Can You Go Back to The Beginnig?

Haffrung · April 12, 2015, 10:43:05 AM

I started playing D&D when I was 10. Exploring underground labyrinths, battling monsters, and finding magic loot blew my mind.

No, I can't ever get that buzz back. I can't put myself in the mind of a 10-year-old exploring a dungeon. I can have other RPG experiences that I wasn't capable of then. But I can't get that special glow back. Of course, I can't get it back with reading, or a lot of imaginative activities either. We grow up, we change.

Opaopajr · April 12, 2015, 10:57:18 AM

Quote from: Kiero;825437Freshness, like novel-ness or uniqueness is vastly overrated. Same goes surprise. I couldn't give much of a toss about the feeling of exploring the unknown, I'd rather be certain I'm going to get something I enjoy because I've done it before.

Perhaps for some it does not.

But as a terribly jaded mandarin mere competence, narrative, or success induces ennui in me. Being surprised is so rare nowadays that where I used to use CCG hand spy cards for competitiveness, I now savor the brief periods of not knowing. Same applies to RPGs, or pretty much any entertainment, nowadays.

Victory means nothing to me, lost to a fantastical present means something.

However, you've never stated what brings that sparkly feeling to you. Care to share?

Kiero · April 12, 2015, 05:09:12 PM

Quote from: Opaopajr;825456Perhaps for some it does not.

But as a terribly jaded mandarin mere competence, narrative, or success induces ennui in me. Being surprised is so rare nowadays that where I used to use CCG hand spy cards for competitiveness, I now savor the brief periods of not knowing. Same applies to RPGs, or pretty much any entertainment, nowadays.

Victory means nothing to me, lost to a fantastical present means something.

However, you've never stated what brings that sparkly feeling to you. Care to share?

Appropriate emulation of the tropes of the genre; a sense of an organic world moving and changing in response to what the PCs do and don't do; actions having logical consequences; doing the right thing, especially when it's also the hard thing; the PCs being lifted above mere avatars of their players' urges and desires.

Larsdangly · April 12, 2015, 05:51:55 PM

I think it helps to play the actual original games. Most things written in the last 20 years have a kind of self awareness that takes away from the mistique, and conform to expectations of efficiency, clarity and completeness that make them all play pretty much the same. It is a lot easier to get yourself in the mindset of your fondly remembered 1970's games if you are playing games written in the 1970's! For this sort of mental and emotional time travelling, I'ld even recommend the originals over retroclones. Except for DCC, of course, which is brilliant and its own form of mental and emotional time travel!

Simlasa · April 12, 2015, 06:03:08 PM

The feeling I remember most about the first sessions I played in was that sense of 'mystery' that others have mentioned. Not knowing what to expect, not knowing what the full spectrum of possibilities were.
I was in control of what my PC did and that was it... the rest was a black box.

I still get that with some GMs and they're the ones I seek out. The ones who are still excited to play and aren't doing it out of habit or lack of options for how to spend a Saturday night.
A while back I left a group because, among other things, they seemed burned out and were just going through the motions. No surprises... no questioning of rote approaches to the same games in the same settings they'd always played.

Piestrio · April 12, 2015, 06:20:36 PM

No.

Growing up is a one-way street.

Opaopajr · April 13, 2015, 04:08:41 AM

Quote from: Kiero;825520Appropriate emulation of the tropes of the genre; a sense of an organic world moving and changing in response to what the PCs do and don't do; actions having logical consequences; doing the right thing, especially when it's also the hard thing; the PCs being lifted above mere avatars of their players' urges and desires.

Good ideas on the whole (appropriate emulation of genre tropes eventually delving into subjective hairsplitting, IME). However, I expect most of those. Expected quality thresholds don't really leave me all sparkly and tingly. They just prevent me from arching a lone eyebrow.

The idea of competence as something that would leave me all sparkly-tingly...
:hmm:

Kiero · April 13, 2015, 09:07:32 AM

Quote from: Opaopajr;825619Good ideas on the whole (appropriate emulation of genre tropes eventually delving into subjective hairsplitting, IME). However, I expect most of those. Expected quality thresholds don't really leave me all sparkly and tingly. They just prevent me from arching a lone eyebrow.

The idea of competence as something that would leave me all sparkly-tingly...
:hmm:

To be honest, I can't say as I remember ever getting a sparkly-tingly feeling from gaming. It's primarily with reference to whether or not it feels like a worthwhile expenditure of my valuable free time.

Opaopajr · April 13, 2015, 09:18:53 AM

Quote from: Kiero;825648To be honest, I can't say as I remember ever getting a sparkly-tingly feeling from gaming. It's primarily with reference to whether or not it feels like a worthwhile expenditure of my valuable free time.

:hmm:

Sorta doesn't blend with the OP's euphoric state comments of "like a drug," or "world was my plaything," and its comedown state remarks of "sparkle faded," or "recapture the freshness."

Do you have interests that imbue you with ecstatic and/or entranced states? That seems to be the state sought to be "recaptured." Not everyone slips into those states, or like that headiness for fear of loss of control. But if you did, that'd be closer to what's being asked.

Kiero · April 13, 2015, 10:12:29 AM

Quote from: Opaopajr;825650:hmm:

Sorta doesn't blend with the OP's euphoric state comments of "like a drug," or "world was my plaything," and its comedown state remarks of "sparkle faded," or "recapture the freshness."

Do you have interests that imbue you with ecstatic and/or entranced states? That seems to be the state sought to be "recaptured." Not everyone slips into those states, or like that headiness for fear of loss of control. But if you did, that'd be closer to what's being asked.

Not really, no. I've never prioritised or sought loss of control or an altered state of mind. That's one of the myriad reasons I've never experimented with drugs, and don't like being drunk.

Martial arts, exercise generally; sex all give that buzz of feeling completely alive and in touch with my body. Can't say anything I do sitting-down-calmly really compares to the visceral, blood-pumping thrill of physical activities.

Gaming is an entirely sedate, cerebral exercise for me. There's nothing ecstatic about it.

Larsdangly · April 13, 2015, 11:09:19 AM

My experience is that this issue is a lot like listening to music that was important to you at some earlier point in your life. You relate to those songs throughout your life, both because out of pure nostalgia and because they continue to touch something in you. A cleaned up remix might be barely acceptable, but is more likely to just piss you off.

Greentongue · April 13, 2015, 01:50:46 PM

Quote from: Kiero;825660Gaming is an entirely sedate, cerebral exercise for me. There's nothing ecstatic about it.

When you read, do you get any emotional stimulus? Any empathetic connection with the story?

===

I think the ever expanding selection of creatures in various Monster Manuals is an attempt to provide/re-introduce some level of unknown.

When players know every detail about the opponent they face, there is not the same level of tension as when it is something they have no sure idea about.
=

Iron_Rain · April 13, 2015, 01:58:40 PM

What worked for me in the past to get new sparkle and freshness has been to switch groups. I've done so twice and each time it worked out fairly well.

S'mon · April 13, 2015, 04:14:06 PM

I'm full of sparkle after my awesome online 5e D&D swords & sorcery Wilderlands game this morning.

Also looking forward to starting Mentzer Classic D&D at the Meetup tomorrow.

Kiero · April 13, 2015, 04:22:02 PM

Quote from: Greentongue;825700When you read, do you get any emotional stimulus? Any empathetic connection with the story?

Nope, can't say that I do. Reading isn't immediate or visceral enough for that; sometimes film or TV shows do, but really it's linked to the use of music.