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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 9199844" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>I played D&amp;D/AD&amp;D(both editions) pretty continuously from 1975 to around 1995. I think the typical pattern in actual playing was that players developed certain characters in more and more elaborate ways over time. You can DEFINITELY see this in the lore of Greyhawk, where the core players each developed one or two powerful iconic characters with highly elaborated goals, styles, and places within the setting. This process must have required perhaps several years to play out, as we see in the 1e PHB 'named spells' and bits of lore pertaining to various iconic GH PCs. Now, that's not to say that any of this was in place of the core paradigm of D&amp;D, accumulation of XP via adventuring and discovering treasure (or to a minor extent killing stuff). But over time each of the players in the core group whom I played with from 1980 onward developed these iconic characters, and I can still name them! Some didn't get a lot of character development, others did, but each one had holdings, followers, goals, etc. D&amp;D is not going to ever foster the sort of exploration of character that more recent narrativist games do, but there was a trajectory, and I think it was at least an understood subtext of the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 9199844, member: 82106"] I played D&D/AD&D(both editions) pretty continuously from 1975 to around 1995. I think the typical pattern in actual playing was that players developed certain characters in more and more elaborate ways over time. You can DEFINITELY see this in the lore of Greyhawk, where the core players each developed one or two powerful iconic characters with highly elaborated goals, styles, and places within the setting. This process must have required perhaps several years to play out, as we see in the 1e PHB 'named spells' and bits of lore pertaining to various iconic GH PCs. Now, that's not to say that any of this was in place of the core paradigm of D&D, accumulation of XP via adventuring and discovering treasure (or to a minor extent killing stuff). But over time each of the players in the core group whom I played with from 1980 onward developed these iconic characters, and I can still name them! Some didn't get a lot of character development, others did, but each one had holdings, followers, goals, etc. D&D is not going to ever foster the sort of exploration of character that more recent narrativist games do, but there was a trajectory, and I think it was at least an understood subtext of the game. [/QUOTE]

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