After rediscovering AD&D with Jim Ward, one of the original TSR peeps (and author of deities and demigods), I started to remember why I loved the game so much.

Many good insights here, but one of them is this...danger and risk. Tabletop and video games (esp MMO) have... https://twitter.com/JohnsonJeffro/status/1296996814474928135

Games have fallen into the trap of perfectly matching encounters to your level. And this challenge/risk is set very low for mass audiences.

This was done to ensure players never had a frustrating, game quitting experience.

Video games take this a step further by auto scaling older, weaker encounters so that higher level players can still participate in them. This was done to create ways veterans players can still group with newer players and friends. It also extends older content viability.

But we did this way too much. Overused, it resulted in a few, unintended, consequences.

In older tabletop campaigns (like the recreation I am playing of Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk, as retold/reDM’d by one of it’s players, Jim Ward), you can go anywhere you want and stumble into encounter areas far beyond your range. The choice is up to the player.

This created a lot or risk and uncertainly, and we had to learn to be cautious. But more than that, it cause us to seek other places to adventure, to explore the map and the world, engage it fully, and create emergent gameplay richer in many ways that railroad story campaigns.

The risk was exciting, and we got our asses kicked the last play session. We switched approaches and our next plan it to find another way into the catacombs of Castle Greyhawk by scouting the wilderness for alternate entrances. We were actively problem solving (gameplay).

To many campaigns these days follow the model set down by the much Dragonlance modules (later books). Big story arcs that players are meant to follow more or less linearly.

Modern modules focus on leading you from event A to event B.

Great stuff, but at a cost.

The cost is that there is LESS player engagement and my brain feels almost in a slumber as I wait for the next story element to be introduced.

I’m not really affecting the story, or seeking my own adventure, or problem solving.

I feel as if I’m just *waiting* for the next story beat, and that my job is simply to overcome the set encounter, or roleplay the next conversation, to advance the story.

Players don’t drive this.

Does this sound like modern video games too?

This is a complex topic, and I intend to talk more about it, esp what we gave up in games to make them less frustrating and easier to play. Great goals but also ones that have reshaped games into very linear experiences.

Until then I just know I want to play more Greyhawk!