Why don't I get warm-tingly feelings when I buy a 3E product like in 1E/2E/Basic D&D?

[Dyne]

When I used to buy Basic D&D, 1E AD&D, or 2E AD&D products (early era) my heart would be flushed with these warm tingly feelings and I'd kick my legs in delight as I ripped off the shrink wrap.

Why is it that I don't get that feeling in 3E?

(Actually, to be honest, I started to lose this feeling at the tail-end of 2E -- after the "revised" books where released [those ugly ones with the black covers].)

I enjoy the 3E system and 3E is still clearly "D&D" so the problem doesn't lie in a dissatifaction with the current edition.

Is it just that I'm getting older?

If I were a wee whipper-snapper, would I be getting those tingly feelings (and legs kicking in delight) as I buy the latest 3E product?

Is it just childhood glee that's now lost?

Or is it more than that? Is it that all 3E books are rulebooks? Is that the 3E books just don't "look" as good? Is it that 3E is more "mainstream" now?

I don't know, but I feel like I'm missing something and would like it to return . . .

I started off on 3.0, and I got all those "warm and tingly" feelings. Then 3.5 came along....

I don't know what it is. It's just not the same when those few core classes/feats/etc. that you held dear are suddenly overrun by a host of new stuff from sourcebooks....

Not that the new stuff is bad, it just isn't as special....

 

[scourger]

Get a module from Dungeon, Necromancer or Goodman Games. It works for me to help recapture that old, good feeling. Nothing inspires me like a good module with a little campaign setting flavor included--I'm currently running the Shackled City adventure path, and I can't wait to get into Mesopotamia. Slavelords of Cydonia & The Horned God are on my list to buy ASAP.

I like cross-genre stuff, too; so you might try some Omega World, Star Wars or Judge Dredd. Those are my favorite non-D&D d20 options. The Horizons line is fun, too; Spellslinger and Redline are my faves from that series (I only ran Spellslinger out of the 5 mini-books).

I also read the occasional AD&D supplement that I never picked up before just to get some nostalgia or new ideas.

The real challenge is recycling the stuff that just doesn't get it, but I'm getting better at space-saving.

 

[LeifVignirsson]

Oh, I don't know... I mean, when I know something is waiting in the pipeline from any publisher that I want to get, I tend to get giddy and pace in anticiaption as the months tick by... recently, that hasn't happened because most stuff has already been covered in one way or another, but I can tell you I was there like a little puppy for any FFG, AEG or Green Ronin product and my FLGS would already have a crisp copy waiting for me, seeing that I am there way too much...

We will see what happens when 2006 comes around... with all of the companies that have gone away from D20 and whatnot, I can't see myself getting excited as much, but it does happen... Heck, I am already waiting for August for Maelstrom to hit and looking at the calendar to see if it already skipped a few months...

 

[FireLance]

Urgh. Guys, stop - you're making me feel old. Ponder well these words of wisdom:

YOUTH
Samuel Ullman

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what's next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

 

[Turjan]

I tend to think it's age. Being jaded about things that were once exciting and new. It works with all sorts of things, not just roleplaying. Some of the movies I thought were great when I was a kid have turned out to be great because I was a kid. Furthermore, I'm far more jaded when it comes to new things, as of late. For instance, if I was ten I'd probably be moderately excited about Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Episode III). As it stands, I could care less.

Don't worry, a Star Wars example is very good in the context of this thread, as long as we don't discuss the merits of the new films against the old ones . I was a big fan of SW, when the first film that bore the simple name 'Star Wars' came out. When I watch the same film today, I ask myself: "What was it again I was excited about?" Time changes a lot of things .

 

[d20Dwarf]

Because you're 25 years older.

 

[DeadlyUematsu]

It's not age. It's attitude.

Simply put, play like it's your first time.

Doing this makes things more enjoyable.

 

[fusangite]

Is it just that I'm getting older?

Sadly, yes.

 

[lior_shapira]

I'm 28 years old, been playing for 15 years now (although took a 4 year break before 3.0) and I still have that tingly feeling I've even begun buying the FR books now (even though I'm not playing it) and my eyes light up with every one I get... hope you get the feeling back

lior

 

[S'mon]

I got that warm tingly feeling from 1e, 2e killed it very rapidly (eg 1e Lankhmar was cool, 2e was poorly researched garbage). After several years away I bought a few WoTC 2e Return To products like 'Slavers' and 'Return to White Plume Mountain' and found that all the magic had been dissected out of them. & Despite its technical proficiency, 3e has the same problem. Yet I can go back to old 1e or OD&D stuff material - even things I never saw first time round, like Palace of the Silver Princess or the Rules Cyclopedia - and still get the tingles.
Last night MonsterMash leant me his copy of the new 3.5-version City State of the Invincible Overlord, apparently closely based on the original, which I've never seen - I thought it looked fantastic. Likewise I have got the tingles from some other non-WoTC D&D products; eg I liked Lost City of Gaxmoor a lot (terrible mechanical flaws like a CR 21 BBEG in a mid-level module, great flavour) while Bastion of Broken Souls is dryasdust. There's something soulless about default-3e, I find. It's not just nostalgia, more a sense of possibilities & excitement inherent in the scenario or sourcebook.