International Traditional Gaming Week
Last week marked the first International Traditional Gaming Week. This event was cooked up by TARGA(the Traditional Adventure Roleplaying Game Association.) I run a 4ed campaign for my regular gaming crew and I realized that many of them didn’t start gaming until later in their life, and thus joined the hobby circa 3ed or later. I talked a little to them about the concept of old-school gaming, sent them a link to the Quick Primer for Old School Gaming, and asked them if they would be interested in taking a weekend to try it out. The answer was a unanimous “yes.”
I wanted to do this judiciously, so I presented a couple of choices to them. First I asked what system they wanted to use. I gave them the options of OD&D circa Rules Cyclopedia, or 2ed (because these are the systems I have core books for.) They chose OD&D. Next I gave them a choice of modules. Since earlier editions of D&D are fairly similar, I knew I could quickly fudge between editions, so I presented them with these choices: Night of the Vampire, Red Hand Trail (from the Goblin’s Lair boxed set,) or The Tomb of Horrors. I gave a brief plot synopsis and an explanation of the style of play of each adventure. (A fun who-dunnit with lots of intrigue, a basic dungeon crawl with lots of combat, or a complex and ruthless deathtrap, respectively.) To my glee, they chose Tomb of Horrors.
Now, my crew is acclimated to 3ed and 4ed. They know Search and Perception rolls. They have feats to fire into melee combat or to dual-wield weapons. They shop from equipment lists that eschew things like signet rings and tinder boxes for alchemical reagents and diversified weapons. When a character hits zero HP they have a couple rounds for the healer to get over there and magic them back into the fight. I was terribly worried that the lack of rules options and the shear mortality of the system might put them off.
I was very pleased with the results. It only took the first pit trap for them to learn to start tapping on the floor with their 10-foot pole. It only took the first round of experimentation resulting in a hazard for them to become cautious with their environment. They began looking at their spell and equipment lists for tools and solutions. They began to experiment and problem solve. Pretty soon I was back into the old swing of classic DMing. I was rolling D6′s to see if they noticed secret doors. I was narrating events rather than delegating keywords from a power.
Overall, it was a wonderful game session. The big thing I took away from it: The lack of specific rules grants freedom. This rules vacuum provides room for interpretation, narration, and collaboration. It also prevents players from relying on their character stats and forces them to think about the world and interact with the setting. I’ve really missed that about gaming.
I’m not sure how, but I’m going to take the lesson from this experience and apply it to my regular 4ed campaign. I’m sure you will hear about the results in a future post. Even though International Traditional Gaming Week is over, it isn’t preventing you from running an old-school game–even if it is just for one session. You might just rediscover something you’ve been missing too.
