What does old school mean to you?

[Spike]

Old-school is having an Armor Class of -3...and LIKING it!

 

FWIW if you really want to stir up the muck in a roomful of grognards, say something un-nice about descending AC.

[gwangi32]

Old School to me was less rules. We still argued about the rules and there were rules lawyers, but the rule books were small enough to read in an hour. Melee and Wizard, which were the precursors to GURPS were just combat systems, all other aspects of roleplaying were filled in with house rules. First edition D&D was simple. The first boxed set of Traveller was simple. But after that first push came the desire to add to the rules sets and so we progress to very complex rules systems. These complex rule systems offer more richly detailed characters, but also a bigger time investment. So Old School also meant faster. That's my $.02 worth.

[Dr.Bedlam]

"Old School" means "the way we did it back in the seventies." (NOTE: I am speaking ex cathedra from me belly button, here. This is entirely subjective. It is not subject to argument. So nyah!)

 

The DM bought all the stuff, for the most part; players were expected to own a copy of the Player's Handbook, some dice, a notebook, a pencil, and perhaps a miniature or two.

 

There were no computers, and unless one traveled a lot, no way to compare notes with DMs in distant parts. The books were a colossal pain in the butt to get unless one lived in a fairly decent sized urban area. Miniatures were few and far between, and for the most part, poorly made; one did not obtain a "custom mini;" one selected the "armored fighter" or "thief" or "bard" or whatever mini was in the box that sufficiently matched the character class you were playing; there was none of this "no, I have a morning star instead of a mace" nonsense.

 

Orcs had snouts. It was left completely to the imagination where half-orcs came from.

 

Demons and devils were demons and devils, and you fought and killed them, as opposed to playing them, under the designation "tiefling."

 

Prestige classes? We don' need no steenkin' prestige classes! We don' even need no steenkin' nonweapon proficiencies, much less no steenkin' skills or feats!

 

Illustrations were largely gawdawful, when they were available at all (the original Traveller boxed set included three rule books. Altogether, this included ONE illustration.)

 

It was theoretically possible to quit buying stuff after a while; the main books had everything you needed, albeit without an index. The best DMs were those who simply KNEW where each section, rule, and table was in which book. And that's when they used them at all, instead of house-ruling. (Did ANYONE out there actually use all the rules in the DMG?)This did not stop us, though; we bought more stuff anyway, and there wasn't really as much stuff as we would have liked. This being back when I had very little money and loads of free time, as opposed to the other way around.

 

The concepts of "rules creep" and "power creep" were quite alien to us. The material simply wasn't published quickly enough to allow it. Each expansion was seized and treasured, rather than viewed with trepidation or skepticism, because they were EXPANSIONS to the existing framework, as opposed to "stuff they pumped out to make payroll this month" or "Gee, does the Wizards CEO have a mortgage payment coming up?"

 

You could call the company up on the horn and find yourself talking to the designer or the company president inside two minutes. Hell, he might have been the one answering the phone.

 

Ultimately, it is a matter of how the ME of right now looks back on those times and thinks of them as magical... whereas the ME of 1979 would have looked at my laptop, my Reaper minis, my maps, my plastic terrain, and my wall of gaming books and bits and bobs and odds and ends and thought he had died and gone to heaven...

[SIGIL]

WEll said good Doctor.

 

I think the best way to sum up Old School DnD is thus; Darts......back then this was a plausible, and rather common weapon.

[Spike]

LOL...indeed orcs with snouts!

 

And that was back when your d10 was a 20-sider..but it only had 1 through 0 etched on it twice..and you had to crayon in the second run of 1-through-0 a different colour so you could tell if you rolled a 5 or a 15.

 

And if you were like some folks, your copy of the player book was xeroxed, NOT because you didn't want to pay for one, but because one was completely ungettable in the small town you were from.

[Dr.Bedlam]

LOL...indeed orcs with snouts!

 

And that was back when your d10 was a 20-sider..but it only had 1 through 0 etched on it twice..and you had to crayon in the second run of 1-through-0 a different colour so you could tell if you rolled a 5 or a 15.

 

And if you were like some folks, your copy of the player book was xeroxed, NOT because you didn't want to pay for one, but because one was completely ungettable in the small town you were from.

Ouch. Who could afford THAT? The small town I was from had three xerox machines; one of them was available for public use... at ten cents a page.

 

And the only reason anyone used darts is because they were one of the few weapons a low-level mage could use. The rationale was that a wizard spent his time studying, not training with weapons, and so he could only use extremely simple weapons like daggers, darts, and staves, which required no training.

 

Shyeah, right. Anyone who's ever PLAYED darts knows the truth of this...

[ReaperWolf]

And that was back when your d10 was a 20-sider..but it only had 1 through 0 etched on it twice..and you had to crayon in the second run of 1-through-0 a different colour so you could tell if you rolled a 5 or a 15.

 

Luxury! Who had dice?!?!??

 

Some of us remember a time when the D&D rulebook came with a laminated sheet of cardstock counters with numbers. These were cut out and placed in cups and labeled d4, d6, etc. When you needed to make a die roll, you reached into the corresponding cup and drew a chit.

 

Now that's iron-man old-school roleplaying!

 

This reminds me of the following Monty Python sketch:

 

 

>>ReaperWolf

[Lawgiver]

Still, at this point, 2nd gen is probably ancient to all you whippersnappers.

 

Oh, and "Get off of my lawn!"

 

NICE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old School = 1st edition D&D or WEG Star Wars

 

I started at AD&D and played through 3.5. Haven't done much since due to a lack of players and more importantly free time.

[Dr.Bedlam]

And that was back when your d10 was a 20-sider..but it only had 1 through 0 etched on it twice..and you had to crayon in the second run of 1-through-0 a different colour so you could tell if you rolled a 5 or a 15.

 

Luxury! Who had dice?!?!??

 

Some of us remember a time when the D&D rulebook came with a laminated sheet of cardstock counters with numbers. These were cut out and placed in cups and labeled d4, d6, etc. When you needed to make a die roll, you reached into the corresponding cup and drew a chit.

 

Now that's iron-man old-school roleplaying!

Urrgh. Don't remind me. My original Blue Book Basic Set was like that; apparently, they couldn't keep up with the demand for dice, and included a laminated sheet of "randomizer chits" in the box. Most frustrating. I lived out in the boonies and had to wait six months until my family took a trip to Fort Worth so I could hunt up some real polyhedrals...

[Qwyksilver]

Old school was getting my dice in a plastic tube, and only having 6 of them, there was no percentile dice. And raiding every board game I had for 6 sided dice to roll stats. Pip dice always rolled better than numbered. It was pounding M&M's and Mello Yello until I was high as a kite on sugar. And for those that do know me, I am about 100 times calmer now than I was then. Picture that Adventuring was making up an excuse to go to the latest home made dungeon and hacking and slashing and Monty Hauling all the way to the bottom to save the damsel in distress. And then throwing stuff at the DM when he went all Super Mario on us and told us our Princess was in another dungeon. My level 3 fighter had a Vorpal Sword and -10 AC platmail. Everyone had Bags of Holding that held every conceivable weapon/tool/magic item necessary for an entire legion, not just one player. We played from 2:45 PM when the bus let us off until our moms started screaming for us down the street. And then we waited until one of us heard our middle name being hollered, because that meant real trouble. More often than not, our moms would just let us be because we were "staying out of trouble" and around 8:00 PM we'd decide to just crash over, we'd make phone calls and we'd keep playing until whoever was hosting's mom and dad yelled at us to shut up and go to sleep or we'd never play again.

 

Old school was watching in horror as my friend's mom ran all his 1st edition books over a table saw because Geraldo said D&D was evil and dangerous and might be linked to devil worship and cults, and his parents were uber religious, and apparently not very attentive until the TV told them to do it.

 

Old school was making up a 10 level dungeon completely on the fly, and bribing one of the players with comic books or pizza or something to suddenly learn how to be a map maker and draw it for you as you go.

 

Old school was thinking you were creative for making a Dwarf whose name was Micah. Because your name is Michael.

 

Really though. I have as much fun today playing as I did back in the early 80's. The only person I still play with regularly from those days is my little brother. It's a way to make sure we get together once a month because our schedules are so tough. He comes over after gaming for dinner and plays with the kids and spoils them rotten. I still game with my crew from college although now that we have kids, things have been on hiatus for about a year, but I get to hang out at the Storms once a month for D&D and once a month for Mutants & Masterminds still. It's a great chance to hang out and socialize. Snacks now are good beer and chips and salsa. We role play a little more, but still enjoy some hack and slash.

 

It's still about hanging out with friends and having fun. The system doesn't matter. Heck sometimes, we don't even game.

[SIGIL]

Man I remember the " witch Hunt " days very well. I grew up in Mississippi ( mostly ) and we had quite a lot of that nonsense here. AS a matter of fact I was in a hobby town not too long ago and overheard a father telling his 8 year old son not to go to close to the DnD figures because they were a doorway to dark things..... I remember wanting to cackle madly and speak in toungues whilst dancing around in a circle in the middle of the aisle with a copy of the PHB held over my head. Idiot.

[ReaperWolf]

Man I remember the " witch Hunt " days very well. I grew up in Mississippi ( mostly ) and we had quite a lot of that nonsense here. AS a matter of fact I was in a hobby town not too long ago and overheard a father telling his 8 year old son not to go to close to the DnD figures because they were a doorway to dark things..... I remember wanting to cackle madly and speak in tongues whilst dancing around in a circle in the middle of the aisle with a copy of the PHB held over my head. Idiot.

 

I feel your pain. I'd go with option B:

 

Be an ambassador for your hobby. Approach the overprotective parent and do a little missionary work of your own. Be courteous, observe your boundaries, most importantly: be honest. On many an occasion I've ended up in a conversation with a concerned parent or grandparent and I've always done my best to present a balanced perspective on the tabletop adventure game hobby. Sure I'm a very vocal advocate but be prepared for a wall of ignorance and skepticism. In the end, chances are the person won't amend their views but at the very least you'll present a friendly and well-informed face to the hobby.

 

>>ReaperWolf

[Loim]

I can sum up old school to me with one word THACO. I got started playing rpgs in the 7th grade, first with the Gold Box Pool of Radiance, and shortly thereafter with AD&D second addition. My first character was a human fighter. Shortly after that I took over as DM, and kept that role until I quit playing sometime in college. I miss playing a lot, and have tons of great memories, like the time when the resident group rogue stepped off a castle wall, without knowing the command word for his ring of featherfall.

[SIGIL]

Be an ambassador for your hobby. Approach the overprotective parent and do a little missionary work of your own. Be courteous, observe your boundaries, most importantly: be honest. On many an occasion I've ended up in a conversation with a concerned parent or grandparent and I've always done my best to present a balanced perspective on the tabletop adventure game hobby. Sure I'm a very vocal advocate but be prepared for a wall of ignorance and skepticism. In the end, chances are the person won't amend their views but at the very least you'll present a friendly and well-informed face to the hobby.

 

 

 

Yeh but the other way is so much more entertaining! ;)

[wyrmgear]

I recall once in my Army days going through the line at a diner on the airfield and the lady at the cash register heard me and my friends discussing a role playing game we were into at the time (StormBringer? I forget exactly).

 

When I got up to the register to pay she asked me "You play those devil games? Haven't you ever thought of going to church?" Well, my first thought was "Nah, I get enough fantasy in the games I play." But instead I discussed this with her, found out she had absolutely no first hand knowledge and left her wanting to know more.

 

Neat experience all in all.