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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 2842512" data-attributes="member: 22882">This is a very, very generous interpretation of the OP's original intent.  He identified a style of play (non-human, non-Tolkien-race characters) and then proceeded to criticize that style of play by linking it to another style of play (min/maxing, statistically-oriented play) which is more generally demonized.  If he did have the (comparatively) benign intent you ascribe to him, he certainly didn't convey it obviously.I don't actually agree that the percentages are different now than they were in the truly old school era.  1e AD&D, as written, was ALL ABOUT the min/max, munchkin, kick in the door and kill everything in sight style of play.  A self-proclaimed "thinking man's module" was one in which you had more metagame puzzles than in-game combat encounters. :\ That's not to say many players didn't go above and beyond the simplistic beginnings.  AD&D2e's modules and sourcebooks veer wildly in the opposite direction, which indicates at least a perceived dissatisfaction with the kick-in-the-door style.What's more, the 2e (and later 1e) (and basic D&D) era, say, the mid '80s though the mid '90s, DID change the playerbase considerably - because other games that were better GAMES came out and got a fanbase.People who cared first and foremost about the quality of the game left D&D for greener pastures as it aged and aged badly.  3.0 brought many of those people back because it is, mechanically, functional in a way that the prototype of D&D/AD&D was not.  GURPS, HERO, BRP, Storyteller - all of those systems and many more learned from D&D and improved upon it, and 3e D&D learned from them and improved D&D even more.People who cared primarily about the story and the roleplaying also drifted away from D&D, because of those early "hack-and-slay gatherings," but unlike those interested in the system, they never had a reason to come back.  D&D is no worse, but also no better, for a rp-heavy game than it used to be.This could mean a slightly lower percentage of dedicated roleplayers in D&D today than in 1990 or perhaps even 1980 (GURPS was already available in '80, IIRC) - because D&D is more attractive to players who like the rules than it used to be, and only as attractive to those who don't.This I agree with.I'm just not sure which side of the fence the OP falls on.PS - welcome to the board. <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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