Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
4th to 5th Edition Converters - What has been your experience?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Nemesis Destiny" data-source="post: 6886125" data-attributes="member: 98255"><p>I think this is where you'd have to try and logic your way through it. It seemed that the parting blows were considered "freebies" in that it didn't count against the normal attacks/round economy, but maybe that is just how we played it.</p><p></p><p>This was maybe just something we allowed as part of the 'rulings instead of rules' before it was cool. Does that make us AD&Ders the hipsters of the brand? I'm not sure, haha.</p><p></p><p>Yes, there was a great deal of wiggle room and inconsistency back in those days. Back then, unless we were having an epic battle, we exclusively used TotM and this occasionally led to some table arguments about peoples' differing perceptions of just what was *actually* happening. That's when the graph paper would come out.</p><p></p><p>This is certainly part of why I had so many bad experiences playing in other peoples' games during the AD&D era; the style of game makes heavy reliance on DM judgement calls, and if you have an Emperor or Viking-hat DM, sorry about your luck, but the fun of game will largely be in spite of them, certainly not because of them. Despite what it says in the books about "rules-lawyering" being a Bad Thing, sometimes the only way to ensure the rules were being applied fairly was to become a rules lawyer.</p><p></p><p>Needless to say, I have had plenty of <em>those</em> DMs in my time, and the only way I could ensure what I considered a "fair" game, was to run it myself. Thank goodness I crossed paths with my future wife and ended up in her game, or I would have given up on D&D completely!</p><p></p><p>This is why, at first glance, the steps 3E took to codify everything and remove ambiguity seemed to be, and in many ways was, an improvement. By this time I'd mostly stopped playing with what I'd call Bad DMs, so I can't 100% compare apples to apples, and it also had the unfortunate side effect of making rules mastery the go-to path to Win, on both sides of the screen. That, and playing the DM, rather than the rules.</p><p></p><p>That's what made 4e such a breath of fresh air for me, even if there are other things I didn't like about it. It's also one of the things that makes me cringe when I hear that 5e is going back to the older style of DM-as-God. I always hated playing the "mother-may-I" game, knowing that I'd more than likely get shot down (such is the way with the Emperors). I mean, that aspect likely won't impact my game much if I ever do play 5e, since my group is fairly stable and we get along well, but I hate to think of all those new players that will be having a bad time of it because of crappy DMing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nemesis Destiny, post: 6886125, member: 98255"] I think this is where you'd have to try and logic your way through it. It seemed that the parting blows were considered "freebies" in that it didn't count against the normal attacks/round economy, but maybe that is just how we played it. This was maybe just something we allowed as part of the 'rulings instead of rules' before it was cool. Does that make us AD&Ders the hipsters of the brand? I'm not sure, haha. Yes, there was a great deal of wiggle room and inconsistency back in those days. Back then, unless we were having an epic battle, we exclusively used TotM and this occasionally led to some table arguments about peoples' differing perceptions of just what was *actually* happening. That's when the graph paper would come out. This is certainly part of why I had so many bad experiences playing in other peoples' games during the AD&D era; the style of game makes heavy reliance on DM judgement calls, and if you have an Emperor or Viking-hat DM, sorry about your luck, but the fun of game will largely be in spite of them, certainly not because of them. Despite what it says in the books about "rules-lawyering" being a Bad Thing, sometimes the only way to ensure the rules were being applied fairly was to become a rules lawyer. Needless to say, I have had plenty of [I]those[/I] DMs in my time, and the only way I could ensure what I considered a "fair" game, was to run it myself. Thank goodness I crossed paths with my future wife and ended up in her game, or I would have given up on D&D completely! This is why, at first glance, the steps 3E took to codify everything and remove ambiguity seemed to be, and in many ways was, an improvement. By this time I'd mostly stopped playing with what I'd call Bad DMs, so I can't 100% compare apples to apples, and it also had the unfortunate side effect of making rules mastery the go-to path to Win, on both sides of the screen. That, and playing the DM, rather than the rules. That's what made 4e such a breath of fresh air for me, even if there are other things I didn't like about it. It's also one of the things that makes me cringe when I hear that 5e is going back to the older style of DM-as-God. I always hated playing the "mother-may-I" game, knowing that I'd more than likely get shot down (such is the way with the Emperors). I mean, that aspect likely won't impact my game much if I ever do play 5e, since my group is fairly stable and we get along well, but I hate to think of all those new players that will be having a bad time of it because of crappy DMing. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
4th to 5th Edition Converters - What has been your experience?
Top