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

[The Shaman]

Used to be you'd get a book and the rules and the world were rather unseparable.

I disagree - as far as I can remember, there was no link between the mechanics in 1e AD&D rule books and the Greyhawk setting beyond the names of a few spells and magic items - the deities didn't even appear in Deities and Demigods.

There was a thread about "Gygaxian" writing recently, and I realized after reading it how much the old books read like pulp stories instead of owner's manuals, even while describing the exact same things.

 

[Impeesa]

For those saying it's age and being jaded, I humbly disagree. I bought the whole lot of WotC 3e products from 2000 through about 2003......no tingles. I bought assorted 3rd party products.......nothing. Started playing Classic D&D again last year. I recently picked up a near-mint set of dungeon geomorphs, monster and treasure assortments, Battlesystem boxed set, assorted modules and the TSR monster cards (for OAD&D). When the packages started arriving in the mail..........you guessed it, warm tinglies! They come back if you buy the good stuff.

Those are grandfathered-in tinglies. They get by the new 'jaded' regulations by virtue of having already given you that feeling before, and then disappearing for a great deal of time while accumulating nostalgia.

I would say try something else. Ever considered horticulture? Or sex?

You know, making jokes about the stereotypical gamer just isn't as fun when you know the vast majority of the board's denizens are married, thirtysomething grognards.

--Impeesa--

 

[Insight]

I can really relate to what the original poster is talking about. I am also in my 30s and feeling uninspired about a lot of aspects of 3.x. But a good setting or even adventure, run by someone who really cares about making it fun, it can bring back some of that old feeling. It's not the mechanics that get you excited anyway - it's the game itself (and by that I mean the game session).

One thing you might want to try is switching genres or even game systems. I always enjoy learning a new genre, setting, or game system. Try a new one for six months and see if that rejuvenates anything.

 

[TerraDave]

All of the above

Yes, you are older

Yes, too much stuff came out in the late 1980's and early 90's

Yes, the current rules lack much of the style and attitude of the early years

When I was 11, the early D&D stuff really did "let the imagination soar" in a way I don't any game book, no matter how good, could do now.

And there may be a trade off in trying to be clear and straight foward and balanced on the one hand, and stylish and exciting on the ohter.

But, I was excited by the possibilities of the 3.0 rules--if not all the writting or some of the details--and every once in a while I come across something new that is truly cool, even if it doesn't have an erol otus cover.

 

[Ourph]

So you keep saying . . . but my 1E DMG still smells like old horse or wet dog.

I know what you mean. One of my copies of B2 KotB looks and smells like somebody used it for rolling papers and then thought better of it and sold it on eBay instead.

Perhaps I should have said modern roleplaying books don't smell right, in the way that a brand new (or older, but well treated) OAD&D book does.

Or maybe old horse and wet dog just smells like warm-tingly old-school gaming to me???

 

[T. Foster]

Those are grandfathered-in tinglies. They get by the new 'jaded' regulations by virtue of having already given you that feeling before, and then disappearing for a great deal of time while accumulating nostalgia.

I know you're kidding, but still... A year or so ago I started picking up a lot of items that I'd missed back in the day off ebay, and when I'd start reading an old 1E module that I never had back in the day (stuff like EX2 and the UK series) I felt the sort of thrill and excitement I just don't get from more modern stuff. And this weekend I was in a game-store looking around at all the new stuff and none of it did anything for me until I came across a copy of the 1E Unearthed Arcana that was in near-mint condition and looked like a completely new book ('sheen' on the cover, bright white unmarked interior, intact binding, etc). Paging through it I felt such a rush that I ended up buying it (for original cover price), even though I already have a copy (though admittedly as it approaches its 20th anniversary my old copy is in such desperate condition that I was in the market for a replacement anyway). None of the dozens/hundreds of 3E/d20 products there had anything like the same sort of impact on me. Yeah part of it's nostalgia, but I think there's at least a bit of something more as well.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Or maybe old horse and wet dog just smells like warm-tingly old-school gaming to me???

Ahhh, the heady days of wet-dog gaming....

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The writing in today's gaming books, particularly those from Wizards of the Coast, is nothing, nothing like the writing as late as many of the better (from a flavor perspective) 2e books.

I'm not sure that's the writers' faults - some of the guidelines I've seen are definitely anti-style. Bland writing is supposed to be easier to understand. Personally, I don't have good reading comprehension while sleeping.

 

[Ranger REG]

Is it just that I'm getting older?

Yep.

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

Elasticity of your skin? Hair growth? "Potency"?

Let's face it. We're game geezers.

 

[haakon1]

Get a module from Dungeon, Necromancer or Goodman Games. It works for me to help recapture that old, good feeling.

I like cross-genre stuff, too

Nod . . . I still get goosebumps from the some stuff, like parts of the new Blackmoor book, modules like "The Standing Stone" (DMing now for 4-5th level characters without nerfing it, when it's designed for 5-7), and some of the Goodman modules . . .

The comments about WOTC's sterile writing and obsession with balance that other folks made ring true to me too. Necromancer, Goodman, Atlas (whatever happened to them?) and so help me even Troll Lords at least have spirit. D&D is silly if it's all kobold in one room, ancient red wyrm in the next, but it also loses something if all the encounters are tailored to be just so -- balance of outrageously easy, "level appropriate", and outrageously killer is more fun than level appropriate all the time, IMHO.