I am an old gamer, with the maturity level of a 23 year old.
As a 23 year old gamer, I'm curious what you mean by that.
Old gamers also own the DDG version that has Elric ... and no mine hasn't fallen apart and my original FF is pristine.Rez
Yep, the Melnibonean Mythos....that's the one 1e book that is still in active use on my game shelf. Elric is a 10th level cleric/5th level druid/15th level fighter/19th level magic user/10th level illusionist/10th level assassin...but he only has 45 hit points!!
Loved the books too...read those voraciously during my early gaming years along with the Horseclans by Robert Adams.....sigh....memories....going to go crank up some Zebra and Aldo Nova now.
You're an old gamer if you know what the d4 trick is.
You're really old if you remember playing the d4 trick.
You're too old if you laughed when playing the d4 trick on others.*sigh*
What is the d4 trick?
Remember the "dragonbone" computerized dice roller? I always wanted to save up my money for one, but never got around to it.
Loved the Grenadier offical Advanced Dungeons and Dragons miniatures. Those cardboard boxes with painstakingly filled foam protective cutouts. Still have 'em....miniatures kinda suck now compared to modern stuff, but they were not expensive.
Cool. I can start m'boy out on D&D in 2 years. ;)yep! One of my gaming group is running a simplified 3rd ed game for his 5 year old son, who's been obsessed with the adults and their minis for quite a while now.
Just remember to keep it simple and the kids will have lots of fun.
I did a couple of D&D games for my niece and friends when the were five. They had lots of fun! SO did I.
Am I an "old gamer" or a "young gamer"? You decide!
Your just to young to be old. I would say your a veteran gamer.
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Hmmm, let me see....
Gonna have to go into the "way back" machine for this one.
- My first set was the (blue? red?) box with the crayon inside for marking the dice. The highest level you could reach was 3rd level.
- I ran and re-ran "In Search of the Unknown" countless times.
- My 1st Edition DMG has an inscription from my mom that reads "Happy Birthday, Aug 10, 1980" inside. I got all three books and finally didn't have to borrow from my friends.
- I painted my lead mini's with model paints because my hobby shop didn't carry the special paints for figures.
- I recall when no one grappled because it took an hour to figure out the percentages
- I remember the thrill of rolling for potential Psionic Powers after each character creation, hoping for that one, lucky roll...
- I have the first printing of DDG with the Cthulhu mythos and Elric (I bought it the day it came out and can still remember paying for it)
- I own Best of Dragon 1, and subscribed to dragon from issue 14 - 70ish. I still have the vast majority of those mags too.
- I recall reading the preface to 2E that contained something akin to "other than classes, combat, and magic, the game rules haven't changed"
Old? You be the judge!
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You're an old gamer if you know what the d4 trick is.
You're really old if you remember playing the d4 trick.
You're too old if you laughed when playing the d4 trick on others.*sigh*
Damn I haven't thought about the "d4 trick" in decades. I can recall there being such a thing, but I have forgotten what it was. Anyone want to jar my memory?
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On the downslope of Old Gamer to Old Coot.
I'm 42.
I started in 1979 at the age of 14.
I have the original "Basic Set." (Before it was Basic D&D, before it came with a module in the box.)
I have a 2nd printing MM and PHB, with covers gone to pebbled firmness. (My 1st printing DMG died a noble death.)
I remember with fondess the legendary Wandering "Persons of Ill Repute" table in the DMG 1.
I've read over 100 books on the reading list in the DMG 1, and I am baffled at the concept that anyone hasn't. (Though I have come to terms with it, it still confuses me deep down.)
Minis and dry erase maps? Dots on graph paper!
Before 3E came along I had well over 95% of the rules internalized. Not memorized, I couldn't quote them verbatim, but I knew where the answers to obscure cases were located and could find them as soon as you handed me the book if you insisted on seeing it in writing.
You all make me feel like a little child :(
I'm 20 years old (does that make me one of the youngest members here?) and have been playing since I was round 14, so that makes a year or 6. Mostly DM'ing duty, some playing.
I've seen 3.0, but not long enough to notice any change when we switched to 3.5 a few months later.
The only experience I have with 2.0 was from computer games, and that didn't really help a lot.
So, the first time I heard this discussion, an old gamer was somebody who had played Avalon Hill's Gettysburg in its initial release. By now, I suspect it's anyone who played 3.0.
For me it was SPI's Invasion America and Avalon Hill's Third Reich.
ps. I'm 46 and started playing adventure games when I was 13 and D&D when I was 15. I stopped playing D&D, though not RPGs, for years after an annoying Gygax editorial in Dragon during the initial AD&D 1st ed. publication cycle, the thrust of which was that if you weren't playing by the RAW, you weren't playing D&D. He was right, I was playing Rune Quest. 8-)
I'm 43 and started playing board games when I was 13. I played D&D from the white box days, though I NEVER owned a copy. My first D&D book was the AD&D Monster Manual ... it was the only book the hobby shop had and my mom wouldn't drive me there but once every three to four months ... I had to buy SOMETHING while I was there, so ... the Monster Manual had to do! We played AD&D and Basic D&D (including the Expert, Master and whatever else versions came in those light cardboard boxed sets).
And, I, too, remember Gygax's inflammatory article. It put me and my buds off from D&D, as well. Arrogant cuss! In rebellion, we switched to playing Chivalry & Sorcery. That certainly had us going into the ROLE-playing instead of the ROLL-playing. In the intervening years, we played LOTS of different RPGs (GURPS, Champions, Tunnels & Trolls, Runequest, Warhammer FRP, Villains & Vigilantes, COPRS, Space Opera, Traveler, Empire of the Petal Throne, Star Frontiers, Star Trek RPG, WEG's Star Wars, Twilight 2000, Call of Cthulhu, Aftermath, Bushido, The Morrow Project, RoleMaster, MERP, Powers & Perils, DragonQuest, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Heroes … and that's all I can think of off the top of my head). We came back to D&D with the 3.0 version and switched to 3.5 when it came out.
I say I'm an old-school gamer.
Wyrmling- you started playing 3.5 this year.
"You mean there were other editions?"
Very Young- You are glad 3.5 had already come out.
"Dude! the nymph has boobies!"
Young- You play 3.0 and Vampire.
"Wouldn't it be cool if the haste spell was like celerity?"
Juvenile- you wish they were still Baatezu and Tanari.
"The whole game has gone to hell now that Birthright is gone"
Young adult- Baldur's Gate got you started.
"Wow! look at the awesome new paintings in the PH."
Adult- The Forgotten realms will never replace Greyhawk.
"What the hell is this oversized ring binder for?"
Mature Adult- You are wondering whether to use comeliness.
"A new edition? What is the use of that?"
Old- basic red. advanced blue. masterful black.
"Play a cleric?, I just finished learning the elf to hit table!"
Very Old- Deities and Demigods
Ancient- You rolled your character's personality traits on % dice
Wyrm- The original white box
Great Wyrm- Chainmail is better!
Hmm, Grimcleaver thinks I am a new gamer (as I am a story-oriented gamer who can ignore rules when I want to), other signs are pushing me to old gamer camp...started gaming when I was 12 (I'm 30 now), and red box D&D was the second game I played (you probably haven't heard of the first one, though in Finnish RPG community mention of ANKH brings up retroish giggling). Then I ended up playing mostly other games, only relatively little AD&D (2nd edition). I got seriously into AD&D only in 3.5.
And no matter what WotC tries to tell me, the name of the game is still AD&D. And thieves still backstab. I guess that places me in old gamer demographics :)
And no matter what WotC tries to tell me, the name of the game is still AD&D. And thieves still backstab. I guess that places me in old gamer demographics :)
You know, I had a serious problem with "backstab" even 25 years ago, because my DM rigidly enforced the rule that you had to "stab from behind."
"But dude, that guy totally didn't know I was going to do that. If he didn't see it coming at all, does it matter that it wasn't totally from the back?"
"Nope, it's called backstab for a reason."
So, the sneak attack mechanic of 3.5 is alright with this old timer. I was "progressive" even in 1982.
Hmmm, let me see....
Gonna have to go into the "way back" machine for this one.
You had me convinced at the Mr. Peabody reference. :)
If you still refer to a Hezrou as a 'Type II Demon', your probably an old gamer...
Ultradan
so you can still be considered a young gamer even if you've been playing for a decade, a 2nd ed vet and all....wow my confidence is totally shot.
thanks and i have a job interveiw in a few hours.
bastards.
oh by the way does anyone remeber when they use to sell dark sun modules at k b toys for $3 a box?
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I am an old gamer, with the maturity level of a 23 year old.As a 23 year old gamer, I'm curious what you mean by that.
Gamers have a tendency to stay young at heart. Most 36 year olds that don't game seem to take life WAY too seriously. When you compare the people who game to people who don't you tend to find that gamers still have dreams, are more willing to try new things and are more open to different forms of expression.
Take a look at most non-gaming 36 year olds and try to note the difference between yourself and them.I wasn't trying to "dis" the younger set. I just find that my non-gaming peers are very stiff and entirely too serious about life, whereas I seem to fit in more with the college-aged and just out of college aged people, unless we are talking about gamers exclusively.
You and I, Sucros, would get along better than myself and most other 36 year olds (non-gamers). That is why I used the barometer of age as a decriptor in my qualifying phrase... or something like that...
FH
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Some years ago, I was at a gaming convention where people were looking over a list of a couple hundred "You know you're a Gamer Geek if..." Purity Test-type questions. One of them was, "You played T.S./SI". The next question was "You know what we meant when we said 'T.S./SI'." The guys with the list laughed.
I went over to them and asked "What does that make me, if I was one of the freelancers who wrote for 'T.S./SI'?"
I kinda won that purity test.
So let's hear it then. What makes an old gamer an old gamer? Is it actual chronological age? Does it have to do with what editions/modules/etc. you started out with?
I don't think that anyone has mentioned this, but i consider an old gamer to continue to play in a gaming style that is not consistant with newer editions, but play in a style that integrates a compliation of many years of gaming using a multiplicity of rules and systems. You can tell the difference between an old gamer and a new one as soon as you sit down to a table with them and begin talking. Old gamers have played previous editions, not just for a few laughs at how things used to be, but because 2e is THE upgrade from the boxed sets. Old gamers have spent years gaming in a number of ways with different systems and rules. Old gamers have points of reference to understand WHY things have changed and take the best attributes of different systems and creates a game experience that is not to the letter the newest edition.
Does this have anything to do with age? I suppose only in the sense that those of us who are older have had more potential to cultivate and assess different systems. Does that mean that older gamers choose to game using their previous experiences with different systems in mind? No. Some prefer to abandon the best parts of previous editions etc. and dive in to the newest system with a clean slate. Personally, (and this is just me), I wouldn't be able to tell if someone who had been gaming for 40 years HAD been gaming for that long if they were one to fully embrace whatever the latest system details in terms of mechanics.
As ever,
ACE
oh by the way does anyone remeber when they use to sell dark sun modules at k b toys for $3 a box?
I sure do. I loaded up there. Funny, that was only like ten years ago. It feels like yesterday.
Everyone's entries for "you know you're an old gamer if..." are so on the money that I suddenly don't feel special (well, Special Ed, sure...). What, are we all borg?
3e: Young, practically a baby.
You have no idea what I'm going through! It's different playing now than when you were kids.
NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME!
I HATE YOU!!!
D4 trick?
3e: Young, practically a baby.
You have no idea what I'm going through! It's different playing now than when you were kids.
NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME!
I HATE YOU!!!
LOL!
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oh by the way does anyone remeber when they use to sell dark sun modules at k b toys for $3 a box?I sure do. I loaded up there. Funny, that was only like ten years ago. It feels like yesterday.
Everyone's entries for "you know you're an old gamer if..." are so on the money that I suddenly don't feel special (well, Special Ed, sure...). What, are we all borg?
Geez I remember when Toys-R-Us was selling D&D over 20 yrs ago....(shakes head) 10 yrs ago....dang kids :P
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You are an old gamer when:
you can remember the 7 base classes(cleric, fighter, thief, magic-user, elf, dwarf, and halfling)
you know what phantasmal force and ESP spells were
you remember that the thief class used a D4 for hit points
you remember the saving throw chart (death ray or poison; magic wands; paralysis or turn to stone; dragon breath; rod staves or spells)
you remember alignments were just law, chaos, and neutrality or the fact that each alignment had its own language
magic weapons were +1/+3 vs lizardmen
you know how many electrum pieces equals a gold piece
you wonder why the enemy stat bloc has more than 10 lines
you know what "duration: 12 turns" means
you know what treasure type P,C (Q) means
you were afraid to read a random scroll cuz it might be a cursed one
Remember segments?
Lol...
Ultradan
Yep- I started with 3.0. Grapple rules terrified me. One of my friends bought this new "3.5" PHB with some revisions. We went to check on a monk's abilities during a game and were completely baffled. "What do you mean it breaks through damage reduction like adamantine? Adamantine doesn't break through damage reduction!"
I look back on all these references... and have no clue what they mean. My 2e experience is limited to the Baldur's Gate computer games. 2e sounds confusing, arcane, obscure, and the artwork is so hideous. How do you read these maps, anyway? How did anyone ever play this game before 3e?!
I started playing when I was 16 and now I'm 19. Three whole years, going on four! Awesome!
Yessim- I'm a NOOB! :D
But, my uncle passed away two January's ago, and when my father and I went to clean out his appartment, I happened to be going through the closet and then... then I saw it. There, up on that shelf... I reached up... took it down... and held it in my hands.
The blue box. With the crappy picture of a dragon, rules for only three levels, crummy dice, and a crayon. I poured over that thing on the way back home and loved it.
I'll never play anything but 3.5 and whatever is yet to come; I've not interest. But I loved reading what was inside that blue box.
I'll never play anything but 3.5 and whatever is yet to come; I've not interest.
Lol... I remember saying that myself everytime a new version of the game came out.
Ultradan
I think you're only an old gamer if you have never upgraded to the newer systems (3, 3.5). I also think that the 'young gamers' should be changed to "new gamers", to go with this idea. There would also be a middle group, who have used both new and old rules.
But who cares? A gamer is a gamer, so long as they play well.
I have been playing D&D since I was 9.
9? That's nothing-I started playing when I was 5 or 6.
Roughly, this is my gamer age scheme:
Young: You've only ever played 3rd edition. The terms "WoW", "MMORGP", "kewl", "noob" and "carop" mean more to you than "planescape", "spelljammer" and "Keep on the Borderlands".
Old: You've played 2nd edition. Like me, you resisted 3rd edition but probably have come to think of it as an improvement.
Ancient: You've played OD&D/1st edition. You're almost outside the concept of "Age" kinda like the Far Realm is outside the concept of "alignment". *cough* BS! *cough*
I'm barely 23, yet I played my first game with 1st edition, spent most of my childhood playing second, tried a single game of 3rd in college, and then moved to 3.5 a few years ago.
Editions are like acid - they stay in your spinal column, and when you least expect it you can have sudden rules flashbacks ("...wait, subdual damage? Where am I? What's my THAC0?").
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Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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You have no idea what I'm going through! It's different playing now than when you were kids.
NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME!
I HATE YOU!!!
Don't you talk to me like that young man. When I was your age, we didn't have the core books on the internet and Paizo message boards to discuss game balance. We had to walk uphill both ways in a snow storm to a decrepit comic book store/bait shop to purchase our gaming books. If we couldn't agree on a rule, we scorpian wrestled to find out who was right. I lost the use of my left hand thanks to a disagreement on whether a thief's back stab required a piercing weapon!
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Don't you talk to me like that young man. When I was your age, we didn't have the core books on the internet and Paizo message boards to discuss game balance. We had to walk uphill both ways in a snow storm to a decrepit comic book store/bait shop to purchase our gaming books. If we couldn't agree on a rule, we scorpian wrestled to find out who was right. I lost the use of my left hand thanks to a disagreement on whether a thief's back stab required a piercing weapon!
And we were grateful!!
I'm around 30 and I still feel like a young gamer (or maybe "just right"). I know most of the 2E jokes but I'm familiar with all the new-fangled "slang" that the hip, young dudes are talking about. I know what "jive" means and something about that interweb, and I've never heard of Jefferson Airplane.
Gaming culture keeps you young.
Hmmm, let me see....
I have the first printing of DDG with the Cthulhu mythos and Elric (I bought it the day it came out and can still remember paying for it)
Boy if you had that DDG youy were way cool..., way back in the early 80s.
2e sounds confusing, arcane, obscure, and the artwork is so hideous. How do you read these maps, anyway? How did anyone ever play this game before 3e?!
2nd edition was confusing, arcane, and obscure and we loved it, just like the first editon.
You think the artwork is bad in 2nd edition, you should have seen cover for the first edition Monster Manual.
... and I've never heard of Jefferson Airplane.
Then how did you reference it? *raises eyebrow in confusion*
You think the artwork is bad in 2nd edition, you should have seen cover for the first edition Monster Manual.
I have two copies of it since way back when my friend gave me his copy. As bad as the artwork was it makes a great coloring book. ;)
You have an actual 1e. Monster Manual, with actual stats for a friggin' Leprechaun! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! AAAAAAA!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
i get no respect no more.
Heheheheheheee.
---The bold challenge of filling in your own rooms in "In Search of the Unknown" gave you an incredible rush of creative power
That was such a rip. I was so angry when I got that module.
Can 1st ed rulebooks be cool? PH, DMG, MM, DDG.
That's at stretch. Can something that is a sign of abject dorkiness become cool 27 (or so) years later? Could it be?
In the land of my dreams D&D will have a major renaissance and I can sell them for thousands of dollars as collectors items with the valuable crap, like my 70s X-men and Star Wars comics.
Your definatley an old gamer if -
You played a 1st-edition bard (legititmately) and have the character sheets to back it up.
If you have the character sheets to back it up then your good at forging character sheets - or your DM ran the worst sort of Monte Haul - in which case I contend that it is not really a 1st Ed. Bard.
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you remember the saving throw chart (death ray or poison; magic wands; paralysis or turn to stone; dragon breath; rod staves or spells)
And you remember that the numbers for that chart for a first level fighter were death ray or poison, 14, rod staff or wand, 15, paralysis or turn to stone, 16, breath weapon, 17, and spells, 17.
Yes, I managed to score Great Wyrm (Chainmail!) on that one scale! Doug, does that beat you? AM I THE PATRIARCH?
*gums his “food” noisily*
Now, I seem to have two people who publicly admit they don’t even know what the d4 trick is and at least one other who’s gone senile enough that, though he remembers one existed when prodded heard enough, can’t remember how it works. It's actually a bit "visual" or "physical" but I'll do my best.
So:
1) Get a new gamer at the table and tell them to roll a d4.
2) Tell them to “read the number on the bottom”
3) Watch them pick the die up and look at the entire flat side that was face down on the table.
4) Watch their faces take on a painful, but pricelessly confused look as they see three numbers staring at them.
5) Laugh yourself sick at their expense before explaining.
At one time this was almost considered an initiation ritual. You just weren’t a real gamer until you had been laughed at in that way. You were part of the elite “In crowd” if you were the one the others at the table allowed to pull the trick on the next newbie.
Priceless...