This started out as a rant about OSR v NuD&D but it turned into me just rambling about history a bit...
The OSR community, if it can even be called that, on /tg/ and on twitter oft talks about D&D as if it comes in only two flavors; TRVE OSR and (using the term I coined on /tg/) NuD&D. But this ignores the transitional period. Afterall, the shift from D&D and AD&D being a game of exploration and adventure into a game of superheroic legend took a lot longer than the release of a single campaign setting module and a novel trilogy. Before I explain why the transitional period is important, I feel I need to establish the argument I am fighting against in its strongest terms. Within the OSR community there is a contingent of people large enough to make it feel to me that they are not just a vocal minority of pissbabies who argue that the release of Dragonlance heralded a shift in game design within TSR. That the popularity of Dragonlance was a watershed moment that told TSR to focus on overarching narrative structures and larger-than-life heroes. That D&D became a gam...