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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5147388" data-attributes="member: 80487">The general motivation for undertaking adventures is like the Hokey-Pokey: "That's what it's all about!" That's how one plays the game.In old D&D, there is also the pursuit of treasure. The game is effectively endless, without any final win or loss, but one can keep score. Treasure -> experience points -> levels. Most of all, though, the game is a world.It is a world in which "the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" Descend the stairs into the underworld, and see what there is to see. A ghoul? A jinn? A dog with eyes as big as saucers? Chests of silver? Pools of curious water? A table set for a feast, with an uncanny host? Glowing swords? Scrolls of spells? A talking brass horse?There is only one way to find out. And here is a caravan to Samarkand; a ship bound for magic-littered shores beyond the Sea of Al-Karkar; a mystic with a page from the Book of Hidden Treasures describing the City of Brass; a glint of emerald in the clouds; a tower that appeared mysteriously one day, with no apparent door but with a high, small window of crystal from which unearthly music creeps by night to plant horrible dreams in the minds of men.One starts to poke and prod and see what happens, to fill in the map and put together pieces. The first particular adventures become reconnaissance defining the objects of later ones. Actions have reactions, and consequences have consequences. Beings become friends, rivals, enemies -- perhaps all three in one! Treasure brought into circulation sometimes changes situations significantly. Enchanted artifacts are won and lost. Heroes and villains and lovers undergo metamorphoses or die, perhaps only to live again.</blockquote>

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