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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark CMG" data-source="post: 5824174" data-attributes="member: 10479">I sometimes run across newer gamers who deride old school play after having picked up an older ruleset on ebay and given it a try with some friends.  I've met other newer players who have done the same thing but with far different results.  A lot of what is playstyle (not necessarily roleplaying style) comes from what folks bring to the table rather than what they get from the rulebooks.I know that for myself, as someone who has played all editions and many, many other roleplaying systems besides, describing a game as old school or new school seems sometimes a fruitless endeavor.  I've gamed with the original old school gamers in RPGs at the convention in the mid- and late Seventies, and still do these days at fun conventions like Gary Con in Lake Geneva each year.  I've been DMed by folks like Frank Mentzer and Tim Kask, and this year will have a seat at a table run by Ernie Gygax.  You'll gain no greater understanding of old school gaming style from blogs or essays than you will directly from the source.  I hope to see the 5E designers at Gary Con this year, integrating with the attendees in the (O)D&D, 1E, and other games to get a true feel for those traditions.There are plenty of younger gamers who run RPGs in that style at Gary Con and elsewhere too, younger being anywhere from fifty to fifteen, in some cases. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Many of them are folks who have been doing it since the early days in the Seventies or run the old rulesets handed down to them from friends, fathers, or other family members.  I can certainly understand how someone who wasn't part of or raised on that type of gaming would find written accounts seemingly lacking.  I sometimes do as well and I was there so you'd think I could look over such accounts and point out which are accurate and which could be more so.  But I don't know that it is as easy as all that.Even back then, for example, as someone who loved both Tolkien and Howard, as well as many other fantasy and swords & sorcery authors of the day and previous eras, there were people bringing different expectations to the table.  I knew of plenty of Tolkien fans who never touched a Conan book and plenty of Howard fans who thought Tolkien's work was not the type of material they would want to emulate in their gaming.  (Their words, from both sides, were often stronger. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )  So it's fair to say that "old school" is a mash up of many attitutdes and to put too much emphasis on any single account would be doing the traditions of many others a disservice.So I wouldn't say it is a moving target but merely that it has never been as narrow a target as some would have others believe.  Let the definitions be loose, as that would more accurately reflect the true spirit of old school anyway.</blockquote>

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