A Selected Bit from the Old School Thread

This is a quote from the thread I linked to in my previous post. It is from an actual-play report, post #65:

There we met some elves (ie: killed three and Charmed two) . . .

This simple statement floored me. I have a vague memory of literally everything you meet as a character being a potential foe. Everything. I honestly can not remember the last time in my playing career that a statement like that would be viable. Drow are fair game, of course, but he said elves. How long has it been since elves could be just slain like any other wandering monster? I would wager that almost any DM running a game not in the old school style would balk at such a turn of events. I daresay that many DMs would actually penalize the players in some way, perhaps even forcing some alignment alteration on them.

I'm having a hard time really communicating my feelings on this. Sorry if it is confusing. If you get it, though, you get it. For me it is a really cool reminder of a really cool aspect of the old school way, an aspect I forgot about and abandoned long ago. I'm very happy to be reacquainted with it.