Reflections upon my first NTRPGCon
Jun 6, 2016 9:48:19 GMT -6
Zenopus, flightcommander, and 3 more like this
Post by tetramorph on Jun 6, 2016 9:48:19 GMT -6
Well, I just got back from my first NTRPGCon.
It was a lot of fun, mostly.
I had 7 games over 5 days. That part was exhausting.
NTRPGCon is officially "old school." But I learned that old school means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
(Quick background on me: played D&D as a kid with a kid's mind and didn't play again till I returned to the hobby 3 years ago. Found old school. Found you guys. Found my local Planet Eris group with austinjimm. So I returned to 0e old school and that is my main adult brain playing knowledge of D&D).
Here is one of my take aways: rules don't matter. At least not for the players. The only thing that matters for the player is: is the ref good or not. And (probably more than) half of that is: do I have good chemistry with this ref. One person's good ref is another person's dull ref, etc. Rules are for the ref. If, as a ref, you just totally dig endless rules and minutiae for interp: awesome: there is old school rules heavy for you. Old school is not neceessarily rules lite. AD&D made my head ache with all its rules. I could never run that! I can't hold that much in my brain!
Old school is also, apparently, not about sandbox, dungeon crawl. I participated in and witnessed several more "adventure based" games. The ref's were good -- really good. The stories were fascinating. But I found the approach constricting as a player and I can't see myself running a game that way. As a ref, I take delight in my players feeling like they have lots of options open. I take delight in seeing where they will lead things.
Now, to a certain degree, at a convention, i can see why some things have to be a bit "railroaded." I suppose it is degrees of scale.
Anyway, lots of fun and I learned a lot!
Glad to have met some of you, finally!
It was a lot of fun, mostly.
I had 7 games over 5 days. That part was exhausting.
NTRPGCon is officially "old school." But I learned that old school means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
(Quick background on me: played D&D as a kid with a kid's mind and didn't play again till I returned to the hobby 3 years ago. Found old school. Found you guys. Found my local Planet Eris group with austinjimm. So I returned to 0e old school and that is my main adult brain playing knowledge of D&D).
Here is one of my take aways: rules don't matter. At least not for the players. The only thing that matters for the player is: is the ref good or not. And (probably more than) half of that is: do I have good chemistry with this ref. One person's good ref is another person's dull ref, etc. Rules are for the ref. If, as a ref, you just totally dig endless rules and minutiae for interp: awesome: there is old school rules heavy for you. Old school is not neceessarily rules lite. AD&D made my head ache with all its rules. I could never run that! I can't hold that much in my brain!
Old school is also, apparently, not about sandbox, dungeon crawl. I participated in and witnessed several more "adventure based" games. The ref's were good -- really good. The stories were fascinating. But I found the approach constricting as a player and I can't see myself running a game that way. As a ref, I take delight in my players feeling like they have lots of options open. I take delight in seeing where they will lead things.
Now, to a certain degree, at a convention, i can see why some things have to be a bit "railroaded." I suppose it is degrees of scale.
Anyway, lots of fun and I learned a lot!
Glad to have met some of you, finally!
