pming
Legend
Hiya.
You can do that now. Easily as saying "Hmm...yeah, you can do X." That wasn't the point I was trying to make. The point I was getting at wasn't that you *could* change rules, drop rules, create rules and tweek what you want. It's that changing rules, dropping rules, creating rules and tweeking rules was encouraged and expected.
RPG'ing back in the day was new. Rules were, quite literally, guidelines. If a DM did nothing but follow the rules 99% of the time, then they were actually not "playing as expected". I remember talking to other DM's back in the early 80's about their campaigns, and I was always excited to do so. Every DM ran things a bit differently (or REALLY differently for some). And, you know what? That's the way it was supposed to be.
Everyone likes to quote that one line from the AD&D 1e DMG from Gary about "If you change the rules, you aren't playing AD&D anymore". That's true. And, again, those people are missing the point. Anyone playing AD&D 1e *wasn't* playing AD&D; they were playing their own rpg interpretation of AD&D. That's entierly the point.
Someone here on ENWorld mentioned that the eMag "Fight On!", issue #2, was free. In it there is an article-interview with Dave Arnson. It's a good read to get the 'gist' of what role-playing was like.
Anyway, from my experience, if a DM puts a notice on the game board at your local FLGS saying "4e players needed! Core changes include level and class limits for demi-humans, no healing surges, and limited spellcasting per day! Email for more details!" ... chances are he's not going to get any emails at all. That's not to say that 4e (or 3e, or whatever for that matter) would implode with those changes, it's just that the expectation of the DM's role and his/her "control over the campaign & rules" has changed. Quite dramatically, IMHO.
Different times and all that I guess...
^_^
Paul L. Ming
You can do that now. Easily as saying "Hmm...yeah, you can do X." That wasn't the point I was trying to make. The point I was getting at wasn't that you *could* change rules, drop rules, create rules and tweek what you want. It's that changing rules, dropping rules, creating rules and tweeking rules was encouraged and expected.
RPG'ing back in the day was new. Rules were, quite literally, guidelines. If a DM did nothing but follow the rules 99% of the time, then they were actually not "playing as expected". I remember talking to other DM's back in the early 80's about their campaigns, and I was always excited to do so. Every DM ran things a bit differently (or REALLY differently for some). And, you know what? That's the way it was supposed to be.
Everyone likes to quote that one line from the AD&D 1e DMG from Gary about "If you change the rules, you aren't playing AD&D anymore". That's true. And, again, those people are missing the point. Anyone playing AD&D 1e *wasn't* playing AD&D; they were playing their own rpg interpretation of AD&D. That's entierly the point.
Someone here on ENWorld mentioned that the eMag "Fight On!", issue #2, was free. In it there is an article-interview with Dave Arnson. It's a good read to get the 'gist' of what role-playing was like.
Anyway, from my experience, if a DM puts a notice on the game board at your local FLGS saying "4e players needed! Core changes include level and class limits for demi-humans, no healing surges, and limited spellcasting per day! Email for more details!" ... chances are he's not going to get any emails at all. That's not to say that 4e (or 3e, or whatever for that matter) would implode with those changes, it's just that the expectation of the DM's role and his/her "control over the campaign & rules" has changed. Quite dramatically, IMHO.
Different times and all that I guess...
^_^
Paul L. Ming
