Stormcrow wrote:One reason to at least look at a free PDF is to know what people think of with the term D&D. Younger people will start to assume you mean whatever is in this PDF, just as they now often assume you mean fourth edition, and you have to explain, no, I play <whatever> version. With basic knowledge of the PDF, you can at least compare what they know to what you know.
Because let's face it: most people in the world don't know one role-playing game from another, have only ever heard of Dungeons & Dragons, and don't even know there are any others, let alone deep schisms among D&D-players.
Well, I highly agree with your second paragraph, but it leads me to a conclusion opposite of what you state in your first paragraph. If nobody in the real world cares about this sort of arcana, why immerse oneself in it?
Most people I meet have never played a tabletop RPG of any stripe. I invite them over for “D&D,” and we play whatever I’m running — currently either AD&D1 Middle-earth or RQ2 Griffin Mountain.
I’ve never had a problem with someone joining the game and complaining that they wished we were using other rules. I mean, it has happened once or twice in the last 14 years, but it was frowned upon by the group as bad sportsmanship.
