I Can See Why...

YouTube is now suggesting first-edition videos to me.

This is because of my interest in that game version, but the platform has returned to normalcy without YouTube shoving 5E videos into my timeline. Has the money fed into YouTube to recommend videos for a specific topic or game dried up? Was a majority of the "interest" in D&D artificially inflated?

On YouTube, my hobby feels like a niche interest again.

My interest in first-edition games is now being suggested to me.

No artificial injections of "5E content" are being fed to my recommendations.

The platform, and also the hobby, feels normal to me again.

And I see OSRIC and first-edition play videos again! These are so good. I am watching people return to the early days, deal with a hardcore level of difficulty, and have all their "easy mode" 5E powers taken away. I am watching people think with their heads and not the rules.

It is so enjoyable because I can better connect with the players, observe their reasoning and problem-solving abilities, and see them think on their feet in a more challenging game.

Instead of someone screaming "eldritch blast!" I am watching someone think through a challenging situation without infinite-use powers. They are considered finite resources. They save spells for later in case they need them. They can't "take a break" and rest up everyone's hit points and powers. I get it. The design team added generous resource replenishment to "increase fun," but the game is about resource management.

Without resource management, D&D becomes "a game of rules," and the players' thought process goes out of the game and into a book. Because those books are on their phones, they watch YouTube videos or play mobile games. They don't need to pay attention because of passive skills.

D&D 5E has become subservient to mobile phones. It is a secondary activity.

Your character is likely dead if you are on a phone while playing a first-edition game. You will likely never complete a challenging adventure without paying attention and being fully engaged. There are no easy resting mechanics and no easy recovery from death. Every power is resource-constrained. Wandering monsters will drain resources and kill party members.

While combat and exploration are done turn-by-turn, if the players spend 30 minutes talking over a situation, and there are encounter checks every 10 minutes, you could make three checks in that time while they idle and argue. Time is time, and there are "real time" elements in a first edition game, just like Shadowdark.

Characters do not level up as fast, and growing old is also an enemy. A 5E character can reach level 20 in a few months or weeks of "in-game" time, and they practically never die. If I want, I can speed up advancement in 1E by giving "milestone rewards" of GP for different tasks in the story, either by leaving it around as treasure or offering it by factions as rewards for other tasks.

There are no empty "quest XP" in first-edition, so referees should give treasure or reward payouts.

"Quest XP" is XP without gold, and it hurts the monetary progression of the game, which is vital for magic item purchases, expeditions, and strongholds. Just give your players' characters gold and magic items; they will find a use for it all and thank you. AD&D 2nd Edition got it wrong when they introduced quest XP, as XP without GP is just half a reward and cheating your players.

Of course, the character better be able to haul those GP out of the dungeon, so they carry their XP on their backs and need to secure it when they return to town (or, ideally, a stronghold).

But I can see why the first edition appeals to me. The game is not about rapid advancement and power. It is about the story, the world, and you. Every little thing you do contributes to advancement, and the gold pieces you gain push you (and your domain) forward.

The powers you wield in the first edition are mighty. By definition, having to use a 5E power every turn or every encounter makes it a very weak power that needs to be used repeatedly. In the first edition, a fireball or lightning bolt was a once-per-day power that ended fights. In 5E, another weak-sauce MMO "damage per turn" power adds to party damage output. This "use the same power over and over" is a mobile-phone-game design trick, mental manipulation to make you feel powerful but really aren't, and 5E is full of them.

My story is not about "what powers I have" and "how I use them repeatedly to solve every problem."

My story is about my characters and the world they live in.