OD&D 4 me (April Fools)

[Orcus]

OK, wow. I missed this whole thing.

Rel, to expand on your thoughts, I have the "go back to AD&D" thought every now and then. I mean, it is kind of part and parcel of my whole 1E feel thing. I have even run a few retro games, with old friends. I hate to admit it, but while it is super fun to get those guys together again, as a DM I just couldnt go back to 1E as a system permanently. I could flirt with it, and have, but I just couldnt switch back all the way. Things that before just seemed like goofy inconsistencies now drive me crazy. YMMV.

Clark

 

[Dinkeldog]

There is more brown and red in this thread than any other one I've seen in a long, long time. Wow.

Onto point: Rel, if you will have more fun in OD&D, have fun with it. I know I can never wrap my brain around many of the inconstancies that muddied my gaming experience with it: blatant inequality of classes, wonky sub-systems, varying high-or-low dice rolling, etc. Not saying 3e or 4e made it all go away, but I cannot, for the life of me, envision going back to the world percentile strength, Thac0, save vs. breath weapon, dual-classing, demi-human level limits, Hide in Shadows %, Cureall, and druids dueling to get past 12th level.

If you can, hats off. You're a better man than I.

Then house rule them out.

Except save vs. breath weapon, because if you house rule that out, then you're not playing pre-3E D&D any more.

 

[Henry]

So, please continue with respect for your fellow EN World members.

Yeah, such as it is...

 

[Desdichado]

If Sky Galleons of Mars is migrating to OD&D, then that does it. I'm moving the NC gameday website out of my bookmarks!

 

[Storminator]

Only if you wear this outfit.

Snipped image...

He's already wearing that outfit.

PS

 

[VorpalWarrior69]

ABC Afternoon special?

Was this a skit put on by the moderators to show us how silly we look when we snipe, snide, and snark at each other? Cause...well...it got the point across to me, even if unintentional...

 

[Rykion]

I hate slow web access, Double post deleted....

But I still Say Tunnels and Trolls is a better system than OD&D...

For old school roleplaying feel nothing beats Cops & Robbers or Cowboys & Indians, err I guess Cowpeople & Native Americans these days. You even get to run around outside and get some exercise. Unfortunately, those games tended to devolve into rules arguments. Thankfully, rule 0 and claiming I had a bullet-proof force field always saved the day.

 

[Rel]

OK, wow. I missed this whole thing.

Rel, to expand on your thoughts, I have the "go back to AD&D" thought every now and then. I mean, it is kind of part and parcel of my whole 1E feel thing. I have even run a few retro games, with old friends. I hate to admit it, but while it is super fun to get those guys together again, as a DM I just couldnt go back to 1E as a system permanently. I could flirt with it, and have, but I just couldnt switch back all the way. Things that before just seemed like goofy inconsistencies now drive me crazy. YMMV.

Clark

Thanks for helping to bring us back on topic, Orcus. Sorry things went off...on a tangent there for a while. There have been some lurking tensions but I think we've sorted that out now.

Anyway, my point is that our interests tend to drift over time. When I was young I played AD&D but longed for something more complex. Then I played Rolemaster for quite a few years but eventually the complexity started to feel cumbersome. So we "simplified" and moved to 3e. Then to 3.5 and then to Warhammer.

But what I've started to see is that the stuff that really matters, the fun, imagination, magic, mystery is all completely independant of the system. In fact, all but the lightest systems tend to hamper rather than enhance that sort of stuff. So best to pare things back to the basics as much as possible. It doesn't get much more basic than OD&D and I think we'll be satisfied with that. And if any of the players aren't satisfied then maybe they need to look for their gaming elsewhere because I'm serving up the Original Recipe at my table from now on!

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

That was uncalled for, Rel (and Xath was nice enough to edit it out, so no one else can see the snark :\ ) You've gotten so touchy you can't even take a joke anymore. For the record, I'm the same age as Piratecat and I knew I was older than you when I posted it.

 

[el-remmen]

Rel has a point.

Not every DM is blessed with the skills necessary to run a complex and manipuable ruleset, and/or nor blessed with quick-thinking intelligent players. Some folks can't handle more than "Advanced Cowboys & Indians". Who are we to judge them for their diminished capacity?

I for one am tired of the gamer snobbery that goes around here sometimes, and if it weren't for the fact that I can't get in the mod forum since the days of my "semi-retirement" as mod, I would be able to confirm that in there, where the ENworld rules don't apply, there is a lot more passive-aggressive snipes at each others playstyles than you could imagine. . . At least it used to be that way. . . Russ/Plane-Sailing, I am looking at you.