Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="jdrakeh" data-source="post: 3681154" data-attributes="member: 13892">People often talk about that Sense of Wonder that they had when they first entered into this hobby and that has since dissipated -- bust just what is this mysterious Sense of Wonder? What things fostered these feelings in you? For me, personally, there were a few things that really did it. . . Open Campaign SettingsWay back when, in the days when D&D was a lone box set and Runequest was a single rulebook, settings were nebulously defined, at best. The expectation of adherance to canon didn't exist because there wasn't much of it -- Bob's world of Greyhawk might be entirely different than Bill's, save for the minor details disclosed in the original Gazetteer and the three D&D core rule books. The first look at Glorantha came via Apple Valley and Snakepipe Hollow -- there was no all-encompassing body of setting material and, again, Jill's Glorantha was almost certanly nothing like the world that Greg Stafford would reveal in the years to come. Even the FR 1e material was painted in extremely broad strokes, with plenty of map left to fill in as one saw fit. No two persons versions of a given campaign setting were ever remotely identical, which meant that there were always surprises. Character Driven CampaignsThe very first (and arguably the very best) AD&D campaign that I played in was entirely player-driven. The DM came up with a basic concept, molded it to the characters that we created, and then had the world react accordingly -- there were no rails, no pre-scripted plot that we had to adhere to, and no expectation on our part that we were moving steadily toward Final Conclusion A. There were many side quests and unintentional adventures, much skullduggery within the party, and ultimately a lot of fun. If module structure or Big Epic Plot had infringed upon this campaign, I suspect that it would have come to a grinding halt. Point-based Character GenYeah, really -- being forced to make the best of some randomly rolled character isn't very appealing when the option of building exactly the character you want exists. While I've played and had fun in many games that utilize random character generation (such as the aformentioned AD&D campaign), without exception, those that let me build my character from the ground up were always more entertaining.</blockquote>

Verification