1ed Feel is 90% a state of mind.
I am reminded of a game session Jim Corulla and I sat in on late late at night during the last Gen Con in Milwaukee, with Clark Peterson, Bill Webb, Monte Cook, Steven Wieck, Stewart Wieck, Rich Thomas, Joe Carriker, and Monte Cook. Most people forget that Joe, Jim, and I were there. I sat next to Monte, Clark sat across from us and Bill ran the adventure.
As the adventure progressed into an ancient temple of Set, Bill pulled out all sorts of 1ed goodness, from poisonous hypnotic inducing plants to spiked pit traps, and giant serpents.
Monte and Clark traded barbs and playful wise-cracks across the table during the course of the adventure on how "We don't need a DMG, he's sitting next to Case." coming from Clark... and Monte replying from time to time with things like "You wouldn't last five minutes in one of my games." after Clark's paladin got us into one bloody combat after another.
Clark played a paladin clark style, which is to say very 1ed. Honorable, noble, lawful stupid, and fearless of death. Monte played an elf sorcerer who wielded a two bladed sword. Their play styles were indeed different, and anyone who was paying attention could note the First edition Feel of the paladin vs. the purely 3ed style influence of the double sword wielding elf mage blade.
The point of it all is they both have excellent taste in gaming, both have focused their perspective creative enterprises towards the aspects of 3ed that they really really liked. As for Bill? He did his damndest to kill every one of us, and congratulated everyone in grand fashion when he didn't, and everyone had a blast because none of us knew if we were going to make it out of the adventure alive!
I guess my point is, I've been gaming for 26 odd years now. I've played me some boot hill, top secret, gamma world, james bond, star frontiers, twilight 2000 and deadlands, Call of Cthulhu, Champions, and Basic D&D, AD&D, 2eAD&D and 3.0-3.5 edition D&D. In the end we always end up going back to D&D in some form or another. Why? The elusive first edition feel.
What is it? That sense of wonder and peril. That sense of facing challenges both obscure and unknown. Taking characters out of their comfort zone where all the min-maxes and stat stackers are in just as much jeapordy as the guys who roll 3d6 for stats and play what is written on the paper. Rappan Athuk did that. Crucible of Freya did that, and so did a host of other Necro products (some of which I had the honor of writing on).
I know I've said before. Just because the dev team appears to be gearing towards the "sexy" wu shu anime style of adventure design doesn't mean thats the only way a game can be run, witten or indeed the way it needs to be played. Thats their thing and they are bubbly super zealously excited about it. Good for them, they should be.
Remember though, unless your on the dev team it doesn't matter a lick what they say about "what the game is going to be like". Thats the way their game is going to be, and thats how they are going to present their rules. I don't necessarily have to interpret them that way nor does anyone else. Rules are rules. What you do with them is up to you.
Its what you do when you get it to your table and make everyone roll initiative that matters.
None of the Necro products I have worked on have followed the "delve" format of adventure design. Most of them recognize the inconsistancies of the CR model and geared the encounters according to OUR take on the CR system, not on the RAW.
Not every product Necro has done has been a pure dungeon crawl. First Edition feel doesn't need to follow those rules. It follows its own, and those rules are more about a spirit and way of doing things that are unique to those folks who "get it", and completely lost on those who do not.
I have no doubt that we will be able to easily use the new mechanics and find unique ways to explore and yes indeed exploit those rules rather quickly to retain that first edition feel that folks who are fans of our past products so greatly enjoy.
Thats my 2 coppers.
Case
