Re: Questions for Gary
johnsemlak said:
Questions:
1. Did you ever consider either adding more detail (a map, details of encounters, etc) of the drow city of Erelhei-Cinlu to D3, or publishing a separate product detailing Erelhei Cinlu?
2. In your own words, how would you summarize the difference between AD&D and Basic/Expert/etc. D&D?
3. How important do you feel the concept of 'character archtypes' is to the D&D game? Do you feel that 3e rules, by going away from having core character classes, has lost something important here?
4. In your campaign, was the dissident drow Nilonim from D3 ever a PC?
P.S. Please write a sequal to Necropolis.
Okay, and some answers
1. As I noted in an earlier response, the drow city in the vault is one that I did think about revisiting, expanding. Becuase such a project demanded considerable time and effort, it didn't happen, so now it's in WotC's hands.
2. I am not going to try to do critical comparative anayyses here or in any chat. That's a task that demands much careful thinking and effort. The only thing I can say about the matter is this: Play the two and judge for yourself. I think that AD&D is a "tighter" game than D&D was, more directed, less free-form. However, that applies mainly to those DMs who followed the book, if you will, as AD&D could be played in the same style as D&D.
3. I feel very strongly that the archetype is crucial to the D&D game, and yes, I believe that 3E has suffered by virtually abandoning that concept. Without it I don't think the game will maintain so strong an appeal as it originally possessed. Time will tell.
4. The drow was strictly an invented NPC. None of my players ever showed much interest in playing drow. Of course, with well-established PCs going before the drow were introduced, that's likely a principal reason for such lack of interest.
As for the sequel to NECROPOLIS, as I mentioned before, it's in the hands of the gods. I need to be able to open some MAc+ files, find the maps I made around 1994 for a potential CRPG, then see how much work is involved in changing the adventure from a computer base to a paper one.
Gary
