Dykstrav said:
... I've had the impression that gaming is far less important to most people than politics and religion, so why are gamers being so divisive nowadays?
Maybe it is because the outcome of any disucssion on what or what is not good or bad in gaming has no consequences. The world doesn't care about edition wars, and they don't lead to actual war. Religion, politics, those can lead to actual wars and bloodshed, so I think people have a greater sensitivity on those topics.
Compound this issue with the fact that as a gamer, there's an expectation for you to like anime and video games and all the other "weird kid" stuff that's cool now, and it's difficult to find any common ground for discussion. Am I being unreasonable for basing my games on classical mythology and literature instead of video games and anime? Are there any other gamers out there who run games inspired by the Iliad and Conan: the Barbarian instead of Final Fantasy and 300?
No and Yes.
I wouldn't say we are Iliad based, too high powered.
My own setting and what I've played in are very much based off Hyborean REH like setting. We're also pretty happy with "bland" character options, no Half-A, Half-B, unless you want half-elf or half-orc, also no prestige classes.
I haven't gamed regularly in almost a year now because it's just too many hoops to jump through and too many issues to smooth over to get a group of players that want to actually design characters that are more than a list of powers and meet regularly without the game devolving into either a debate over rules minutiae or devolve into a skulking/shouting match. I'm really disappointed in both the products and the players these days.
Maybe go with older/other product and/or older players. I never let a product dictate what I do, never have, and take offense at companies that explicitly or implicitly try to tell me otherwise. My money flows to them not the other way around. When they pay me I'll let them tell me how to play.
Should I just give up the game for good? Or is there hope of finding players that want to make PHB characters and loot a dungeon every once in a while?
Sure there is hope, you just have to fidn the right players.
Sorry if this rambled a bit, but I'm increasingly frustrated with a hobby that was once my favorite pastime. I'd really value some constructive input on why we keep playing.
I'd suggest looking for some older gamers (40+) and ones who are pretty open minded about system. This may be personal prejudice (being in the 40+ crowd) but as a general rule such players I've found are less likely to be difficult (with a one true way or one true game mentality be it 1e, 2e, 3e, 4e, etc.). Sadly, I'd also suggest you might have better luck through personal connections than the internet.
