What do you miss from the good ol' days?

[Shortman McLeod]

Nothing. Let the old times burn.

Let me guess: you're about 19 years old, right?

 

[Nebulous]

The "Frequency" entry on the monster tables. I know that different campaign worlds have different rarities of monsters and can vary. It's still nice to have a baseline from which to vary.

I also enjoyed the Frequency listing. I miss the simplicity of the older systems, and how i didn't feel compelled as if by a magical Geas to buy the goddamn miniature for every monster in the game!

 

[Baby Samurai]

and how i didn't feel compelled as if by a magical Geas to buy the goddamn miniature for every monster in the game!

Don't become a Plastic Crack addict!

 

[theredrobedwizard]

the Frequency listing

I hated things like "frequency" and "number appearing in lair". Gluh. If you want the monster to appear, it happens to be there. If you want it to be by its lair, then it is. There aren't need for rules about this.

Nothing. Let the old times burn.

Let me guess: you're about 19 years old, right?

To be fair, I agree with him. I've been playing for 16 years or so now. It's not just younger kids that disliked ye olde d&d, ya know.

15th level Half Fiend/Half Gelatinous Cube Paladin/Assassin/Mystic Theurge/Witchhunter/Dragon Shamans with the Lycanthrope template.

Do you really have players coming forth to play characters like this? Really? Or is this some kind of thinly veiled attempt to bait people into another board spanning edition war?

At least format your entry right. Half-Fiend Gelatinous Cube Weretiger Paladin of Tyranny 5/Dragon Shaman (Black) 5/Assassin 3/Mystic Theurge 1/Witchhunter 1. This character would be very much evil, or he'd lose about 60% of his class features; not at all appropriate for most D&D games. Such a character would never refer to themself as a Paladin/Dragon Shaman/Assassin/Mystic Theurge/Witchhunter; they'd most likely refer to themself as "The Chosen of Tiamat" or some other descriptive name.

Look, I appreciate where D&D comes from, and I try not to bash older editions of the game; I really try. Just try to keep that in mind about us "young kids" and "whipper-snappers" before you go doggin' on our fun.

-TRRW

edit: I found something I miss about older editions of D&D; Reversible spells. Saved so much space in the PHB spells section. Cure/Inflict Light Wounds as one spell was good times.

 

[Numion]

Let me guess: you're about 19 years old, right?

I've got similar feelings and I've been playing for 19 years.

 

[Peni Griffin]

Two things: level progression that allowed us to assume that you'd age about a year per level, and the simplicity that enabled every single gamer I knew to try out his hand at homebrew DMing! Not everybody found they liked it, but if you had the DMG, PHB, and MM in 1979, you gave it a shot at least once and it didn't take that long. Yes, a lot of what they produced was crap, but Sturgeon's Law applies. You could write up an adventure, stat a few NPCs and monsters, and success/failure depended on the people involved - your skill as DM, their skill as players - and you didn't have to worry about the feats and the skill points and so on. And yet, there were enough rules in the book and floating around the subculture that you could mix and match to your comfort point of complexity. Want a hit location chart, weapon speed, a magic point system, critical hits and fumbles? Use 'em. Don't want 'em? It's your game, man. Can you imagine if I decided I didn't like feats and outlawed them in my campaign? (I don't like feats, actually.)

Mind you, I used to find myself intensely frustrated trying to simulate people who had lives other than finding monsters and taking their stuff. The secondary skill system didn't cut it and we were always making house rules to cover things like, if you weren't a ranger, could you still find food in the wilderness? Could you make your own weapons? And although I am of the opinion that the present rules for crafting magic items stink on many levels, at least they exist.

I can't do homebrew these days. I have to use the modules, and all modules offend our communal playstyle to a greater or lesser degree and have to be modified extensively and it's all so much work. One of the other players who has shown considerable talent for spinning game elements into campaign depth has said casually that if he ever DMed it woudl have to be AD&D, and I for one wish he would.

Actually I wish anybody would DM any different system once in awhile, just for a change. No system is worth playing 100% of the time.

I miss activity cycles, knowing what was active when. I miss morale checks. I miss the treasure tables and standard xp rates and pregenerated random monster checks. My players calculate xp for me - I simply can't grasp it, somehow.

I also miss the stamina that let me stay up till three in the morning, accumulating character sheets as other players fell asleep on the floor, until only the DM, the guy with the 16th level monk, and I are left to play out the fight against the gorgon. But this is balanced by gaming with people who have outgrown the old-fashioned dungeoncrawl that made no freaking sense.

 

[JDJblatherings]

I hated things like "frequency" and "number appearing in lair". Gluh. If you want the monster to appear, it happens to be there. If you want it to be by its lair, then it is. There aren't need for rules about this.
.

The frequency & % Lair entries gave a DM an idea as to how common and mobile a given monster was designed to be. There is a heck of a lot of difference between a frequency : VeryRare monster that is in it's lair 90% of the time and common monster that is in it's lair 30% of the time. Does the creature typically lair with 100s of it's kind or all by itself is also pretty useful insight.

 

[Mr. Patient]

Me too!

That picture he did of Elric in the 1st edition Deities&Demigods is what really put the D&D hook in me.

I also love the crazy picture of the DM with the Marduk (?) marionette in that same book. Such an excellent late 70s-early 80s vibe.

Edit: And now that I come home and look at the picture, I realize that that one was by David S. LaForce. So to the list of things I miss about the old days, add "my memory".

 

[Fifth Element]

It really is about being young again. I miss being young, playing D&D for, ooh, 20 hours over a weekend. That sort of thing.

 

[Fifth Element]

Just though of another one.

I miss the lack of edition wars threads. Of course, we didn't have the internet at all, and the lower number of editions meant that naturally fewer people were convinced that your favourite was BadWrongFun. But I still miss it.