When I first started playing I had no idea what to expect. I had heard friends talking about their adventures and the stories were like a drug.
I wanted to play too.
The world was my plaything and there was adventure at every turn.

Over the years rules accumulated, expectations solidified and the sparkle faded.

I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with
"the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.

Can it be done? Can the freshness be recreated?
=

Sure. It's not exactly the same, but I've definitely caught lightning in a bottle again when it comes to viewing things with new eyes.  Probably more recently than any other time.

The key to refreshing new experiences are making sure they are refreshing and new.

If you have a player who will be upset if things don't work a certain way then convince the player to lose those expectations or get new players. Strange or alien settings, unfamiliar rules, and most importantly, an attitude of just accepting the unfamiliar are all you need for a fresh experience.

There is little you can do about expectations except enjoy that blank stare of confusion as the players slowly begin to realize that they don't know shit.

As a general rule, like a fine wine, my gaming experiences only seem to get better over time.

Try different games with different groups. Think hard about what works for you and what doesn't. Maybe something will click for you.

Exploderwizard got it in one. To bring back the sparkle you have to kill the metagame expectations, and you have to be upfront with players that is exactly what you are doing. And then steep them into your world like a long infusion for tea...

Recapturing the feel of the unknown and the mysterious is key. When the rules knowledge takes a backseat, the sparkly wonder of the game world comes back into view.

(shrugs) I'm never going to be 18 years old again.  I'd just as soon create new memories and have new experiences than pretend the years didn't happen and that my tastes and preferences haven't changed over time.

Quote from: Greentongue;824852I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with "the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.

Okay, two things:

One, you may well to have to lose that one player.  Essentially he's exercising veto power over your and the other players' experience, and that's not actually something you can solve by jollying him along or upping your own game.  I'd give him one very plain and explicit conversation about what you're trying to do - not rude, friendly and upbeat, but not in any way subtle.  Because it's been my experience some gamers don't get hints, and some gamers who think they're being polite aren't saying what they think they're saying, and there's no way to tell which is which on the internet.  So give that one shot, but be ready to drop him.

Two, I don't know exactly what you mean by "loose rules", but I can easily see it being part of the problem for your one gamer.  Does the same action resolve the same way every time, or differently depending on how you feel?  Are npcs working off the same rule set as pcs?  Are you ignoring dice rolls for the sake of the story?  Any of those will -understandably- bug a certain subset of gamers, and call into question your own impartiality.  On the other hand, if it's just that he's still trying to play under whatever your previous game was, and you've come out and told him "hey, I'm running a home brew of my own devising, and it's gonna be black-box until you see it in play", then see #1 above.

I'm with Omnifray. I'm having the best gaming of my life now, and I've been playing for a long, long time.

-clash

To be honest, I'm the same. The gaming I've done since I got back into it a couple of years ago is FAR better than what I was doing when I was a teenager; that said, I had so much more time to game back then! These days I'm lucky if I get a session in every couple of months. It may just be that work/family is a sort of a perfect storm at the moment. New baby/PhD final year. Not a good combination for gaming. But there are days like this when I'm so frustrated to not be playing that I just come on here and hang out a bit for a break.

I think one of the key things to getting the thrill back is also to bring in newbies. I know that seeing the eyes light up when I introduced a couple of new players last year was a pretty special moment, and brought back my early years to me, except that I feel like me GMing for them now is giving them a far better play experience than what I had starting out. There is a certain innocence that you lose, but to my mind experience brings with it all sorts of advantages. If nothing else, you know a lot more about what you like, and what you want to bring to a game. And I find that I'm much less likely to participate in games with people who I don't really like. I used to do a lot of that, and it ended up putting me off near-permanently.

Bringing back that initial spark could be something as "easy" as a totally new and unfamiliar system. I'd argue that Rifts, for example, is a lot like old school AD&D in all but setting.  But DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes was VERY different.  The idea that you could spend points to affect dice rolls and such was so refreshing and exciting.  More than just the setting changed there.

Quote from: Saladman;824881Okay, two things:

Two, I don't know exactly what you mean by "loose rules", but I can easily see it being part of the problem for your one gamer.  Does the same action resolve the same way every time, or differently depending on how you feel?  Are npcs working off the same rule set as pcs?  Are you ignoring dice rolls for the sake of the story?  Any of those will -understandably- bug a certain subset of gamers, and call into question your own impartiality.  On the other hand, if it's just that he's still trying to play under whatever your previous game was, and you've come out and told him "hey, I'm running a home brew of my own devising, and it's gonna be black-box until you see it in play", then see #1 above.

By "loose rules" I mean like back at the beginning where there was not an explicit rule/skill for every possible thing.
Less, "Do you have Climbing Skill? You don't? Sorry you'll have to find another way up"
and more "Roll a 10 or better adding any Strength and/or Dex pluses."
=

Writing my own RPG really brought back that spark for me. I managed to recapture the bang pop wow! factor that I initially experienced whenever I began playing WFRPG and D&D.

You can never cross the same river twice. Even when using a bridge.

Quote from: Greentongue;824916By "loose rules" I mean like back at the beginning where there was not an explicit rule/skill for every possible thing.
Less, "Do you have Climbing Skill? You don't? Sorry you'll have to find another way up"
and more "Roll a 10 or better adding any Strength and/or Dex pluses."
=

Fair 'nuff.  But I'm not ashamed to ask, because I've known people to use language like that in widely differing ways.  

So, back to option 1 then.  Is there a conversation you've already had with the player, or have you been hoping he'll take the hint?

Quote from: Greentongue;824852When I first started playing I had no idea what to expect. I had heard friends talking about their adventures and the stories were like a drug.
I wanted to play too.
The world was my plaything and there was adventure at every turn.

Over the years rules accumulated, expectations solidified and the sparkle faded.

I've tried to recapture the freshness of the original games by trying to introduce little known setting and "loose" rules but one player with
"the baggage of expectations" brings the current jadedness back.

Can it be done? Can the freshness be recreated?
=

Yes.

How it is done will be different for each GM, Player group, and game system though.