One of those late-night discussions

I've just gotten back from Ackerman's place, where I was hanging out with Ackerman and James. We had a long discussion about our respective histories with RPGs and our views on several different aspects of gaming.

While I may be a young guy, I've had a pretty good range of experience playing and DMing games over the last 11 years or so. I know that isn't long compared to some of the guys I have spoken with, but I can't really help my age. I've developed a lot of ideas about roleplay over the years, and I've noticed that I lean towards what is considered "old school" gaming. I love good RP, and I'm a big fan of groups RPing out a situation instead of simply rolling dice to bypass whatever is going on.

An example I like involves D&D 2e, 3.x, and 4e.

In 2e, you walk nto a tavern and smoke clouds your vision momentarily. The bartender glares at you as he methodically cleans the same mug with the same dingy rag over and over again. Your contact sits in the back of the establishment, cloaked and shadowed, puffing on a pipe. His broken and battered armor shows through his torn clothes, and his rusted, well-worn blade peeks out from his belt. He is gruff and scarred, but smiles at you and gestures for you to approach. His only contribution to your quest is just a whisper of a rumor.

In 3.x, you walk into a bar. You can immediately locate the guy you need to find. He is obviously powerful - why else would he have stuff floating around his head like that? His armor glows faintly and is worn openly. His large bag o magical trinkets sits on the floor next to him, and his weapon is easily 6 feet tall, glowing all sorts of weird colors and made out of a rare and powerful metal. He doles out heaps of magic items to help you on your quest.

In 4e, you don't walk into a tavern or pub or bar unless you want to fight something. Who cares about the RP?

Of course, this is very exaggerated, and it does largely depend on the style of the guy running the game. I'll probably post more on this later, when I'm not about to pass out on my keyboard.