I discovered Dungeons & Dragons at Uni, so it was AD&D by that time. Even AD&D had character level disparities, though it was more likely to happen if a character was a two-class character... which my character was (Half-Elf called Frey, I can't remember if she was a Mage/Thief or a Warrior/Thief). I chose a two-class character because I figured I had more chance of surviving the initial encounters that way, but, oh boy it made level-climbing slow. But we had a very good DM, who was more interested in character-play than "kill things for XP" so she tended to give out XP for creativity.
And yeah, my character was of Good alignment, but being a Thief, Lawful Good was right out, she was Neutral Good, if I recall correctly. It probably would have been fun to play a Chaotic Good character, but it was really only that one very long campaign with that one character that I played.
The thing that made me quit wasn't the "ooooh demons!" thing -- though my brother-in-law was quite concerned and urged me to quit because of that. That wasn't what decided me, though. Not sure if I can explain it very well, but... role-playing is very immersive. More immersive than reading or writing, and more immersive than acting, because with acting, you're using someone else's words, while with role-playing, you are using your own words, as if you are acting and writing at the same time. And I didn't like that I was pretending (for the time I was playing) to be a person who lived in a world where pantheistic gods were real.
Which means I don't have problems with SF-based RPGs... but I never found as congenial a group to play with as the one I played AD&D with. Because I guess the stuff I liked best about it was the character stuff and the worldbuilding, not the going around and killing things. I suppose I am just a writer at heart.
Turned out the dragon was the familiar of an old mage who had died many, many years ago, and it was just bringing back "gifts" for the master, not understanding why the master didn't respond like he used to. So the party actually talked it into going back to its people and leaving the local farms alone.
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And yeah, my character was of Good alignment, but being a Thief, Lawful Good was right out, she was Neutral Good, if I recall correctly. It probably would have been fun to play a Chaotic Good character, but it was really only that one very long campaign with that one character that I played.
The thing that made me quit wasn't the "ooooh demons!" thing -- though my brother-in-law was quite concerned and urged me to quit because of that. That wasn't what decided me, though. Not sure if I can explain it very well, but... role-playing is very immersive. More immersive than reading or writing, and more immersive than acting, because with acting, you're using someone else's words, while with role-playing, you are using your own words, as if you are acting and writing at the same time. And I didn't like that I was pretending (for the time I was playing) to be a person who lived in a world where pantheistic gods were real.
Which means I don't have problems with SF-based RPGs... but I never found as congenial a group to play with as the one I played AD&D with. Because I guess the stuff I liked best about it was the character stuff and the worldbuilding, not the going around and killing things. I suppose I am just a writer at heart.
Turned out the dragon was the familiar of an old mage who had died many, many years ago, and it was just bringing back "gifts" for the master, not understanding why the master didn't respond like he used to. So the party actually talked it into going back to its people and leaving the local farms alone.
Creative solution, yay!