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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8452604" data-attributes="member: 7023840">I agree with you that tradition should not be a reason to hold back advances. But I would concentrate on a different issue, and one I agree with. Which is to say- yes, tradition is valuable in and of itself (regardless of whether you need a good or very good or even sorta good reason for the threshold for change). There are two primary reasons for this-A. Standing on the shoulders of giants. There should be a presumption that people who were doing something a certain way had a good reason for doing it. That doesn't mean they were right, and that doesn't mean that even if they were right, there aren't better ways, but just that we should be more careful with sweeping away past practices than we are when we are working with a blank slate. In other words, there are slightly different considerations when you are creating something new and from scratch than when you are changing something that already exists.B. In addition, there is value to continuity, ritual, and tradition. The easiest and most understandable examples are family traditions (such as those we might associate with holidays). There can be independent value simply in the communal exercise of those traditions. But the value of families, groups, and communities bonding over shared experiences over time can be amazing. Just to provide a completely banal example I just saw- there was a homecoming game (football) recently at a local high school, and while some things had changed (I don't think the marching band in the 50s was playing the Weeknd and Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish), some of the events and fight songs and traditions went back more than 80 years, and you had people going back multiple generations sharing in it. Which is kind of cool!Now, with that said, I'd point out that this is a (+) thread, and people are supposed to be contributing examples of traditions they value in D&D, not arguing against the concept. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Why do I value tradition in D&D? Because I find comfort in seeing younger players take many of the same concepts that I explored decades ago, and putting their own spin on them. I enjoy being able to hear stories from today, and from 40 years ago, about surviving an encounter with a beholder. About the joys of the fireball. About the treasure trove that was "this big!" About the fighter that was too dumb to live, to strong to die. About the time that the only thing that could save you was rolling a 20, and it happened!I'm glad that things are different now. I'm sure it's better for the people coming up. But I also treasure the through-line, the continuity, the tradition ... that emotional bond I can share.It's like the most positive form of nostalgia- instead of being the jealous preserve of us olds, though, it's a shared joy across generations.</blockquote>

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