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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Marshal Lucky" data-source="post: 3741120" data-attributes="member: 54050">The word perception does NOT mean opinion. It means insight. If you perceive something, it means you take notice of something -NOT that you have an opinion. Hence the term ESP, meaning Extra Sensory Perception. That misuse of the English language aside, I think there was a 20-year-plus trend of moving from the wargaming point of view, in which the PCs expected to lose some of their characters (just as they took casualties in a wargame of the Battle of Agincourt), and the more comic book-oriented ideal of characters (good guys and bad guys) being brought back again and again -or never getting killed in the first place. I know people like to pile on 3E, but Dragonlance, Ravenloft and 2E started this nonsense a decade and a half before 3E came out. Likewise railroading has its origins in the mid-1980s.I prefer the wargamer approach, where you win some, lose some and can expect to take losses. And no, it's not because I'm a wargamer. I don't like the idea of a DM handholding me through a game. If my PCs are too dumb to recruit allies, run away when overmatched, use stealth etc then they deserve to lose.I came to D&D from a sports background and I've always been put off when people can't accept defeat in a dignified manner. If losing breaks your heart so much, don't play. I also don't look at losing a prize PC (like a starting player in sports) as an excuse for playing poorly from that point on, nor do I take it as a total disaster. You just have to make do with your backups* or roll up a new character. If you do that and still come out on top it's often MORE satisfying. You had a setback and overcame it. The idea of a DM pulling his punches is a real turnoff. An even bigger turnoff is railroading, which is cheating in my book.*Which reminds me: One area of difference is the emphasis in 1E on henchmen and hirelings. They were not only extra muscle, but a source of spare PCs should the "starters" get killed. 2E and 3E don't emphasize henchmen and hirelings (to be fair, a lot of 1E players don't bother with them, either), so they make up for it by making PCs more powerful or using "storylines" and "balancing" to make things even -a poor choice as far as I'm concerned.</blockquote>

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