Chainsaw wrote:

I was super pumped you guys recognized the references, though I do wish someone had interacted with them more. Oh well! )

I actually wanted to interact with the mini Death Star but seeing that I was alone, behind it, I chose to wait and see if it was hostile. Once Kevin attacked it was all over. 
I really wanted to see how the Quintessons played out but I tend to play Vikings (especially Barbarians and Berserkers) as leery of tech, especially alien or sentient tech. Truth be told, I was secretly hoping there was a pit of Sharkticons that those judged would be thrown into.   
 

Chainsaw: I really enjoyed my first AS&SH game, especially being turned into crab people. Great way to start out my Saturday morning!

I'm a big fan of AD&D (as that's what Welleran DMs now) and was thinking about starting to DM a 5e campaign, but after playing AS&SH, I'll be picking up the 2nd edition (pre-ordered!) and trying to get my hands on a copy of 1e. I really enjoy the mechanics of AS&SH and would rather start my DMing career based on it over D&D 5e.

ScooterMcGavin wrote:

I'm a big fan of AD&D (as that's what Welleran DMs now) and was thinking about starting to DM a 5e campaign, but after playing AS&SH, I'll be picking up the 2nd edition (pre-ordered!) and trying to get my hands on a copy of 1e. I really enjoy the mechanics of AS&SH and would rather start my DMing career based on it over D&D 5e.

You shouldn't be disappointed if you're a big fan of 1e: AS&SH is much closer to that than 5e is. I've run both and much prefer AS&SH over 5e.

ScooterMcGavin wrote:

rhialto wrote:

You shouldn't be disappointed if you're a big fan of 1e: AS&SH is much closer to that than 5e is. I've run both and much prefer AS&SH over 5e.

 
I'm actually glad I started with AD&D. I grew up with video games but didn't end up joining the table top RPG scene until around 2015, so I was around 24 at the time; so you could call me a late bloomer to the sport.

I think the way newer editions of D&D run provide too many advantages or pluses for the player, making you feel like a super hero who can't die, rather than an adventurer who is expendable. Though to be fair, this GaryCon was my first GaryCon and the first chance I've taken to play with a new DM or to play a different system.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the newer edition games that I've watched on twitch.tv or podcasts I've subscribed to, but I think it makes for better drama and story telling than dungeon crawling and loot plundering. Being from a video game culture, I like playing classes like Necromancer which are absent in AD&D but AS&SH have. So when I had the chance in Chainsaw's game, I didn't hesitate to take that as my character.

After taking some time to read through the book while we played, I found AS&SH to be the system I would like to play over 5e, especially to DM. I've actually already started crafting some ideas for a campaign, but will likely run some 1 offs or pre-made modules to get into the swing of things before starting out on my own.

For me it's the difference between player desires and DM desires: newer editions (5e included) tend to have all these "switches" for the players to use, which make DMing harder (more switches to know). I can't tell you how often my group (which uses Pathfinder for all the games they run) compares my AS&SH game to PF...finally one of them realized "they're just scaled differently": a 1st-level PF or 5e character is equivalent to a 3rd+ level AS&SH character (no, I haven't done exhaustive actuarial analysis on this: just a sense, because I can't be bothered to do a level-by-level comparison, based mostly on all the additional spells/feats/skills/class abilities in the other games).

While I usually start groups at 1st level I treat even a 1st level character as a hero, exceptional beyond the norm. And as a compromise for those used to lists of feats, skills, etc. I use their backgrounds and the d6 Task Resolution quite liberally: the Cleric of Apolllo is just plain good (4:6) or great (5:6) when it comes to healing, period. Plus, I've been more generous with magic items, including the cursed kind...it's "sorcery" in AS&SH, not "magic".