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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Luce" data-source="post: 5373267" data-attributes="member: 29760">My two copperOnce again let me start with the standard disclaimer: The following are my observations based on my experience. You can happen to disagree and still both of us can be right.Imprinting: The end goal is fun, but there are many ways getting there. If you already have found a way (game) that works for you, Why look further?Different spice: By that I mean each edition has its own peculiarities. Some like them some do not. I for example am quite found of 2ed due to something I like to call oscillating challenge. A group of 9 level character can be facing a group of gargoyles in one encounter and in another 25 level lich (Example taken from [FONT=Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times]Ex Keraptis Cum Amore, Dun 77)[/FONT]. While the later is definably harder then the former both present challenge due to limited resources. Due to their (more) limited number of spells, spellcasters did spend some battle not using spells saving them.Clash of Assumptions: in 2nd PC were may be just slightly above average for their race at the beginning. Following editions started to slant that to being someone special, destined for greatness. 2nd ed DMG have a section about giving "hopeless" character a chance. Now I did not see any STR 9 fighters, but there were a few STR 12 ones. All perfectly playable. Dragon tried to bring a reminder of that during 3rd in an article "Strong as an owl, Wise as an ox" (I think I have the name right) but the core assumption was that PC attributes should be managed more closely. In other words, people who played Wisdom 8 fighters before 3rd would not be caught dead doing so later. seen through 2ed prospective 3rd and 4th ed normal character generation runs into power gaming, while actually just following the different tenants.Setting worlds: Again the rule set has effect on the feel of a setting developed during its supported lifetime. Conversions can be made, but ether a lot of effort is needed to make it seem seamless or details are sacrificed. Dark Sun for example. Both versions are fine games, but the feeling is not same from reading the books.  "The wisdom of one generation is the common sense of the next": Things that have been found to be broken/disliked are already houseruled. Take energy drain, people I gamed with had were already doing the temporary bit, cast "restoration" to avoid loosing XP. Just one example.Game evolution and its target audience. That has been covered on this forums many times before. So I try to be brief. IME during the 80 and 90, there was more time to game. 1st ed had competition mainly from the game-books (you know, Bloodsword, Fighting Fantasy, The way of the tiger). During second Internet and game consoles started to appear, but still were secondary in time consumption. During 3rd ed, people begun to spend prodigious amount of time online or on their consoles. Current handhelds are very portable, as well as net(local or global) capable.  This had had some effects on the evolution of D&D. Older editions (1st and 2nd) tended to have slower advancement rate, one get to use the same abilities several adventures in a row before advancing. As anecdotal personal example I remember running RttToH (skipping the original tomb) for a group of 6 players, and none managed to get level up! Not even the thief!To Celebrim:About the political analogy.I have the fortune to be born before 1989 and grew up in a communist nation, which switched to democracy. And yet there were a lot of happy people before. In my experience it is not that a given governing approach is wrong. At the beginning sweeping changes are brought with the help of idealists and a lot of people get indoctrinated into the system, but not knowing  anything else still can be happy (how can you miss something you never had, or knew existed?)[In parallel before edition change all the possibilities are not know by the masses. There does not exist a bases for comparison.] Eventually more and more people learn how to play the system leading to corruption, stagnation and other unpleasantness. The system  start to collapse. [When at first edition is released, there are just a few books and clear cut rules. With time more and more material is introduced, sometimes introducing unintended consequences and combinations eventually leading to too many Pun-Puns. Cue edition reset. When 3rd came out some of the problems it was trying to fix problems, I was not aware of- that is they were not really problems I had encountered personally. Enough people must have had. or the change would not been made.  Same with 4th. Just goes to show, that one usually experience a limited scope of the world wide gaming picture.]</blockquote>

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