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

[Storminator]

I missed all of 2e. What I remember from the early 80s was going into the bookstore in town and seeing what new gaming materials they had... which was always none.

And when it was something it was always a module, which I couldn't just buy and read because we had 4 DMs in the group and we had to decide who was running what. So my old memories are of disappointment and drought. Nothing like that today.

PS

 

[RFisher]

I think I still got that warm feeling when I first bought the 3.0 core book, the first 3.0 module, & the first couple 3.0 splatbooks. It went away, though. It was the modules first. Then the splatbooks. Then everything else. By the time 3.5 was out, I wasn't getting a warm feeling from anything WotC published.

Yet, I do still get a warm feeling from the classic D&D & classic Traveller stuff I've been buying second-hand. I got it from my Lejendary Adventures Essentials box set. I got it from the Prince Valiant, the Storytelling Game that I finally managed to acquired. I got it (completely unexpectedly) from The Crusader.

Nostalgia, age, jadedness, whatever. I know that RPG products can still give me that warm feeling, but that WotC's don't very much anymore.

 

[Yeoman]

I still get that feeling of wonder even when I buy books today, nearly 19 years after I started. Maybe your tastes have changed over the years.

 

[dead]

Actually . . . the Castle Zagyg project has got some mildly, tingly feelings perculating.

It's a pitty it won't be *true* Greyhawk -- circa '83. It'll be an alien world that a Greyhawker must extrapolate from.

Also, when Dave Arnesson releases Castle Blackmoor and the City of the Gods, some tingly feelings might stir.

 

[cildarith]

You obviously miss that shrink wrap.

 

[Farland]

I think you're just gettting old, dude. Sorry.

 

[warlord]

I would also agree that it has something to do with age but even picking up a really good book at any age will give you the same feeling. I suggest buying Talislanta d20 and seeing if the feeling comes back.

 

[M.L. Martin]

I'm inclined to think it's nostalgia and association, since I just read the 1E DMG for the first time this weekend and didn't get any 'tingle' from it.

Matthew L. Martin

 

[Tuzenbach]

Personally, I find the visual layout of 3E very, very distracting and hard on the eyes. The WoTC 3E products resemble hard cover comic books or graphic novels. For me, I've always thought of D&D as a mental and conceptual game rather than a visual game.

When 3E first came out, the product that filled me with the most joy and "tingliness" was the Creature Collection. Why? Easy. Because the text (mental, literary, conceptual) wasn't competing with or being buried by the illustrations (visuals).

Thus, new WotC products really don't make me feel like "Wow! A new D&D book!" Do I stand alone?

 

[Tuzenbach]

Certainly being 12 and totally stoked about the game, when all was new, is part of it, but in my case, it's not all of it by a long shot.

I put some of it down to the presentation of the material. Reading either the 3.5 PHB or DMG late at night will put me to sleep. Even to this day, the 1E PHB and DMG will keep me from sleeping, and I have to get out of bed and go scribble down some ideas.

The 3.5 PHB reads like a cross between a boring business procedures manual and a poorly written UNIX SystemV man page. If you've read either, I think you get the idea. If you've read both, I pity you.

The 1E PHB and DMG are simply better reads than their 3.x offspring, in my opinion.

Add these comments to the ones I just posted. Gygax was the superior wordsmith.