I want to... game

It's been long time since last real gaming session. Where you got game master's screens, various different coloured dice on the table more you even need, pens and pencils, hand written notes and maps, few minis (well, never used those but let's imagine as them suit here now), bottles of soda and bags of candy and chips.

Wow, sometimes I miss those times. Now my gaming is about stories, and characters. Not about doin' stuff 'n' killin' mobs and takin' their stuff! That was fun. And those quests and missions back then. They didn't need logic. Some random person approaches characters and whispers, that one magic item x must be retreaved from that dungeon. Characters never questioned the motives, they were always ready to take up the challenge. They didn't care about the actual item, they didn't care why they were chosen, or what happens after. That item quest was a excuse to kill and loot and don't forget the most important, gain experience points.

Oh, those were good times. Gaming was innocent, fast, furious and fun. You didn't need to think about complex motives, or even necessary logic for someone's actions. Maybe sometimes when you are thinking those times now, stories were quite goofy. But it didn't matter. Player characters were always ready to random stuff. Wanna find my lost pig? There is skeletons in the city sewers, wanna kill them? I lost this ring, wanna retrieve it (propably there is orcs involved)? Evil overlord of grimm darkness want's to destroy the world, wanna kill him? Hell yeas to every quest! The harder it is, more xp you get.

Now it's all about character ineraction between other characters and npcs. It's all about how character and his personality would really react to different things. It's about logic and questions. If now my character would enjoy his drink in a tavern and a mysterious stranger approaches him and askes, could my character do one itty-bitty thing, my character propably would continue drinking and dismiss that person. Okay, how many character's description reads out that he jumps to every possible adventure without questioning it?

What I am trying to say, rpging back then was innocent, simple fun. Ofcourse there was complicated stories and campaigns, but still it was more about fun and gaming. You could do silly stuff or just do a quest you are provided without thinking would your character do it. What the heck, does it matter would your character do the quest, because GM knows you will do it (as a player, and as to make your character better via loot and exp).

So, as much I don't like Dungeons and Dragons (3rd edition as the newest version I own) sometimes I look at it like it would be a nice solution. I quess there is not so many flaws in D&D that I let myself understand there to be. D&D is just for different type of gaming that I am usually running. I don't need those complex rules or character leveling and stuff. I need more like Storytelling rules. Fast and simple. Not too detailed, but bending enough to be easily enough to apply in different situations.

But sometimes, a small part inside me want's to grand PC some xp and better +1 sword. See PC gain a level and see PC's character getting better. Sometimes I don't want to get involved in strange, hard and complicated vampire politics but just tell player that his character needs to find a key from the "Tomb of Skeletons" to open the chest where he would find "King's Pearl" what that dude in cape was asking for in the tavern. And hey, you don't get to keep that 10000 gp King's Pearl, but you get experience worth of one level, 100 gp and better sword, because that mysterious dude in a cape has a spare one he doesn't need. Good deal?