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<blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 9613373" data-attributes="member: 9254">Anecdotal but my lived experience differs.&nbsp;&nbsp; I have to believe that for every Master box sold that at least 4 people played at 26+.&nbsp; There were two recessions in the 80s plus an almost-recession; we spent the money on the black box, we were by gosh going to play it!Back in the days where I could play in multiple campaigns per week, I was in at least 5 ad&amp;d 1e games that played to ~20th. In college I ran a 2e game from 3rd to 20+.&nbsp; I had 6 players that were there for the whole campaign and another 5 that weere present for the last 5 levels.&nbsp; &nbsp; And I have no idea how many one-shots were played in the dorms at higher levels, but it was a lot.&nbsp; I remember one guy that ran nothing but high level 1e ad&amp;d at 2 little regional college cons , so he accounts for a couple dozen high level casters on his own.Heck, after Primal Order by Wizards of the Coast hit stores in 1993 I was in a 2e campaign that started at 20th level.No, I mean the &quot;should I actually cast a spell&quot; paralysis.More anecdotal but outside of convention one-shots many casters would just....throw darts.&nbsp; There was this risk/reward logic process where casters would decide if right now was a good enough situation to use one of their precious, precious spells that they might not get back until after the adventure was complete.This was a well known stereotype of casters.&nbsp; If you ever read the Knights of the Dinner Table comic, the character Brian was the stereotypical optimizer who runs numeric simulations on his characters to figure out the statistical values of any action in advance, and if the math said the long-term outcome was better to hold action and wait for more targets, he by golly would hold action and the rogue was on their own against that troll.If you look at a lot of &quot;old school&quot; gaming, the whole notion of &quot;getting rest&quot; during an adventure is disliked by a non-trivial swath of GMs. I mean, Level Up/A5e doesn't even allow a Magnificent Mansion (an extradimensional space with an invisible, locked door that can't be picked, magic servants, plush furniture and tons of food &amp; drink)&nbsp; to qualify as &quot;Shelter&quot; for a rest.&nbsp; The casters had legitimate reasons to be miserly with spells.&nbsp; New players who wanted to cast spells were often advised to wait until &quot;it was worth it.&quot;&nbsp; They might not have had the Eye of Sauron to contend with, but most casters were waiting for a Balrog to appear before they unlimbered spells.I am glad that casters now cast their spells.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kigmatzomat, post: 9613373, member: 9254"] Anecdotal but my lived experience differs. I have to believe that for every Master box sold that at least 4 people played at 26+. There were two recessions in the 80s plus an almost-recession; we spent the money on the black box, we were by gosh going to play it! Back in the days where I could play in multiple campaigns per week, I was in at least 5 ad&d 1e games that played to ~20th. In college I ran a 2e game from 3rd to 20+. I had 6 players that were there for the whole campaign and another 5 that weere present for the last 5 levels. And I have no idea how many one-shots were played in the dorms at higher levels, but it was a lot. I remember one guy that ran nothing but high level 1e ad&d at 2 little regional college cons , so he accounts for a couple dozen high level casters on his own. Heck, after Primal Order by Wizards of the Coast hit stores in 1993 I was in a 2e campaign that started at 20th level. No, I mean the "should I actually cast a spell" paralysis. More anecdotal but outside of convention one-shots many casters would just....throw darts. There was this risk/reward logic process where casters would decide if right now was a good enough situation to use one of their precious, precious spells that they might not get back until after the adventure was complete. This was a well known stereotype of casters. If you ever read the Knights of the Dinner Table comic, the character Brian was the stereotypical optimizer who runs numeric simulations on his characters to figure out the statistical values of any action in advance, and if the math said the long-term outcome was better to hold action and wait for more targets, he by golly would hold action and the rogue was on their own against that troll. If you look at a lot of "old school" gaming, the whole notion of "getting rest" during an adventure is disliked by a non-trivial swath of GMs. I mean, Level Up/A5e doesn't even allow a Magnificent Mansion (an extradimensional space with an invisible, locked door that can't be picked, magic servants, plush furniture and tons of food & drink) to qualify as "Shelter" for a rest. The casters had legitimate reasons to be miserly with spells. New players who wanted to cast spells were often advised to wait until "it was worth it." They might not have had the Eye of Sauron to contend with, but most casters were waiting for a Balrog to appear before they unlimbered spells. I am glad that casters now cast their spells. [/QUOTE]

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