|
Post by karaunios on Jun 23, 2021 23:37:31 GMT -5
I use ascending AC, so I don't even use the matrices. Same for saving throws, I use the abilities instead. I use B/X ability adjustments. Roll to beat a determined number. How high or low that number is depends on your class and level. I make the number up on the spot. The less I have to go through rules and charts the better.
For random encounters I throw a d20. The higher, the worse the encounter will be. Lower numbers indicate no encounter or even something helpful.
Jim Murphy is a YouTuber.
|
|
|
Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jun 24, 2021 1:21:51 GMT -5
I use ascending AC, so I don't even use the matrices. Same for saving throws, I use the abilities instead. I use B/X ability adjustments. Roll to beat a determined number. How high or low that number is depends on your class and level. I make the number up on the spot. The less I have to go through rules and charts the better. For random encounters I throw a d20. The higher, the worse the encounter will be. Lower numbers indicate no encounter or even something helpful. Jim Murphy is a YouTuber. Whereas I would never use ascending AC and I happen to like the saving throw matrix. There are other things I use the abilities for from time to time. Is Jim Murphy RPGs or Music or something else. Do you have a link to something you like by him?
|
|
|
Post by karaunios on Jun 24, 2021 5:27:42 GMT -5
If my friends were like me I would run more games more faithfully to OD&D, but they're pretty lazy, haha. I like variation though, so I don't run every campaign by the same principles.
I can't think of any particular video off the top of my head. Jim Murphy talks about RPGs in general, but more about OD&D (he started playing in 1975 IIRC). I've watched most of his early videos. He usually gives advice to the more typical RPG players, that is, those who are younger and more into newers editions, to play in the old style.
Dungeoncraft is another cool channel in this regard. I've get many ideas from him (including the ones I've delineated above) but most of the times we strangely coincide in many things. It so happens that I think about implementing an idea and after a while I see he has a video talking about implemmenting either a similar or exactly the same concept in D&D.
|
|
|
Post by Death Even XIII on Jun 30, 2021 11:43:13 GMT -5
Good observation Death Even XIII . I have thought about that myself but would never have expected it to come up around here. I have seen a similar aspect of our social lives change in my lifetime, and have noted that a BtB person I know (not a gamer but BtB in other areas of life) had a lot of trouble adapting to this. I admit to being a little like that myself in some areas, particularly where I feel the stakes are high and I have no idea what's going on. But all the more reason for a game to be an opportunity not to worry about all this so much. In fact, one problem I have is a complete lack of interest in system. The best I can do is a random table on occasion. And that's hardly system. It's not that I'm against using dice, but whole systems of mechanics just hold no interest for me. Maybe it's too difficult for me. But in any case, I agree in general. I'd say that the BtB / creative spectrum has people at one extreme who are not comfortable with ambiguity in any sphere as well as people at the other end who require no clarity but what is immediately relevant at the moment. Of course, people will land on the spectrum in different places in regard to different aspects of life. Hm, that gives me an idea for a mechanic...maybe I'm not such a hopeless case. I think one function of games is to teach us how to solve puzzles and how to find solutions. In a game failure is not truly tragic, but in life failure can be tragic, so better to learn good problem solving habits in game. BtB fundamentalism does not teach good habits at all, it does reinforce a rigid, narrow view that someone outside myself is going to provide the solution and that I don't have to work for it because someone else has already done that. But old school play teaches us how to find and/or create solutions that did not exist before. It teaches us creativity and flexibility and how to roll with the punches. In other words, old school play mimics real life in the ways that matter, not through making the game "realistic," but through providing problems and allowing us to determine our own solutions and that is the only kind of "realism" that matters.
|
|
|
Post by Death Even XIII on Jun 30, 2021 11:46:59 GMT -5
The more that I think about it the more that I think the fanzine article on creativity should be a collaborative effort. Is there anyone in this thread that would not want to be quoted? Please let us know if quoting you in the fanzine is OK or if you would prefer not to be quoted.
|
|
|
Post by hengest on Jul 27, 2021 15:25:04 GMT -5
Death Even XIII Again, great post to start the thread. Quoting me is okay but I would like to see the article when it's finished, please! The Semi-Retired Gamer Very accurate about prestige classes in my limited experience. The whole thing (regardless of prestige class) where the character becomes a kind of ego-fantasy is really not cool and, in my opinion, not to be encouraged in the rules sets, rules-light or rules-heavy. I mean, what does any of that even have to do with the game? You have advantages, so what? It's a game, it has nothing to do with the real world and the point of the game is to play it not to do 67 points of damage at a blow because your opponent was "flat-footed." If that's actually fun to someone, okay, but my point is just that I don't see what the "advantage" really is, since you don't win anything, the opponents are imaginary, and the other players are all jockeying for similar advantages. To keep this on topic, I will say that I think that kind of play straitjackets creativity. If all your mental energy at the table is spent making sure you roll the right number of dice and count up your dozens of points of damage right, or add your seven different modifiers to your roll, how much do you have left to think about anything cool? Again, in my limited experience, it seems like this kind of play often goes with true railroad plots: the NPC tells you what to do and then another NPC guide helps you go do it in a certain order. So while the focus on parts of this board is for refs and DIY world-building, I think what refs do helps to set the tone for players to think in new ways or just kind of slug along through the game.
|
|
|
Post by mao on Jul 28, 2021 2:18:57 GMT -5
I am curious about the assertion that old school gamer's are more creative. I have always used ,for DM, "Dungeon Mediocre" I found about 70% of games forgettable. This came from my early years of gaming when I attended a lot of cons. Now a really good argument could be that the reason these DMs were running at a con was that they had no home game. Admittedly I have very little experience with gamers outside my circle of friends since 1995, further back than that during the days of playing w a drunk group, who could tell? So what am I missing? I have always found here to be helpful, so, What am I missing?
|
|
|
Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jul 28, 2021 10:16:36 GMT -5
I am curious about the assertion that old school gamer's are more creative. I have always used ,for DM, "Dungeon Mediocre" I found about 70% of games forgettable. This came from my early years of gaming when I attended a lot of cons. Now a really good argument could be that the reason these DMs were running at a con was that they had no home game. Admittedly I have very little experience with gamers outside my circle of friends since 1995, further back than that during the days of playing w a drunk group, who could tell? So what am I missing? I have always found here to be helpful, so, What am I missing? I think what you are missing is confusing old school with playing in games where you do not know the pedigree of the DMs you played with, who were most likely a few steps away from what I would call old school. Old school games are creative and quirky, those are requirements for old school. A completely forgettable game is probably "old school" in name only. While I have never played in a game at a con, I have read horror stories of games at cons. So I would never assume someone was old school, they would have to prove it to me with their game.
|
|
|
Post by hengest on Jul 28, 2021 22:57:47 GMT -5
mao I am sorry to hear this but am sure there have always been bad refs or refs who go through a bad patch. To me "old school" does not mean that it will be good every time but is simply an umbrella that shows what you are trying to do well, not whether you actually succeed. Listen to me, the man with no group, but that was my thought about this. I guess The Perilous Dreamer's remarks about "in name only" say better what I meant to say here.
|
|
|
Post by Morose on Aug 6, 2021 2:25:53 GMT -5
Great thread! Creativity once common, is becoming rarer by the day as pubic education fulfills its mission of ending creativity.
|
|
|
Post by Death Even XIII on Aug 5, 2022 17:42:43 GMT -5
I am curious about the assertion that old school gamer's are more creative. I have always used ,for DM, "Dungeon Mediocre" I found about 70% of games forgettable. This came from my early years of gaming when I attended a lot of cons. Now a really good argument could be that the reason these DMs were running at a con was that they had no home game. Admittedly I have very little experience with gamers outside my circle of friends since 1995, further back than that during the days of playing w a drunk group, who could tell? So what am I missing? I have always found here to be helpful, so, What am I missing? I think what you are missing is ever having the chance to play in a game run by a real old school gamer out in the real world. IMO it would be a rare thing indeed to find an old school game at a con even pre-1980. Truly old school DMs have always been a rare commodity.
|
|
|
Post by mao on Aug 6, 2022 7:46:14 GMT -5
I am curious about the assertion that old school gamer's are more creative. I have always used ,for DM, "Dungeon Mediocre" I found about 70% of games forgettable. This came from my early years of gaming when I attended a lot of cons. Now a really good argument could be that the reason these DMs were running at a con was that they had no home game. Admittedly I have very little experience with gamers outside my circle of friends since 1995, further back than that during the days of playing w a drunk group, who could tell? So what am I missing? I have always found here to be helpful, so, What am I missing? I think what you are missing is ever having the chance to play in a game run by a real old school gamer out in the real world. IMO it would be a rare thing indeed to find an old school game at a con even pre-1980. Truly old school DMs have always been a rare commodity. Not sure. At least I learned under an old guy when was 17, ufortunatl I only ver played w him a handfull of tmes
|
|
|
Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Aug 6, 2022 9:01:19 GMT -5
Not sure who Jim Murphy is, I don't recognize the name. Jim Murphy is a YouTuber that goes by Game Methulesah. I've watched several of his videos.
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:36:35 GMT -5
IMO this is the divide between the truly old school people - they are creative and flexible, thriving on ambiguity; whereas the new school people are rigid and inflexible, helpless without a rule to tell them what to and what to think. It seems to me that most people are rigid and inflexible these days.
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:38:20 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:39:19 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:39:55 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:40:32 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:42:58 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:44:02 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:46:19 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:46:35 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:47:06 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:47:27 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:47:44 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:48:03 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:48:25 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:48:53 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:49:20 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Gawaine on Aug 8, 2022 21:49:38 GMT -5
|
|