An opinion on PDF's from a new RPG player who has only played for 4 months

[Odysseus]

I totatly see where funkytable is coming from.
The only reason I get to play any F2F DnD is the players come to my house. Otherwise it would be online DnD or nothing. And if I was just four months into it, and wizards yanked my source of books, i'd feel pretty miffed.

 

[funkytable]

Who cares if they have the newest books? You can have lots of fun with the core books or the books you already have. 3E had the same problem with the splatbooks arms race, even more if you consider the many books from 3rd Party Publishers that are made possible through the OGL. The result was that most DMs limit the available sourcebooks for a campaign to a handful.



Why not try one of the older editions of D&D. 3E is OGL which means that the core (SRD) will always be available to you online and there are many many other sources of support. Have you tried Ravenloft yet? RL games tend to favour the story telling aspect over the combats. I've seen some great PbP games for it. Check out the www.fraternityofshadows.com/forums for some examples.

And then there are tons of other RPG systems. (Though i think 3E has the most PbPs available).

In short I see no reason to leave RPG gaming, try out some other systems first!

Thanks for mentioning Ravenloft, I will for sure check that out.

I may try 3e, we'll see.

 

[ExploderWizard]

But anyway, my favorite times in DND so far is the non combat player interaction.

Yes. This is great stuff. Its even better live.

So the F2F thing doesn't sound like as much fun, because that aspect of the game would have to be done on an improv level. You couldn't think about what your PC would do for a bit before typing it up. You can't edit it after you say it. It sounds completley different to me. Plus I am really bad at thinking on my feet, so I would probably constantly think "Oh I should have said that" after I left a session.

The improv part it what makes the game worth playing for me. Sitting at the table with friends, the dialogue flowing naturally because you can pick up on visual and spoken clues from other players. Those moments when you put your foot in your mouth in a spectacular fashion are moments of gaming GOLD that I wouldn't trade for anything. These shared moments live on in memory way beyond the session and provide great story material for years to come. Its the difference between witnessing a great moment instead of merely reading about it.

I suggest giving FTF games a try before dismissing them. At this point you really don't know what you're missing.

 

[Krensky]

Well, the family man thing is really only a portion of the story. More than that is the fact that I enjoy creative writing. That's what appealed to me so much about the game. It was a good way to have an excuse to do some creative writing on a regular basis.

That being said, that was only my initial interest. I've learned that 90% of the creative writing in DND is highly structured. More specifically, it's combat descriptions, combat descriptions, and more combat descriptions. I'm playing Scepter Tower of Spellgard which is pretty much straight up dungeon delve. Perhaps other games are not so encounter focused? Suggestions please?

To some degree, this is more a matter of group then system, but I don't think anyone would dispute that some systems are more likely scratch this itch for you then others. However, D&D of any version can be played much more focused on narration and non-combat focused then this.

If creative writing is your thing, I think you may find something by White Wolf, or a narrative focused "Indie" game might be more what you're looking for.

 

[Bagpuss]

I've heard you can keep some of it, I will look into this more if something comes out that I'm interested in.

Yeah you can keep any Dungeon/Dragon issues or articles that you download (at least as long as they continue to use a PDF format), and your character builder continues to work, but doesn't download any new information, or even get bug fixes for information it has.

You lose access to the Compendium (meaning no monster info at all), and bonus tools.

 

[Mistwell]

I PBP only. 15-30 minutes of fun a day is wonderful though.

No offense at all intended, but I suspect you've chosen the wrong game if your intent was always to use it in 15 to 30 minute intervals. It's not intended to function well for such short term use. There are lots of games that do function for such intervals, but this isn't one of them.

And, if the message you are trying to send is that you are somehow representative of a class of players who WOTC will lose as part of their business, I think you are actually sending the opposite message. They are not going after 15 minute a day players, and your playing habits were not and will likely never be an attractive playing segment for them.

It's like you're an 80 year old who just wrote to MTV that MTV is losing your business. It would, at best, elicit a shrug and a curiosity as to how that 80 year found himself watching the teen to 20-something MTV channel in the first place. Or, to bring it back to your example, how a 15-30 minute a session computer player found himself with a 4 hour a session pen and paper role playing game.

 

[Mistwell]

Well, the family man thing is really only a portion of the story. More than that is the fact that I enjoy creative writing. That's what appealed to me so much about the game. It was a good way to have an excuse to do some creative writing on a regular basis.

That being said, that was only my initial interest. I've learned that 90% of the creative writing in DND is highly structured. More specifically, it's combat descriptions, combat descriptions, and more combat descriptions. I'm playing Scepter Tower of Spellgard which is pretty much straight up dungeon delve. Perhaps other games are not so encounter focused? Suggestions please?

But anyway, my favorite times in DND so far is the non combat player interaction. I've made a drawing of another player's character in game who described himself as a halfling dressed like an elephant. The drawing, was a picture of Babar. I've barfed on a guy who thought too highly of his physical appearance. I've belched fire and singed the beard of another guy. That stuff is more fun to me than "He swings his axe and lands it right in his spine. The beast screams out, blahdee blah."

This again leads me to believe there are other games out there that are more suited to your gaming preferences. You chose a highly tactical 4-hour a session role playing game that works well face to face, and forced it into a non-tactical 15-30 minute a session computer creative writing game. It's just not built with that kind of gaming in mind, while there are games that are built just for that (I don't play them, so I cannot offer a suggestion, but I bet others around here could).

In fact, why would you even strongly desire more expansion books for the game, given your taste for non-combat situations? While the additional expansion books might foster that kind of thing, I kinda doubt that will be their focus. Most expansion books so far seem to expand on combat.

By the way, I do appreciate the kind of game you are going for, and it sounds like fun. I vaguely recall hearing that Steven Erikson started his "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series based off of a similar type of game (I think that was a first edition D&D game maybe?).