Old School should be an attitude, not a set of rules

In the last few years, there has been a growing and vocal trend of “old school” games and gamers vs. “new school” games and gamers.

Some people like to refer to it as the “Old School Renaissance” (or OSR). There are sites about it springing up on a constant basis, and “retro-clones” in development all the time.

But is an inquisition against the “new school” what the hobby really needs right now?

Let me use myself as an example:

One Christmas long ago – 1978 to be exact – I got the original Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set as a gift from my brother.

In it was a 50-page rulebook, some Geomorphs, Monster Treasure Assortment lists, and 5 dice. Pretty simple stuff, yes – but it got me hooked. I started picking up the AD&D hardbacks in (probably) 1983 and played continuously until ’89, when the dreadful 2nd edition was unleashed upon the public.

Thanks to D&D, I not only became very interested in fantasy, but developed an understanding of obscure English words and terminology that I may not have otherwise experienced at a young age. I started reading “the classic” fantasy literature, and probably most importantly developed a pretty decent social network (as best as one can have when your main interests are Star Wars, robots, and dragons).

But anyway, I’m digressing.

For me (and I consider myself to be of the old school generation), “old school” isn’t about what editions you’re playing. It isn’t about how simple the rules are or how little space your rulebooks take up. And it sure as hell isn’t who you play it with. See, a lot of people in the OSR forget that Old School was also – unfortunately – constraining rules which spent more time telling you what you couldn’t do than on what you could.

Old School is an attitude.

And I don’t mean “attitude” as in, “if you don’t play OD&D you’re a newbie” – I mean it as in how you play. Old School is free-form, flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, game table covered in pizza crusts and chip crumbs, playing ’til 5 in the morning fun. It is drawing your own maps and coming up with creative backstories. It is about adventure and fun.

Old School isn’t “historical”. The last thing we need is for more people to start thumbing their noses at younger players and their “newfangled” editions. While I personally prefer 1st edition AD&D to 2nd and 3.5 edition to 4th – I accept that times change, and that there is a place for everything.

A game is not really about rules. It is not about what happens when a game is cloned by people more interested in changes for the sake of making a name for themselves than in changes which make the game better.

It is about fun.

But where is the fun for gamers of the “New School” when they feel discriminated against because they weren’t gaming when D&D first came out, or that they never had the chance to experience how great the earliest editions of Warhammer 40K were?

Just recently, one of my students had mentioned to me that he had joined a rather large RPG forum (which shall remain nameless) and tried to get involved in a conversation about why he liked 4th Edition D&D. A sizable group of old-schoolers jumped on him like he was chum for sharks talking about how “well, back in the day, things were much more simple” and were not geared towards this-and-that style of play. And while I wouldn’t pee on a pile of 4E books if they were on fire – I surely don’t spend my internet time trying to make feel people badly because they do enjoy it. My student eventually ended up feeling so badly about how he thought he was treated that he actually didn’t feel like playing for a while.

Honestly, you can make all of the points you want about him needing to have a thicker skin when he’s on the net – but what does this say for the community as a whole that some newer players may not want to join in for fear of being jumped on by the “old fogies”?

We really don’t need to have these kinds of splits in our hobby. Chasing out newer players because they don’t adhere to what we feel is best isn’t the way to help them experience the very best of gaming.

Old School Inquisitors – grow up and welcome the new (or newish) players with open arms and a handshake. We had our time.

Stop trying to hurt the hobby with outdated ideas of how things aren’t as good as when we were kids, because it is the wrong attitude to take if we want gaming to survive.