Rock n Roll Generation

 I was watching the Lemmy Rockumentary the other night, he was a man from a very different generation to where we are now. 

That's kind of how I feel. 

I have been away from the roleplaying world for a good number of years now, and although I have never truly disengaged from it, I have not been active or mixed with people who are currently active in it, until recently. 

Before I get too involved, I think you need to know a bit more about me as it is entirely possible I will get badly judged for some of the things I am going to say. I am (very) left wing and active in my politics, I would describe myself as an anarcho-socialist and pro LGTBQ and equal rights, civil rights. I am what a lot of people would describe as "woke", but...

Roleplaying back in the late 80's and 90's was a group of mates playing in a smelly bedroom, usually there was porn on a TV in the background, there was lots of cigarettes being smoked, often joints lots of crap food, fry-ups and endless bags of crisps and chocolate. The games were full of dreadful jokes, bad puns and really poor sexual innuendo along the lines of DM "Dawn comes"... The players in unison "Orgasm noises". 

Oddly enough, far from being the outcasts in the town we lived in, we were some of the cooler cats. I had moved from a place where being a nerd was bad to where being a nerd was cool. We loved it! We drank, smoked too much and played AD&D badly. We argued not over rules but over what we thought was physically possible, we never put any thought into characters backstory, they were just poor copies of characters from books, my mate basically played Rasitlin, but because he was a bit lacking in imagination, called him X the Mystic because he could not come up with another name. 

We hit imaginary monsters with imaginary weapons and cast imaginary spells in imaginary situations and laughed and laughed and laughed. And that was it.

And now coming back into it after a gap of many years I see things like this, and I feel kind of lost. 

Alien concepts to me

And please please please do not think I am posting this example to make fun of it, it is merely an example of things similar to what I have found recently. 

To me, the above example is completely alien to me, not only do I struggle with the terminology, I just don't recognise it as part of roleplaying. I am not saying it's bad or wrong, I simply do not understand it or see it as part of what I remember a game to be.

I would love to hear some of your feedback on this. I know I grew up in a time when feelings were repressed, gender issues were not discussed other than to use as insults and they certainly played no part in roleplaying, what to us was a way to kill a few hours on a Sunday evening. 

I love roleplaying, I used to spend hours making maps, writing scenarios, reading fantasy and sci fi books (still do) and use them as inspiration for games. I am a total sci-fi and fantasy art nerd and I totally love arms and armour. But seeing people get so emotional over characters, agonising over drawing maps and seemingly seeking confirmation from other gamers over their feelings, just leaves me confused. 

I am not saying what goes on today is wrong, I need to get used to it, it's not going to change for me! I am not saying our games were wrong, they brought us endless hours of pleasure, what I am saying is us older rock and roll generation of gamers need to understand where the new players are coming from, and they also need to understand where us old gits are coming from at times.

Its a voyage of discovery for me now again. I am an old git in a new and alien world so please go easy on us old gits, we are often confused. 

Dungeon Master... Old school