Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Jack Daniel 05-10-05, 11:52 PM	I guess nostalgia hits us all at some point. I just closed out a fairly long-running campaign that took PCs from 1st to 11th level, a game that involved a fair ammount of globe-trotting, far more overland combat than dungeon-delving, and even two instances of mass-battles where the 5' grid was replaced by a 25' scale, and the PCs' pieces were used to represent units they commanded. All in all, it was a successful "save the world" campaign, but one where the players advanced quickly, got rich in magical treasure quickly, and usually laid the smack-down on all but the most challenging encounters. (And the party consisted of two human fighters, a human noble, a dual-classed half-elf druid/monk, and a triple-classed hobbit fighter/rogue/engineer. They pulled through with no dedicated mage or cleric.) It wasn't what I remembered my 2nd edition or even early 3rd edition games being like. When I first started DMing, there was this wonderful mixture of roleplaying and dungeoneering, distinctly slower XP advancement & treasure acquisition... and I'm still not sure when, if at all really, my DMing style changed so much. Then again, I'm talking about two completely different groups of players here, so that's probably the key element: my style changed to fit a new group. The thing is, though, it's not *my* style. They've rolled up new 1st-levels, now. A barbarian, a rogue, a cleric, and a wizard. Three humans, and the rogue's a half-orc. A classic party if there ever was one. (In fact, in my campaign setting I change the half-orc's favored class to rogue, to reflect the fact that back in the days of 1st edition, assassin, not barbarian, was they class that half-orcs could multiclass everything with.) I played through a quick first session with these new characters to get the campaign's ball a-rollin', and when we reconvene tomorrow, I've decided to do something special. I dusted off an old TSR "Classic Dungeons & Dragons" book with an adventure that some folks here might very well recognize: "Escape from Zanzer Tem's Dungeon." Talk about inspiration to recapture "that old feeling"... hell, playing through that dungeon is what got me hooked on D&D (I remember how the seven classes in that book were fighter, thief, cleric, magic-user, elf, dwarf, and halfling... and then we houseruled in two extra classes, "red mages" and "black belts"! :D ) Converting this dungeon to the d20 system has been something of a trip down memory lane. "Wow, I remember when halflings still looked like hobbits and kobolds were more dog than lizard! Hey, remember thouls?" All the little bits-and-pieces of those early campaigns are still what I remember best about D&D, what I think of as "normal" for the game. It's like there are two different D&D games: "the way I remember things use to be", and "how they've changed since then." Not that I'd want to go back (as much as I'd love to do it, I still haven't the courage to cast aside my beloved 3rd edition for a whole campaign and just run classic or advanced D&D), but I'm at least hopeful that for this next game, I'll give my players some of "that feeling" that I still can't really identify or explain. And the funny thing that has me wondering is this: for those who started the game with the 3rd edition rules, is that feeling there? Is there still mystery to walking down that first dungeon corridor, knowing today as you do that "everything's a d20 roll, with modifiers, and high is good?" Who here believes that they'll be nostalgic about "the good old days of 3.5?" Is it so certain, or something that only time will tell?
weasel fierce 05-10-05, 11:53 PM	If 3.5 is still played in 25 years, I guess it'll have proven to be as longlasting as oAD&D and classic D&D is.
Rumple_Cragstan 05-11-05, 12:51 AM	I learned the game with 3.0 about 4 months after it was released, and bought the 3.5 books less than a week after they where released. From what I've heard of 2nd and previous editions, there was only one good thing about them - the rules where so darn confusing that only smart people could play, thus keeping idiots out of the game. But as for 'the good old days of 3.5'... I think I'll be looking back at it. But the thing is, its not about the system. I think that greater stories are made from the adventures that the PCs go through. In 10 years, I'm not going to be looking back at how crappy the fighter was any more than I'm looking back at the 3.0 ranger right now. But what I WILL be looking back at will be the time when my buddy Vince's character took control of a small town in the course of 4 in-game days. I'll be remembering the time that Chantelle was nearly in tears because her first character (a 9th level sorceror who she'd been playing scince 5th - alot longer than you might think) was at 3 HP and about to die.... until the ranger charged from accross the room, taking an AoO that nearly killed the attacking blackguard, saving her life with a critical hit that defied all odds. I won't be caring too much about how retardedly broken 3.0 Harm was, or about how shafted a 20th level 3.0 ranger was. Its the stories, not the gaming system that was being played while the stories where being written.
AzarKing 05-11-05, 12:54 AM	Exactly, i remember the characters and sagas more than i remember a series of dice rolls or rulesets. :clap: Unless it's something like a series of critical hits or critical misses ;)