Growing Older with AD&D: Why We Still Gather Around the Table
A Small Pause Between Sessions
This post is a bit of a pause between campaign updates, since we will not be able to gather for another session until next month.
That is one of the realities of getting older.
Back when we first started playing tabletop RPGs in middle school and high school, we all shared the same schedule. We could play almost every evening if we wanted to. As the years passed, life changed. People moved away, started careers, built families, and suddenly organizing a session became something that required planning weeks ahead instead of asking, “Are we playing tonight?”
 |
| Picture I posted in our chat before session zero |
That makes me incredibly grateful that I still have two groups who meet in person for TTRPG sessions about once a month—sometimes more often if schedules allow it.
Those evenings have become something special:
- A break from everyday life
- A chance to disconnect from stress and responsibilities
- An opportunity to spend quality time with friends
At the end of the day, that is really what this hobby is about.
The Thoughts Every DM Carries
As a Dungeon Master, I often leave a session with the same questions running through my head:
- Was the session actually good?
- Did the players enjoy the plot?
- Were the NPCs memorable enough?
- Were the monsters challenging?
- Did everyone around the table feel included?
I think most DMs know this feeling. You spend hours preparing adventures and trying to create memorable moments, but players rarely sit down afterward and give detailed feedback about what worked and what did not.
Over time, though, I have learned something important.
If grown adults are willing to:
- Reorganize their schedules
- Drive for hours
- Dedicate an entire evening to tabletop RPGs
…then they are probably enjoying themselves.
People do not prioritize things they do not care about.
That realization helped me relax more as a DM.
Still Playing the Old-School Way
One thing I love about our groups is that we still play very much the same way we did when we were younger.
 |
| My AD&D 2nd ed collection |
We still use:
- Physical books
- Paper character sheets
- Pencils and erasers
No laptops.
No tablets.
Usually no Virtual Tabletops.
For us, there is something special about holding the actual books in your hands, flipping through worn pages to find a spell description, and smelling the paper of old AD&D sourcebooks. It feels tangible in a way digital tools never fully replace.
Terrain, Maps & The Theater of the Mind
That does not mean we ignore modern tools entirely.
I own a large collection of Dwarven Forge terrain, we use miniatures, and I even have a TV built into the gaming table for animated maps. Sometimes I build large encounter scenes with lighting and smoke effects, and honestly—it looks fantastic.
 |
| Party get ambushed |
But despite all that, we still rely heavily on theater of the mind.
Many of our best moments happen with nothing more than:
- A quickly sketched map on graph paper
- A few lines and circles representing enemies
- A rough dungeon layout drawn with marker
The imagination fills in the rest.
And the fun is exactly the same.
From a DM perspective, elaborate visual setups also require much more preparation:
 |
| Final battle in The gates of firestorm peak adventure |
- Building terrain scenes
- Finding appropriate maps
- Managing software and screens
- Setting up miniatures and effects
Sometimes it is simply easier to draw the room quickly on paper and focus on the story instead.
I think newer Dungeon Masters sometimes feel pressured into believing they need expensive terrain, miniatures, or advanced VTT systems to run a great campaign. In my experience, that simply is not true.
A good story, engaged players, and imagination are more than enough.
Everything else is just extra flavor.
Different Types of Players
Another thing I have learned over the years is that players engage with the game very differently.
Some players:
- Drive conversations forward
- Talk to every NPC
- Create roleplay constantly
Others are much quieter and mostly listen.
Matt Colville got a great video talking about the different types of players. mr. Colville got a great playlist called Running the game. I realy likes his videos and they helped me mature as a dungeon master. I recommend watching them
For a long time, I worried that quiet players were not enjoying themselves. As a fairly extroverted person, silence often looked like disinterest to me. But I eventually realized that is simply not true.
People enjoy tabletop RPGs in different ways:
- Some love storytelling
- Some enjoy tactical combat
- Some want treasure and progression
- Some care most about character relationships
- Some simply enjoy being present in the world
None of those approaches are wrong.
Part of being a Dungeon Master is learning how to create moments for all those different player types.
Final Thoughts
The older I get, the more I appreciate the simple fact that we still gather around the table at all.
Life becomes busier.
Schedules become harder.
Free time becomes more valuable.
Yet somehow, every month, we still manage to sit down together for a few hours and step into another world.
And honestly, that is probably the real magic of tabletop roleplaying games.
Comments
Post a Comment