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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arilyn" data-source="post: 7938261" data-attributes="member: 6816042">I think Gygax was torn. The California group was doing things with the game Gygax hated, thus the feud between them over whether they were playing real D&D. Some thing never change. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😊" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60a.png" title="Smiling face with smiling eyes    :blush:" data-shortname=":blush:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /> Gygax wanted to curb this "straying from his vision," especially from the more serious hobbyists. On the other hand, Gygax was a tinkerer himself, so yes, you are right  he didn't actively discourage it. I think, however, he really wanted GMs to thoroughly understand his game and its underlying philosophy, before making changes. Master the game, then become a true Dungeon Master, with the skill to make changes that won't destroy the game. Of course, a lot of tables immediately merged AD&D with the original rules, and skipped, changed and manipulated a lot of dials, which gave AD&D the reputation of being guidelines, not hard fast rules. I think it would be very hard to play AD&D exactly as written. Just throwing out the question. Did anyone do this? And yes, 4e has a very different feel. I don't think Gygax would have approved of it at all. It's got heroes undertaking fantastic stunts at first level, and it's much more like moves from a video game. I didn't like 4e, but re-looking at it has softened my opinion. I think I could have fun with it, after all, but it really doesn't feel like D&D to a lot of players, and I agree. It  was doing well, despite this. It wasn't a failure, just not the success, WOTC needed or hoped for. I wonder what he would have thought about 5e...</blockquote>

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