Something, I think, Every GM/DM Should Read

[Fifth Element]

How can you miss something so obvious as that Gary was talking about playing his game -- ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS -- not about playing a Ron Edwards or Vincent Baker game?

I'm not restricting my comment to the Forge stuff. There have been a very large number of people playing Gygax's game for over three decades since those words were written. To assume a 32-year-old opinion overrides that is folly.

 

[Ariosto]

Fifth Element, that you may happen to prefer Hopscotch does not by any logical stretch make advice on how to play Baseball wrong for people who want to play Baseball!

It is an unfortunate state of affairs that some people are very contentiously invested in replacing "Dungeons & Dragons" -- not only the original, but also the current nominee, and by all evidence of history, the next and the next after that -- with their own One True Way.

"All you who actually like the game are just ignorant fools," these insurgents are perennially insisting -- when they are not calling the happy players of whatever it may be willfully, objectively and perhaps morally wrong.

And so the wheel turns, and turns again. Is this progress? No.

It is merely, year after year, further evidence of just what Mr. Gygax wrote. This is not astounding to those of us who appreciate that he was writing about a human nature that probably has not changed in at least 100,000 years.

 

[Ariosto]

I mentioned a few posts ago the fellow who does not want to be challenged. For him, there simply is no question of "becoming strong and powerful far too quickly". It is not "an undesirable direction" that will have him "ending up with a short-lived campaign" out of boredom.

The really undesirable direction for that fellow is to tell him that what he wants is to play AD&D!

 

[Rel]

So I'm pretty sure that we've hashed out all that needs to be said in this thread and it's probably not going anywhere productive. Let's just call it a day here.