I feel like a large amount of older d&d is figuring out new and novel ways to fuck with people
Yes and no. It’s true that that’s often what it boils down to in practice, but that’s an emergent property of having a different attitude toward what a dungeon crawl is supposed to be.
You can draw the lines in any number of places, and certainly, it’s rare for a game to adhere exclusively to one particular mode of play, but one possible breakdown is as follows:
1. A dungeon is a logistical puzzle. Your goal is to get in, obtain some particular prize, and get out as quickly and efficiently as possible.
2. A dungeon is an obstacle course. Your goal is to successfully travel from point A to point B, often on a strict time limit, overcoming a series of essentially unconnected roadblocks along the way.
3. A dungeon is story. Each location or encounter is a discretely framed scene that affords the opportunity to make one or more narrative choices.
4. A dungeon is a simulated environment. Play focuses on discovering and exploiting the rules that govern the adventure’s locale, and frequently the walls have hit points.
5. A dungeon is a series of tactical set-pieces. If you’ve played Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition - or, for that matter, Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics - then you know what this looks like.
Old-school D&D tends strongly toward modes 1 and 2, which is where a lot of the really oddball spells and magic items come from. Getting into actual combat is basically a failure mode - high risk, low reward, and immensely time-consuming in an environment where time is at a premium - so tossing out some utterly bizarre countermeasure and running like hell while the baddies are still confused is often the preferred tactic!
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