Old School Gaming

When I returned to playing Dungeons & Dragons last year, I heard about "old school gaming" for the first time. The term is explained in a booklet called Quick Primer for Old School Gaming and tries to explain the difference in playing style (not rules) between earlier editions (original, Basic, and Advanced) of D&D and the later third and fourth editions. It's a good read even if you are not interested in role playing games, because it's an insight into how these games are played.

I lurked in a few fourth edition games in Wave. I really should play in a game some time just to get a better idea of how the fourth edition system works. From what I've observed, it has very little resemblance to AD&D, the edition I'm most familiar with. The game play was more like a text description of video game action, complete with flashy special abilities, even with low level characters.

I assume that Wizards of the Coast, the current owners of the D&D game, decided that the game had to appeal to people in a video game age. And the simple fact is, it has worked wonderfully from a marketing stand point. But it probably caused a reaction with the older players because old school gaming is still very popular on the Internet.

It's Just A Game

I started playing role playing games in 1981 with the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. (So I'm a geek. Get over it.) I enjoyed RPGs as games, nothing more. Since returning to RPGs on Google Wave last year, I've discovered that I'm definitely in the minority as far as treating it like a game. Many other players, mostly younger that I, describe RPGs with phrases such as "collaborative story telling," which I suppose is an attempt elevate RPGs to something more meaningful. Why bother? It's just a game. Enjoy it for what it is. Why is that so hard?

RPGs On Wave

Role playing games were an obvious choice for a bunch of geeks looking for something interesting to do on Google Wave. Out of necessity game play must use a text based narrative style since graphical extensions suitable for a tactical style game, are not available yet. I expect that will be one the first type of Wave extension to emerge once developers get into their stride.

The narrative style is interesting because you end up with complete story written collaboratively by the players. This is something you never got when playing around a table, unless someone recorded and transcribed the conversation. I've never met anyone who would volunteer for that job!

One method for formatting the narrative is described here, but even that is likely to change as everyone gains experience with medium. Hopefully the narrative style will continue after the graphical tools become available.

If you are on Wave, then this wave will get you started. If you do not have a Wave account, this Ars Technica article explains some of the difficulties.