Scratching Your Nostalgia Itch

[Napftor]

Like many folks, I came into the game in the early-mid 80s. Over the years, I've embraced D&D's new editions and cherish every moment of gaming. But all the while I look back to the simpler times of TSR, when Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures were the newest crazes in the group and Dragon was the only real "supplemental" material I needed to worry about keeping current with. 1st ed. AD&D and the 80s are a part of my upbringing and I wouldn't give either of them up for the world. One night of the week is devoted to keeping that youthful spirit alive by crawling into my room (i.e. "the cave") and breaking out old Dragons and 80s tunes.

I know, you can never go back, and all that. But maybe you can revisit the past again temporarily. Thanks to the wonderful conversion efforts of ENWorld folk, I've decided to start something for my group called "Saturday Night Classics" where a 1st edition module is played amidst the trappings (music, old gaming mags, etc.) of the year it was released using 3rd edition rules. I know, nothing new to some of you, perhaps, but new to my group. This is my effort to reclaim my childhood and help others rediscover their gaming roots. I've even ordered a personalized poster from Ken Whitman's latest endeavor: http://www.mapsandthings.com/commit.html The text on this page has been replaced with: "Saturday Night Classics: Classic adventures. Contemporary rules. Pure adventure!" This poster will naturally hang in the game room for these events.

So my question to the rest of the "older" community is simply this--what do you do to recapture your early days of gaming?

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Look up what you need to hit in tables in the DMG.

Take apart your books and put the pages back together in a random order. That will emulate the 1st edition organizational schema.

Funky saves which make no logical sense (which Save do you use on a Rod casting a Petrification Spell on a PC--the Save vs. Petrification or Polymorph, the Save vs. Rod, Staff or Wand, or the Save vs. Spell?)

Lots of Hirelings

Lots of PCs

No magic item crafting by PCs

Silly rooms where, all of a sudden and *only* in that room--magic doesn't work. Or some other lame contrivance to make the author's idea for the room "work."

Powerful armor/weapons used as commonplace items (the serving tray is really a +3 shield).

Be sure to emulate the original class/race limitations of the module's original edition. For example, only human paladins in 1st ed. AD&D.

To be really mean, enforce the original edition's Stat requirements (e.g., 17 CHA for a paladin in 1st ed.)

Be sure to let the PCs kick Lolth's arse in Q1--she only had, what, 66 h.p.?!?!!

To recapture that first edition feel, we ran Tomb of Horrors as a 1st ed. module. The combat was really slowed down because of all the table look-ups. I had a monk who had a bunch of percentile rolls in the 90+ range and he failed every one (posion, resurrection, etc.). Went through three PCs in one night, and we never found the actual entrance to the tomb proper. Now *that's* first edition!

 

[BOZ]

don't forget the Creature Catalog.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Wow! So, I'm not the only one wherein older music completely unrelated to D&D sparks that whole nostalgia feel. For me it's not just any ol' new wave tune, it's gotta have something to it and then...BAM! All of a sudden I'm four years old and flipping through my older brother's Monster Manual looking up dinosaurs and reading about sea hags.

 

[northrundicandus]

So my question to the rest of the "older" community is simply this--what do you do to recapture your early days of gaming?

We sit down with our 1st Edition books and play! I'm starting a new 1ed campaign soon as a matter of fact.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Wow! So, I'm not the only one wherein older music completely unrelated to D&D sparks that whole nostalgia feel. For me it's not just any ol' new wave tune, it's gotta have something to it and then...BAM! All of a sudden I'm four years old and flipping through my older brother's Monster Manual looking up dinosaurs and reading about sea hags.

I get that way whenever I listen to the older AC/DC and Motley Crue albums. Don't you remember, AC/DC stands for Anti-Christ/Devil's Children? Ah... those glorious early days of D&D!

 

[johnsemlak]

If you don't have it, get Tome of Horrors by Necromancer Games. This is one of hte best products for the 3rd edition player who waxes nostalgic for AD&D. Plus it is useful for converting 1e modules.

 

[diaglo]

So my question to the rest of the "older" community is simply this--what do you do to recapture your early days of gaming?

i don't recapture them. i let them run free.

if you love someone let them free....

i referee an OD&D(1974) campaign. i'm looking for more players all the time if you are interested.

 

[Henry]

I don't because I never can.

The old group is split to the four winds, the new group intensely dislikes any version of D&D older than 3E, and My gaming has to fit inside of 6 hour time buckets, once a week. Old extended dungeon-crawl modules (a la Tsojcanth and Barrier Peaks) are almost out of the question, because we're not totally sure of our line-up next week, and we have far less patience for games that are more combat than plot. (If we injected as much plot into our classic favorites as they deserve, we wouldn't get 1/10th of the way through the module in one session.)

So I have a "new bag" now, so to speak. It's different, not better, not worse - but it represents me, and my changing tastes and needs.

It'd be nice to sit thorugh a marathon 1st edition game again one day, though.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

When I'm all alone, I update the charts from the AD&D Player's Handbook like this one!

With friends over, I run the Porttown campaign that grew out of the Zenopus's Tower sample dungeon in the "blue book Basic Set". We discovered the evocative power of classic D&D music this year!

Interestingly, none of us are nostalgic about exactly the same things -- some had never played any edition of D&D before, and I'd never listened to Thin Lizzy back in the day, although it sure is a great soundtrack...