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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8592979" data-attributes="member: 6877472">You're right of course, but it's hard to look back at the early days and not think about where we are now, and how we got here.&nbsp; Disassociating how we think of the game in the moment and trying to put ourselves in the headspace of someone in that era is going to be difficult.Even if you were there, you can have some different ideas about what was going on.&nbsp; D&amp;D in general in the early days was seen as strange and arcane, and the DM's were few in number and seemed to possess knowledge beyond what was in the rulebooks.In his book, &quot;The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert&quot;, William Dear writes of a (almost assuredly apocryphal, given the source) attempt to play Dungeons and Dragons.He has to hire a Dungeon Master, and the guy oozes charisma and seems to be the only one who really understands how the game works.Again, he probably made this up to sell his sensationalist documentary about a completely botched &quot;Gonzo investigation&quot; (his methods make Dirk Gently's seem straightforward), but this is kind of how people who weren't there look at the early days.The novelization of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial has an extended look at the D&amp;D scene, and it's utter gibberish.&nbsp; In response to seeing an enemy, a player says &quot;I try to befriend them&quot;.&nbsp; Like that's...just a thing one does?(But then you think about crazy nonsense like later Diplomancer builds and you're like, well....)I know myself, when I sat down with the 1e books (having gotten them in a garage sale in the 80's), I was amazed at all the STUFF packed in there.&nbsp; Still am, to be honest.But I couldn't figure out how to play the game for the life of me, until I finally saw other people doing it.&nbsp; And I've heard a lot of similar stories.Which really makes me wonder how anyone who didn't play with Dave Arneson or Gary Gygax (and company) figured it out to tell everyone else!(Or maybe they didn't, and just made it up, and that's part of why early D&amp;D seems so mysterious...)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8592979, member: 6877472"] You're right of course, but it's hard to look back at the early days and not think about where we are now, and how we got here. Disassociating how we think of the game in the moment and trying to put ourselves in the headspace of someone in that era is going to be difficult. Even if you were there, you can have some different ideas about what was going on. D&D in general in the early days was seen as strange and arcane, and the DM's were few in number and seemed to possess knowledge beyond what was in the rulebooks. In his book, "The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert", William Dear writes of a (almost assuredly apocryphal, given the source) attempt to play Dungeons and Dragons. He has to hire a Dungeon Master, and the guy oozes charisma and seems to be the only one who really understands how the game works. Again, he probably made this up to sell his sensationalist documentary about a completely botched "Gonzo investigation" (his methods make Dirk Gently's seem straightforward), but this is kind of how people who weren't there look at the early days. The novelization of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial has an extended look at the D&D scene, and it's utter gibberish. In response to seeing an enemy, a player says "I try to befriend them". Like that's...just a thing one does? (But then you think about crazy nonsense like later Diplomancer builds and you're like, well....) I know myself, when I sat down with the 1e books (having gotten them in a garage sale in the 80's), I was amazed at all the STUFF packed in there. Still am, to be honest. But I couldn't figure out how to play the game for the life of me, until I finally saw other people doing it. And I've heard a lot of similar stories. Which really makes me wonder how anyone who didn't play with Dave Arneson or Gary Gygax (and company) figured it out to tell everyone else! (Or maybe they didn't, and just made it up, and that's part of why early D&D seems so mysterious...) [/QUOTE]

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