Retro-gaming

[MichaelSomething]

I find it ironic that modern tools (like the internet) are used to recreate classic ideas (old school RPGS).

On a completely unrelated subject, can someone tell me in what year this video game was made?

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcWApzWGpoI&feature=related"]Mega Man[/ame]

 

[SHARK]

That says it all right there! I liked a lot about 3E, but the work load to get the game to where it pleased me was just overwhelming, especially at higher levels (about 10th for me). I even bought all the software aids to help me create NPC's, etc... The more I did it the more I remembered, "I didn't need all this crap back in 1E and 2E."

So one day I gave up and went back to an "old school style" of game. I haven't been this happy since I last ran 2E. In fact I think I am happier now than I ever was in all of my old 1E or 2E days.

I took a look at 4E, played it for a couple of months. Simply put we were happier playing our "old school" games. So we set 4E aside and went back to having more fun.

I get that others think old school isn't as good, or as fun, as their newer systems are, thats fine, but I and my fellow gamers are far happier where we are, and that is all that matters. What pleases each of us best.

Greetings!

Well said, Treebore! Your sentiments made me reflect on several points.

I am a fan of 3.5, however, the increasing *work* involved to DM prep, etc, and the growing demands that a *computer* be used, with all the bells and whistles, as well as an observation that my players consistently virtually required use of a computer to make up and store their characters, modifications, etc, really began to strike me with a feeling of dissonance--I never had to do any of this back in the day, with AD&D.

Back in the day, module prep, character generation, monsters, and so on, were a *breeze* to do. I've been thinking about all that a lot lately, and with the advent of 4E, and the incurred costs of buying yet more libraries of stuff--as I gaze at my multiple bookshelves stuffed full of 3E/3.5 books and supplements--and their subsequent obselescence--has really reawakened in me a desire to just do an about-face as a customer and gamer, and start running an old-school AD&D campaign--

no computers, programs, software, or endless hours of prep-time required.--with the added bonus that I no longer have to concern myself with feelings like I am on some kind of commercialized marketing treadmill, always needing to buy more, more, and more. I already have two complete sets of AD&D books, rules, and supplements.

Salute!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[S'mon]

Eavesdropping on a Skype game also allowed me to remember how much faster and easier combat flowed without minis, a battlemat, and 3.x tactical combat rules. Cheers!

Yeah, I love running combat in my weekly Dragonsfoot chatroom Castles & Crusades and Labyrinth Lord campaigns - so fast, so easy! And it's much easier to create & run dramatic situations without a battlemap & minis. It's ironic that 'modern' games like 3e and 4e are so much less suited for online play.

 

[Nellisir]

I find it ironic that modern tools (like the internet) are used to recreate classic ideas (old school RPGS).

Why? As someone else pointed out, there's nothing inherently outdated about older RPGs. It's not more ironic than the computer being used to layout the Bible.

 

[ancientvaults]

The Old School Revolution is here and we are all out of bubblegum...

With the founding of TARGA and the tremendous support that the Old School Revolution has, there is more than enough room for people who prefer OD&D OR 4E (or any game in between) to co-exist peacefully and respect each other's game of preference. Any game that your group enjoys is the perfect game, many of us prefer older editions, but I have no problem with anyone who likes 4E (and I have tried it), the only thing that irritates me are the pointless little snipes and snide comments from BOTH sides that infer that one side is better than the other. Well, no version of D&D is superior to another, people will gravitate to one edition or another and the time spent sniping could be used gaming. Or going out for a walk and getting fresh air.

 

[Mark Plemmons]

would anyone have links to these, having trouble finding some of the clones and not so clones

FYI, the link for the new edition of HackMaster (June/July 2009) is here.

 

[Ariosto]

There's a video on You Tube, "D&D Sizzle", that I think is a Wizards product (but I'm not sure). It spoofs earlier editions. One funny (in another way than probably intended) thing is that the only knock against 1E is that the players lacked miniatures -- which is false. Despite a moment's confusion over markers ("The ball of lint? Oh, that's ... just lint."), the players are clearly having fun. Then, 2E and 3E are depicted as having slow and cumbersome rules. The players are clearly frustrated. (I'm not sure the specific example of grappling accurately highlights a difference between 3E and 1E. Individual initiative, introduced as an option in 2E, is the default in both 3E and 4E). It is vaguely suggested that 4E is much better, chiefly because of reliance on computers, yet also stated (in the narrator's French accent) that "the game remains the same! The game remains the SAME!!"

If WotC produced that ad, it's curious that what it highlights is a trend of decreasing customer satisfaction due to rules heaviness -- with no clear indication that 4E marks a departure. The best it seems to offer is that it's not so bad if everyone brings laptops to the table.

Having established -- as in that video, and in posts above -- a measure to evaluate, a game can by that measure be judged better or worse. It does not follow that everyone will choose that gauge. The prevalence of a desire in the market for, e.g., a less (or more) complicated game obviously can affect a product's sales.

 

[Nellisir]

...there is more than enough room for people who prefer OD&D OR 4E (or any game in between) to co-exist peacefully and respect each other's game of preference. Any game that your group enjoys is the perfect game....

Amen.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

My game can beat up your game!

 

[Betote]

My game can beat up your game!

But it won't, because they prefer to play together