NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 6851657" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I think it is mostly due to being prior to 3E, which is the edition that codified the rules the most. Prior to 3E, there was a level of magic to the rules themselves...they were a bit mysterious and open to interpretation, and organized in such an odd way. Learning and interpreting the rules was like studying lore. Just look at THACO. It's a more complicated formula than it needs to be. No, it really isn't that complex, but it has more steps than needed. Some players in our group would work out entire charts based on their character's THACO so they knew what they needed to roll in order to hit a given AC. Saving theows are another example. Random types of effects seemingly randomly grouped together, and arbitrarily assigned a number. Why are poison and death magic treated the same? Why are rods, staves, and wands lumped together, but spells are something different? Very odd when you think about it. Also, and maybe this is just my personal experience, but finding certain game materials was a bit of an adventure. I remember having to hunt for Unearthed Arcanna for months and months. I remember seeing one copy of the Dungeoneer's Survival guide at Kay Bee Toys, and not having enough cash to buy it. So I came back a week later to get it, and it was gone. I never wound up getting a copy. I remember my brother finding I6 Ravenloft in a drug store. The act of finding material was almost like finding treasure in the game. So then 3E came along and actually addressed these mysterious processes, and tried to make sense out of them. So THACO and descending AC was out the window in favor of a simpler system. Saves were divided along attributes in a way that made more sense. And so on. 3E really killed a lot of the magic of the old system. I don't think that's the only factor. I think the Internet has played a big part as well...people are more connected, word of mouth no longer means as much, and you can find and buy everything. We know what's coming out and exactly when months ahead of time and so on. And certainly nostalgia and all of that is a huge factor. But I really think that the 2E and earlier days hold such power because the rules themselves, and the game, were a bit fantastic.Having said all of that, I don't want any of those rules to return, even though I love 5E for being more old school in design and feel.</blockquote>

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