Did anyone mention there might be less 1e purists because 1974 was a long time ago and many people who were teenagers then have died. They'd be in their 60's today and while that doesn't preclude people being purists and living until today, the people who were playing D&D 3.5 when it came out (2003), while the slow attrition of time has begun to wear down that generation...
There are less 1e purists because there are less people with living memory of that time period. There were 3.9 Billion people alive in 1974. There were 6.3 billion in 2003. It's not a mystery.
It's actually not unheard for old-school gamers to like 4e, in particular, those that played heavy combat AD&D. Matt Colville (Youtube Personality) is a really old school gamer and he talks a lot about why he likes 4e, it's actually quite convincing. He's actually running a 4e campaign that he streams right now.
I think for me personally the reason I play 1e B/X rules has probably less to do with what other systems do or don't do and everything with what 1e does for me. I suppose you could say that since I'm not looking for a new system, I'm not likely to find one.
Honestly did not consider the possibility of getting a game in it ever again, but I'm off to check this Matt fellow.
I have a 1st edition Paranoia mindset: they're your rules, change 'em however you want. Rule SWAT will not murder you. In that context, all rule sets are great. It's what you build that matters.
Even 5e is cool. I don't like its scaling or its boring monsters-as-written or its neglect of some concepts or even classes - but there's nothing stopping me strapping all sorts of things to the 5e scaffolding or ripping bits out. Helps I play at my house and not online, I guess, but even a vanilla thing is still a good thing if everyone has fun.
...do we all toy, in a fuzzy sory of way, with amorphous RPG systems in our heads, that we know probably wouldn't work if we actually tried to write them down? Because I sure do.
I've always had a conflicted relationship with 4e.
My feeling about 4e was always "well designed skirmish level wargame that doesn't quite feel like D&D". It had problems, such as high level being a slog, particularly in 4.0 (monster vault improved but did not fully fix) but encounter building was way less vanilla than 5e and characters actually had meaningful choices past third level.
I've always had a conflicted relationship with 4e.
My feeling about 4e was always "well designed skirmish level wargame that doesn't quite feel like D&D". It had problems, such as high level being a slog, particularly in 4.0 (monster vault improved but did not fully fix) but encounter building was way less vanilla than 5e and characters actually had meaningful choices past third level.
Did they, though? I felt like the game offered a lot of choices but optimization was so necessary that few of them could actually be taken without punishing the players.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I've always had a conflicted relationship with 4e.
My feeling about 4e was always "well designed skirmish level wargame that doesn't quite feel like D&D". It had problems, such as high level being a slog, particularly in 4.0 (monster vault improved but did not fully fix) but encounter building was way less vanilla than 5e and characters actually had meaningful choices past third level.
Did they, though? I felt like the game offered a lot of choices but optimization was so necessary that few of them could actually be taken without punishing the players.
Judging by the fact I was needing to use level+4 encounters against my PCs by mid tier 2, no, optimization was not actually necessary. I mean, sure, there were better and worse powers at any given level just like there are better and worse spells in 5e, but that's still way more choice than 5e offers.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Did anyone mention there might be less 1e purists because 1974 was a long time ago and many people who were teenagers then have died. They'd be in their 60's today and while that doesn't preclude people being purists and living until today, the people who were playing D&D 3.5 when it came out (2003), while the slow attrition of time has begun to wear down that generation...
There are less 1e purists because there are less people with living memory of that time period. There were 3.9 Billion people alive in 1974. There were 6.3 billion in 2003. It's not a mystery.
Honestly did not consider the possibility of getting a game in it ever again, but I'm off to check this Matt fellow.
I have a 1st edition Paranoia mindset: they're your rules, change 'em however you want. Rule SWAT will not murder you. In that context, all rule sets are great. It's what you build that matters.
Even 5e is cool. I don't like its scaling or its boring monsters-as-written or its neglect of some concepts or even classes - but there's nothing stopping me strapping all sorts of things to the 5e scaffolding or ripping bits out. Helps I play at my house and not online, I guess, but even a vanilla thing is still a good thing if everyone has fun.
...do we all toy, in a fuzzy sory of way, with amorphous RPG systems in our heads, that we know probably wouldn't work if we actually tried to write them down? Because I sure do.
My feeling about 4e was always "well designed skirmish level wargame that doesn't quite feel like D&D". It had problems, such as high level being a slog, particularly in 4.0 (monster vault improved but did not fully fix) but encounter building was way less vanilla than 5e and characters actually had meaningful choices past third level.
Did they, though? I felt like the game offered a lot of choices but optimization was so necessary that few of them could actually be taken without punishing the players.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Judging by the fact I was needing to use level+4 encounters against my PCs by mid tier 2, no, optimization was not actually necessary. I mean, sure, there were better and worse powers at any given level just like there are better and worse spells in 5e, but that's still way more choice than 5e offers.