Attack of the Retro-Clones

I started my gaming life with Basic D&D and AD&D back in the early 80s. I went away to school in the early 90s and switched to 2e with a new group of gamers. I moved away again in 2000 for work. Another group, a switch to 3/3.5e. Each time, there was one thing that was obvious, the new edition was better than the previous one. I'm sorry folks, but it was. Remember AD&D? Your dwarf fighter stopped advancing at what, 7th, 8th level? Then what? And then there were all the bloody tables to refer to. Every character class had a combat matrix. There were saving throw tables for characters and for objects. I remember thinking THAC0 was the most miraculous concept I had ever heard of.

So what's up with the sudden popularity of retro-clones? Swords and Wizardry, Microlite 74, OSRIC, all of a sudden, everyone is "kickin' it old school". Sure, I'm a bit nostalgic for the good old days once in awhile, but the joy I derived from my early gaming experiences came from the novelty of the pastime, not the inelegant and incomplete rulesets we were using.

I blame it all on 4e.

-Rognar-