Agreed.
I suspect that different systems work well for different groups too, depending on their particular vision and definition of Old School. My group, for example, found that 3.5e D&D didn’t give that old school vibe particularly well, whereas 4e D&D does. I’m pretty sure that goes counter to many other groups’ experiences.
Every rule system has a flavour. It imparts a certain mood or tone to the game. For example, play a swashbuckling high adventure using 3e D&D, and exactly the same adventure using GURPS, and they’re feel very different. That’s the rules affecting the gamestyle, right there.
The key is in finding a system that’s a flavour you like 
– greywulf 2009-05-24 20:28 UTC
Finding a system indeed. My main motivation has always been to use a rules-light system that still allowed for the D&D experience. That was what attracted me to M20.
The question of “D&D experience” leads to the other big topic of “what is D&D to you” – endless! One example of the wide variety out there:
– AlexSchroeder 2009-05-25 06:39 UTC
Other posts:
Thank you. This post and the link to the definition of affordance neatly explains something I’ve been groping at since I tried 4e.
– Jeff Rients 2009-05-26 13:15 UTC