My Life As A Gamer: We've Been Doing It Wrong For Decades

If you follow Jeffro Johnson on Twitter--and you should--you'll notice that he, and several others, actively argue against the 40+ years of gaming mythology built up because the original cohort of players (being Boomers and Silents) failed to pass on their wisdom on how to play RPGs properly. Not that Gary Gygax didn't try; he did, but the children that played the game--with few exceptions like Yours Truly, which was hardly enough--didn't comprehend what he wrote.

In short, the reason that RPGs degenerated into what they became--and D&D in particular--is because the wargame roots got lost. Jeffro's been key in restoring those lost roots, filling in gaps of comprehension missing for generations, and with that restoration a lot of the oddities of OD&D and AD&D 1st Edition melted away like ice in the Sahara at noon.

Now folks are putting this rediscovered knowledge down in brick-to-face forms that normies can comprehend, and in media they will easily consume. Enjoy The Joy of Wargaming's video on the matter.

There is a playlist with related videos, which you can find here.

I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that this video lays out the core of what we got wrong. We got it exactly backwards, and only since the Old School Renaisance took off have we finally begun fixing this massive error.

It's going to take about as long to fix it as it did to wreck everything; don't worry about tabletop going away- it's still the cheapest gaming hobby option around, and online is an option thanks to Tabletop Simulator and Discord with more options arise every year such as Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. (Keeping an eye on a few more on Steam.)

The older D&D editions are now proving that they do work as intended to create the magic experiences promised. We just used the tools wrongs. Proper use yields proper results.

Imagine what else we got wrong? I bet that Classic Traveller also works when used used as-written, negating any need for later editions.