Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="rgoodbb" data-source="post: 7466238" data-attributes="member: 6801229">When I was a younger player I was utterly into combat and all my schoolmate co-players and DM were the same. That for me was what D&D (or AD&D as it was), was all about. At that point I would have baulked at the thought of role play, and exploration was just a thing that got us to the following. <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Delve the dungeon</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kick the door down</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kill the monster</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Take their stuff</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Maybe level up</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Onto the next dungeon</li> </ul>So there was quite a bit of Dungeon Creep/Crawl (never know which term is correct) exploration involved as well and tonnes of combat, but hardly any roleplay. Life got in the way for a while, many years actually (shame on it/me) After Lord of the Rings came out at the cinemas, I had a sudden hankering to play D&D again. I remembered with fondness kicking in those doors and killing and taking stuff and so, with a little trepidation now as an adult, I decided to try and find a group of adults who still played this game. It didn’t initially occur to me to look on the net. Doh! But eventually I found a group and as luck would have it, they allowed me to join them. They were playing 4[SUP]th[/SUP] edition at the time and as I settled into the style of that edition I was again kicking in doors like part of a breaching SWAT team and we were having lots of long battles. This should have been just the tonic for me. But something was missing.  I found myself wanting more. It occurred to me that I might slowly getting bored with combat. It was becoming (blasphemy) a let-down. You know in those good horror movies where the suspense is killing you and it grows and your fear/excitement grows, and then it lessens again only to grow again and you go on this emotional rollercoaster, and then when the thing actually happens, it almost feels like a deflation. The best part for me now was not the combat. It was the part just before. And the longer that could be teased out, the better. 4[SUP]th[/SUP] was great because it got me back into D&D and for that I will always have fond memories of it. When 5[SUP]th[/SUP] came out, (and I’m not trying to start an edition war here, this is just me) it was like a breath of fresh air. It was similar in style to 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] which I grew up on, but without all of the crap. Which was great. It had that feel that I remembered, but it also now spoke very openly of the three pillars. I had not considered these before and the role-playing aspect was actually fun now that I wasn’t a shy, embarrassed spotty young teen. The role-playing side grew on me big time. It opened doors into this magical game that I had not ever considered and hooked me completely. Having had time to reflect on all three different editions I realise now that the edition did not matter, the combat while fun was not the best part and the role play which was non-existent in my early gaming was taking more and more of the limelight, but I realise now that probably one of the most exciting things in the history of the world of D&D for me, was the door.  Yep. That’s right. The Door. Especially the Closed Door. Think about it. When you get to that door……..oh wow…….What is about to happen? What is going down? This is the point in the horror movie. The unknown. The cusp. This is where the music builds up as much as your adrenaline.  Is it locked? Is it unlocked? Is it barred? Is it trapped? Is it real? Is it a mimic? Does it have a keyhole? Does it have space underneath to push a mirror through? What is behind the door? Is it a trap room? A puzzle room? A hostage situation? Is it a wandering monster just waiting for you to bring it to life? Is it an ambush? Is it a treasure room? Is it a teleportation portal to Hell? Or is it a dusty old broom cupboard? What can you hear, smell, and feel behind it? Is it warm or cold to the touch? Does it have a door knock, are you going to use it. Are you going to try to turn the handle first? Will that make a noise? Are you going to try to oil those hinges? Are you ready to just kick the door in? The more you question, the greater the suspense. The answers of course don’t actually matter at this point. They don’t mean a damned thing. It is the very fact that you don’t know. And only when you have made a decision about that door does it unfold. But never does it mean as much as beforehand. That is the point or the cusp as I like to call it, where the scenarios are endless. That is the excitement. The teasing of maybe……something, anything, everything.   Combat, once the all-powerful agent of D&D, while fun was no longer the titan it once was for me. My needs as a kid gave it might and strength. Role-play, the once pure unholy terror of D&D, is now embraced as pure gold by myself and my co-players/DM’s. We live off it, sometimes even drool over it.  Exploration has always been there. The unappreciated cog. Hidden away, subtly subsumed in the background. Never demanding centre stage but always playing the co-star. You know the one. That great old actor who, with their power and presence alone, makes the younger star look absolutely fantastic.  Exploration is the glue that binds the world together, and the peak, the very pinnacle of exploration for me can be reduced, boiled down to one thing; the humble closed door.  So next time you adventure through a dusty castle or an ancient crypt and you come across a closed door, take a moment. Smile. Grin your Half-Orc teeth out. Savour it, because what is going to happen next is pure unknown, and that it just fantastic. That for me, is a piece of magic far stronger than any spell. That is the magic of playing D&D.</blockquote>

Verification