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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gothmog" data-source="post: 230075" data-attributes="member: 317">Hello all,There is something I have been thinking about the last few days, and I was wondering what everyone's opinions here are about it.  I think we all remember our first exposures to gaming fondly, almost nostalgically, and probably for as many different reasons as there are posters on these boards.  For me, when I first started gaming over 15 years ago, there was this sense of wonder, mystery, and the feeling of "Wow!  You can actually do this kind of thing in a game?!?!?"  Everything seemed perplexing, and at the same time so intriguing that I thought about gaming a lot in my free time, and while I wouldn't call it obsessive, every time I got the chance to game was a cause for great excitement.As time wears on, we become more familiar with the terminology, structure, and expectations of the game, the "magic" that accompanied gaming in the beginning fades- to be replaced by a deeper, more aesthetic understanding of rpgs.  What I mean by this is learning how to use the system to do all the cool and fancy things it is capable of, building complex characters, and learning the ins and outs of whatever system you prefer.  Finally (and it happens to everybody sooner or later) burnout seems to occur, probably due to an overfamiliarity with a certain game/genre/group, and it becomes hard to motivate oneself to put the hours of effort into gaming that was possible in the beginning.I have rambled quite a bit here, but the point of this post is that in the last month or two, I have noticed something when I have been gaming (both DMing and as a player).  I was at the semi-burnout stage for a while, and while I would game occasionally, it had lost a lot of its "magic" to me.  Recently, my girlfriend expressed an interest in starting to game (she never had before), and we created a character for her and have done several solo adventures to let her get the feel of things.  The entire time we have been gaming, I have been watching her go through the same initial stages we all seem to when we begin gaming, and I find it extremely refreshing to have new ideas and new ways of looking at situations brought into the game.  As an example, this last weekend when she and I played, her Rog3 ran into a zombie in some catacombs.  Those of us in the know about the system know zombies have 2d12+3 hp, AC 11, CR 1/2, etc., and would not have considered it much of a challenge for a Rog3 with a fairly high AC and good Init.  She won Init, and stabbed the zombie once- I described the wound as a "deep puncture in its side which jolts the rotting corpse with its force, but the creature continues to move forward undaunted."  Her response, probably much different than most seasoned gamers, was to flee at this point.  Her response took me by surprise, and made me start to wonder why she did it.  Once the adventure was over I asked her if she thought she could have taken the zombie, and she replied "No, because to stop it I would have to hack it to bits, and in the meantime, it would have eaten by brains!"I guess what I am trying to say is that her perspective of not thinking in game terms (in this case because she doesn't know much about the monster stats) allowed her character to show a fairly realistic, but all too rare response to some nameless horror adventurers are likely to encounter.  Do you think this is due to relative inexperience with the rules, a less jaded perspective of gaming, some other reason, or some combination of these things?  Her fresh perspective of gaming has rekindled my flagging interest in gaming, and I am rediscovering some of the mystery and "magic" that I experieced when I first started this great hobby.  Also, probably of more interest to people who frequent these boards, what thing(s) do you think could be done to revitalize the interest of those of us whose interest has waned over the years?  I have a few ideas, but I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks too.Any comments would be appreciated.Gothmog</blockquote>

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