levels of rewards that is the hallmark of more modern systems is one of the things that lessens the sense of wonder and accomplishment in games that then requires dice tricks and level rewards in the form of class features every level, as well as tailoered magic items, to distract players from the real sense of accomplichment that could be had otherwise.  Modern systems tend to emulate Skinner boxes where players are rewarded for simple repetition of mundane tasks rather than being let out of the box and finding their own rewards through setting personal goals and striving for personal PC achievement.  Let's get off the treadmill and run our own miles with 5E, and thus find much more satisfaction even if it isn't chucked in front of us no matter which direction or how hard we run.</blockquote>

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