D&D General Roleplaying Origins of Early DnD

[OptionalRule]

That's what I don't get, though. How are the "theater kids" ruining D&D for these people? Not enough action, or are they worried that non-optimized characters will drag the party down, or what?

I don't think there's anything special about that specific term. There are some corners of the world where the worst thing you can do is like something, because people will attack you for it. Middle School never ends for some people. They aren't being only that way about the term theater kids.

 

[bloodtide]

What was roleplaying like for you back in the day?

I guess your counting anything other then dice rolling "role playing?"

The 80's was full of the Wargamers D&D and the dungeon crawl murderhobos, and they far out numbered all other gamers. The vast majority of modules had near zero story, role playing or even fluff. Just a bunch of locations with monsters to kill. The average player with character "Fred X" would just attack anything that was encountered...and if Fred died, then "Feed XI" would just 'pop' in.

The theater kids were rare, and they had characters like "Alson the Brave" with a ten page backstory and they Acted out their character("role played").

Can someone please explain why "theater kids" is a pejorative term in some D&D circles and/or why it is assumed that "theater kids" have only recently taken an interest in D&D?

Well, the theater kids liked theater...so that made them a separate group. Naturally the cool kids did not like the "theater kids". Though...yea, they were there from the start.

Can someone please explain why "theater kids" is a pejorative term in some D&D circles and/or why it is assumed that "theater kids" have only recently taken an interest in D&D?

It has always been this way....still is today.

The kids that have their drow warlock that does 100d100 damage per round and has killed a dragon of every color using only their left hand..........have always targeted the kids miles away over there with a "they are just talking any not playing the real game the right way".

 

[Theory of Games]

Most of the "conflict" between players that I've seen in the last 15 years has been largely online. Whenever I've sat down and ran a ttrpg all we ever talked about was the game. No one was pointing fingers and calling people "murder-hoboes" or "theater kids". At least not in a nasty way.

Back in my teens we played a role, but the line between player and character knowledge was very fugacious. There were two main objectives: survive, and level-up by any means necessary. I had to create my own monsters because players would memorize how to beat everything in the Monster Manual. So, it's always weird to me when people talk about "adversarial GMs" when I know from multiple experiences players can be far more adversarial than GMs.