On GMing...

I was thinking this morning on the way to work about the differences between the "new school of GMing" and the "Old School".  Of which I am going to do a bit more research on (new school), just so I can quantify what exactly the differences are. 

This line of thinking brought me to inspiration & influences, specifically musical inspiration & influences.  When I first started playing guitar, I was a huge Nirvana fan.  Badly playing power chords along with a the cassettes.  As time wore on I became a big blues fan as well.  The mixture has sort of stewed into my current style over the years.  More often than not I can feel these little inspirations & influences crop up in riffs I'm writing. 

While I feel like I'd like to learn a bit more about the new school style of play, I believe my heart will always be firmly implanted in the Old School style, for the following reasons:

Influence & Inspiration:  As I've stated on numerous occasions I grew up playing 2nd edition and the original version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, both of which in my humble opinion fall into "old school".  Wracking my brain this morning I started to think more about actual GM influence.  More often than not I was almost always the GM.  The few times I played as a player one of my cousins was GMing (1st edition, and AFF), and at one point I played some red box with a friend of mine GMing as well.  So as far as how I play the game its entirely based on that old school camp, because that's what we had! 

As far as inspiration goes, I spend an inordinate amount of time reading old school modules, reading old school blogs, following any movements that happen at the OSR G+ Community, http://osrnews.blogspot.ca/ , http://osrtoday.com/. 

So obviously this also influences how I like to play the game, and I think that's exactly what it comes down to "how you and your players like to play the game". 

I have been a bit concerned? (Not sure if that's the correct word), hesitant! (nope not that word).  Anxious! (there we go)  About my upcoming 5e game.  Partially because I'll be playing with a fellow GM (who's a super cool dude!).  However he's been a GM for a long time playing 3, 4e and pathfinder.  He has assured me however that he's there to help me out, and have fun.  And he's super stoked about being a player again!  

My mind of course wandered to "Jeez I'm planning on running 5e, and I have some players that have an idea of new school, maybe I need to GM like that?". 

Of course that's just silliness, everyone runs the game differently, and mine will definitely have an old school feel to it. 

So in the grand scheme of things, run the games the way you want and what your comfy with.  

Keep the dice a rollin'