What has changed your experience with D&D - the game or you?

[Quasqueton]

What makes the biggest difference for you between AD&D and D&D3:

The rules or your age? (13 years old, high school freshman vs. 30+ years old spouse and parent)

The rules or your culture? (books and TV vs. Internet, computer games, movies)

The rules or your knowledge and understanding of the rules? (goblins and ogres were new and scary vs. drow and mindflayers are cliches)

The rules or your play style (hack-and-slash, Monty Haul, and building a god-like character vs. background stories, personality development, and telling a story)

The rules or the people you play(ed) with? (childhood friends who grew as gamers just like you did vs. new friends who probably had different early experiences with the game than you)


So, what has changed more about your experience with Dungeons & Dragons -- the game, or you and your world?

Quasqueton

 

[Whisper72]

I think, looking at the whole, I myself changed the most. First of all the whole age thing (started playing when I was 12, am now 32), and along with that the focus of styles of play.

I still like to just romp around now and then, just hacking away in a dungeon with a dragon at the end of a 10 foot wide and high tunnel, but for the most, I like longer termed campaigns with some sense of 'realism'.

I did not change the rules I played with until just this year however, and played with 1st edition ADND most of the time, so at the moment, the new rules are a big issue for me, and take some getting used to. As I mentioned in several other threads though, even though the rules may have changed less then I have myself, the change in the rules (mainly, more and more generalized with the whole d20 idea) definately has a large impact on the feeling of the game. I for one like the fact that at a certain amount of XP's the rogue was 10th level and the fighter 8th. I rather liked the old dual/double classing rules (we had a standard house rule that humans could double and other races could dual as they pleased, worked fine for us).

So to answer your question, over the past 20 years, definately myself, then the rules then the world, for the past year, the impact of the rules has been greatest...

 

[diaglo]

So, what has changed more about your experience with Dungeons & Dragons -- the game, or you and your world?

i try and play the same way i did.

for me the rules have changed. which means i have to learn them all over again... and try to forget the ones i already know...

the difference outside of the game has changed too. but that just means i play less.

 

[Mac Callum]

So, what has changed more about your experience with Dungeons & Dragons -- the game, or you and your world?

Quasqueton

I have changed much more than the game has. To the extent that the rules have changed I believe that's because the game-makers have attempted to stay with their market and 'grow up' along with the rest of us.

When I was 13 there wasn't a lot more to the game than killing orcs and riding dragons, but any additions on top of that largely have been in me and my group - not the rules. Despite the Diplomacy Check and skill there are no rules that detail out all of the ways in which my character deals with others NPCs - and that's the way it should be.

Right now I'm playing two PCs in the same game. Dwarven cousins. One's a LG Cleric of Moradin and the other's a NG Ranger/ Rogue who's got a bit of a vengeful streak when innocents have been harmed. The other night the Ranger/ Rogue had to say "Don't come with me tonight cousin. Things must be done that Moradin will not approve."

There's no rules for that in any edition of D&D.

 

[eris404]

So, what has changed more about your experience with Dungeons & Dragons -- the game, or you and your world?

It's definitely me. When I first started playing (around 10 or 11, I'm 33 now), I barely understood the rules and what I wanted from the game was different - I wanted cool "toys" and spells and powers then, and although I still want my character to get cool stuff, it's more important that the character grow and do cool, important things. My understanding of the rules is marginally better, too.

Another thing: as a kid, I didn't know many people who played and stopped playing altogether in high school because I couldn't find anyone (until senior year) who was willing to be that "uncool." Now I know tons of people in RL who play and tons of people online to talk to about gaming. Having a community to share my obsession makes a difference.

 

[Arnwyn]

The game has changed more than I have. The cool thing is, my group and I can still play the way we have for more than a decade with few changes (and some improvement, actually).

 

[moticon]

What Changed?

I would say that it was the mechanics in 3.0 at first, but then it became more about the style of play I created for my campaigns and players. I got back into the game when my kids were old enough to understand it and play it, and it was right after the 3.0 core books came out.

Once I understood that a series of underlying systems had been built based on opposed roles I really liked it and it made the game more enjoyable because it was actually easier to develop our own opposed systems, etc.

But the big change was learning how to build a story and backdrop into the game, and having much more richness in the adventures with more complex motivations, with surprises, hints, and mysteries around the classic elements that I always enjoyed (a good battle, a good dungeon, a great evil to overcome)...

Moticon

 

[Umbran]

Hm. I started playing AD&D more than half my life ago. Darned tootin' I've changed more than the game has.

 

[MonsterMash]

I have, but as I started as an 11 year old back in 1977, a lot has happened to me and the world around me in 27 years

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Both. I got older and the game moved more and more away from what it was when I began playing it back in 83/84. I found I missed design elements of earlier editions, some spells aging the caster, uncertain results of summoning spells, minimum requirements for classes and other parts of the Gygax design philosophy.

But since we still play 1e the changes don't bother me.