Brock Savage wrote:

I read this thread and cringed as I remembered 1st level wizards being single-charge magic items.  During my old school experiences, after a wizard cast his spell it was back to the rear of the party for rest of the session.  

I'm not trying to piss in anyone's Cheerios but to be honest, I have mostly negative "old school" experiences. Maybe the D&D scene was bumpin' in the 1980's Midwestern "D&D Belt" but for a kid in a Southern California barrio the pickings were slim. The players I did find were mostly adult and always weird.  Gameplay was jarringly different from I imagined it would be, wavering between boring and frustrating. Adversarial DMs seemed to be the norm. Frankly, it's a miracle that I continued to be interested in gaming long enough to start DMing on my own by using my previous experience as examples of what NOT to do. I ran Cyberpunk2020 and didn't look back until the OSR hit its golden age with the introduction of Astonishing Swordmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

This all being said, the OSR movement is a massive font of creativity. It is great to see that people had fun with the old ways; I want to capture that magic and share with my friends. To that end, I voraciously devour the nuggets of wisdom doled out by the pro-tier old schoolers on this board and a few blogs. 

Glad you stuck it out!  Those "formative" years probably have allowed you to become a great GM! 
 

I have an odd position on this "old-new" divide: for me the attraction of the "old" is simpler, familiar rules which are easy to house-rule and exercise my creativity and have fun with my friends (of 40+ years now), and now our various offspring. But all my experiences of the "new" (as in, the dozens upon dozens of systems I've played or run) affect how I play the "old". So, while I run AS&SH, I run it more like later editions: 1st-level characters are heroic from the get-go (I vaguely recall a 1st-level character being 1-out-of-100 or so in 1e). They are not yet Conans, John Carters, Fafhrds, Jirels, etc., but they are 1/12th of the way there.

Brock Savage wrote:

I read this thread and cringed as I remembered 1st level wizards being single-charge magic items.  During my old school experiences, after a wizard cast his spell it was back to the rear of the party for rest of the session.  

I'm not trying to piss in anyone's Cheerios but to be honest, I have mostly negative "old school" experiences. Maybe the D&D scene was bumpin' in the 1980's Midwestern "D&D Belt" but for a kid in a Southern California barrio the pickings were slim. The players I did find were mostly adult and always weird.  Gameplay was jarringly different from I imagined it would be, wavering between boring and frustrating. Adversarial DMs seemed to be the norm. Frankly, it's a miracle that I continued to be interested in gaming long enough to start DMing on my own by using my previous experience as examples of what NOT to do. I ran Cyberpunk2020 and didn't look back until the OSR hit its golden age with the introduction of Astonishing Swordmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

This all being said, the OSR movement is a massive font of creativity. It is great to see that people had fun with the old ways; I want to capture that magic and share with my friends. To that end, I voraciously devour the nuggets of wisdom doled out by the pro-tier old schoolers on this board and a few blogs. 

Honestly, I bet your experience is more typical than not. Though I think many people thought that what you describe *was* how they were supposed to play and adopted that model and still do it today. You see this at cons and in people's reports of public play. I consider myself AMAZINGLY lucky to have found the group of friends that I game with -- and to have been around enough gamers my age as a kid that no fucktard with the social skills of a Gar, Giant, was able to crush the gaming out of me. I think the corporate gaming years, call it mid-eighties through . . . well . . . [pick your own cut-off date] were a terrible, terrible time for both creativity and basic socialization in gaming circles, and we're lucky to have the DIY communities and general sense of fellow feeling that we do now.

But there are still a lot of people, even playing cool games, who need some firm grounding in how to treat other people at the table.

I guess *my* rant is: Most people suck. We should be better. That's how the game grows. Roll for initiative.
 

Brock Savage wrote:

I read this thread and cringed as I remembered 1st level wizards being single-charge magic items.  During my old school experiences, after a wizard cast his spell it was back to the rear of the party for rest of the session.  
 

Fighters with 5 hit points had better head back there too! First level should be hard.
 

That's the spirit, Jimm!

Jimm.Iblis wrote:

After playing about a 1/2 dozen sessions as a 1st level witch-man in under_score's campaign, my attitude is shifting about letting mages multi-cast their spells. I'm having fun, roleplaying my character's mysterious airs, and having his two hirelings protect him until he unleashes his sleep spell. For sword-and-sorcery, at least, old-school spellcasting limits are perfect.

But seems like Jimm came to his senses, J.E.

Last edited by Iron Ranger (5/12/2018 11:07 am)