We have fun when we play, partly because our bad dice luck (but not Will Wheaten level of bad dice luck… we’re not that unlucky… although one player did roll triple 1 on 3d6 four times in a single 2 hr game session), partly because we bring humour to the game.

I know that any rules system can be tweaked to make it better, rules are there to be bent, broken and ignored, but sometimes you just want to game.

And ‘Old School’ seems an odd title as they’ve only been around since 1974. There is some nostalgia, it’s as much about remembering your youth as it is the games you played.

If I wanted to play ‘old school games’ I’d just go to my cupboard where I have AD&D, WEG Star Wars, MERP, FASERIP, James Bond, Gangbusters, Rolemaster etc.

But they were clunky as you say and combat (especially Role-master) could take hours.

There is one thing that seems to confuse game designers… continuity… players want to keep playing their favourite characters for ever. A lot of games now have you gaining levels (or earning skill points, or whatever) very quickly.

Look at the D&D campaigns and Pathfinder Adventure Paths. They take you to high level, if not the highest level possible for the games. The assumption being that you just make a new character and start again, but after spending months with that character, you know them, think like them and don’t want to retire them… or maybe that’s just my gaming group.

And because they level up so quickly now it’s over so quickly. When I played AD&D I don’t recall ever getting a character to maximum level.