I ran a campaign using (not A)D&D rules and the
Know World setting from the summer of '89 through
the summer of '95. We had reached a major breakpoint at the completion
of Aaron Alston's Immortal's Fury (or whatever the adventure included in
the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set was) adventure.
I then started the group on an AD&D campaign of the
original Dragonlance series, intending to return to high-level adventures
in the Known World later on.
However by the winter of '96 the
rugrat infestation in my home had wiped out the baby-sitter population
and the campaign was indefinitely suspended.
Nevertherless I continue to be interested in the game of Dungeons and
Dragons.
Over my years DMing I reinforced some old prejudices
about playability and even developed some new ones. This site will largely
be my soapbox for expounding these opinions (reader beware ;-) ).
I'd rather do this once on a web site than over and over again
on rec.games.frp.dnd where few seem to care about the "auld" game anyway.
Flames via e-mail will usually be
read, sometimes be answered, and when appropriate cheerfully ignored.
Many players of D&D seem to enjoy most those aspects of the game
which involve enhancing their character. I've seen this attitude
variously referred to as power-gaming or munchkinism. These folks
are the first in line for TSR goodies like the Complete Handbook
series. Not me. Over the years as a player and DM I've been bored
by gaming session time devoted to the game mechanics of
munchkinism and turned off by having to compete with other players
to keep less munchkinized characters involved in the adventure.
As a member of the generation which made the Lord of the Rings a
best-seller I play D&D to capture the thrills that I enjoy when
reading fantastic fiction. (Fans of this stuff should pick up
Hickman and Weiss's Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy if they haven't
already done so.) I'd rather have an interesting module to play
than deal with lots of rules and lots of rule-lawyering in the game.
Therefore I have a strong preference for the D&D rules as opposed to
the AD&D rules. They're much simpler, taking less play time and
less prep time for the DM. Deemphasizing the rule system facilitates
spending session time to make the story the star of the show.
In order to get the players emotionally invested in the story it helps
to enhance their emotional investment in their characters. How is
this done without munchkinism? My answer is character continuity.
Playing characters through
a long campaign, all the while learning about a campaign setting,
promotes interest in the characters. A feeling of reality both
about the character's life and for the campaign setting
is established when the character's continuing learning experiences
are an ongoing part of the game.
Updated 13 Dec 96, new server 11 Aug 01