Editing Old School Roleplaying (section)

== Get on With It! ==
'''Old School Role-Playing''' is a term used by Grey Beards (the oldest and crustiest [[neckbeards]]) to justify why their version of [[RPG|role-playing]] is better than yours.  Usually either clutching a red box edition of [[Dungeons and Dragons]], or even a new copy of [[Labyrinth Lord]] (a revision of old Dungeons and Dragons rules), that is the "old school role-playing" system being referenced.  A Grey Beard of the Old School is a hyper nerd; to them their system is great, far better than the thrice-cursed [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|Fourth Edition]], a superior intellectual experience to the stupid ''[[5e| Baby's First D&D]]'', and a better game entirely than the unbalanced D&D 3.5, etc.  In fact, the past was so full of awesome, everything today is so bad by comparison.  Oldest editions were best and back in those days you had to color in your own d20 with a wax crayon and you had to use the theater of your mind and not use pathetic [[miniatures]] unless they were sad-looking slug lead that came from Ral Partha.  It truly was a Golden Age.  It is a nostalgia that is now untouchable.  You didn't have to worry about fixed simulationist rules that bored you, like in [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition|Dungeons and Dragons 3.5]].  The D.M. was always right ([[E. Gary Gygax|Gygax]] said so).  [[Rocks fall, everyone dies|Rocks fall you die!]]

On the other hand, experiences could vary. [[Trap]]s of the day, for one, would make a hard man humble. Using rules that thieves have only 1d4 hit points, suddenly every chest trap will kill them.  Some such scenarios encouraged - nay almost forced - meta-gaming; oft-cited here, the [[Tomb of Horrors]], where purely going to the front door gets you killed.  And all of the infamous [[Gotcha Monster]]s were everywhere.

For the worldbuilders very little attention was paid to ecology, especially underground: what's a [[Hill Giant]] doing so far down ''[[S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth]]''? Who built ten layers of squarish tunnels under Castle Blackmoor, and why? What does anyone eat when they can't get hobbit?

The cold and horrible truth is that really oldest is not always the best; because by this logic North America should still be driving <s>Model T Fords</s> Stanley Steamers.  Some groups undoubtedly had a great time with the old rules, but plenty of others had a shit time, and so many problems with the rules that they went off and wrote [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] and such instead (where daggers do more than 1d4 they can kill you in one go).  Anyhow, if a Grey Beard bores you with his trip to the Shrine of Kuo Toa, and why Old School is Best School, just [[troll]] them by saying you play WOW which sold more copies than D&D ever did.

Incidentally, [[Old_School_Roleplaying#Get to the Point|this article]] was penned by an old fart from the old days, so do not bother regaling me with tales of how good it was.  Sadly both you and I are destined to become irrelevant, whilst the kids get into WOW or some [[Vermintide|other]] [[video games|new-fangled computerised crap]].  Little bastards will never get to know what it's like to die during character creation in [[Traveller]].