GregoryOatmeal
First Post
This started as another rant about why WOTC should reprint 3.5 but forked into a related train of thought.
I'm edition-fatigued. We all play the same game with about a 1% difference between the editions/spinoffs/clones in what the actual game is. Those small variations on what is essentially the same thing create huge logistical barriers to actually playing the damn game. For example I meet Jim. Jim seems like a cool guy and I'd love to have him play in my 3.5 game but first he needs to go spend $40 on a used 3.5 PHB because he lost his old one and bought a $50 PF corebook that's essentially the same minus some very small tweaks. If Jim is a normal person keeping track of those minor variations in rules would make his head spin, as they're buried amongst two-hundred pages of rules. With 4E and PF this has gotten remarkably bad. Back in the day you just said "2E" or "3E" and people showed up and knew what to do.
Only roleplaying gamers would tolerate so many constant changes in a hobby. Try modifying the rules of Monopoly (Monopoly 2012) or Football (Advanced Football). Make Monopoly players role 3d6 on a pentagon-shaped board or insist football fields be 150 yards - see how people take it. People spend so much time learning a game and they just shut down. This is why in my twenties I have so much trouble playing D&D with my group as a teenager. "Oh, they changed the rules again? I have to buy a new book? What's wrong with my 3.0 book?". As a teenager it was the same getting them to switch from 2E to 3E, and it'll get much worse as work and family eat more time in my thirties and forties. I understand the profit motive to print new books, but what tends to happen is the game just doesn't get played. Older gamers are rare and drop out of the hobby or stick to one edition and give their money to used book stores when their books break or they want additional splat books.
I want to play the same D&D when I'm sixty. In 2045 I want to play it with my sister, uncle, future unborn nephew, and my oldest friend, all of whom haven't played the game in 1d4 decades. That's what D&D is. The differences between 3E/4E/PF are only significant if they keep us from enjoying the game together. I want everyone to have one common PHB and edition so we can all just sit down and play. Like Monopoly I want them to pick it up and play because they know the rules. If you change editions every four to ten years this becomes impossible because everyone's operating on different rules and resources. This is why people don't stick with D&D. This is a big reason D&D is a niche hobby primarily associated with young people with lots of time. And you get old and play Scrabble with your kids and family and old friends.
I'm not saying the game should be a stale board game. At it's essence D&D is a vehicle for creativity and improvisation. That game, a standard-issue roleplaying game, should be on sale for decades like Monopoly. It would still be D&D - where you can make up anything you want and spend $800 on new third party splat books and homerule to hell, it would just have a single solid foundation that everyone knows. People would learn the rules and roleplay together and maybe, by some chance reunion, pick up exactly where they left off thirty years later.
That's what I want. I know, I'm dreaming...
I'm edition-fatigued. We all play the same game with about a 1% difference between the editions/spinoffs/clones in what the actual game is. Those small variations on what is essentially the same thing create huge logistical barriers to actually playing the damn game. For example I meet Jim. Jim seems like a cool guy and I'd love to have him play in my 3.5 game but first he needs to go spend $40 on a used 3.5 PHB because he lost his old one and bought a $50 PF corebook that's essentially the same minus some very small tweaks. If Jim is a normal person keeping track of those minor variations in rules would make his head spin, as they're buried amongst two-hundred pages of rules. With 4E and PF this has gotten remarkably bad. Back in the day you just said "2E" or "3E" and people showed up and knew what to do.
Only roleplaying gamers would tolerate so many constant changes in a hobby. Try modifying the rules of Monopoly (Monopoly 2012) or Football (Advanced Football). Make Monopoly players role 3d6 on a pentagon-shaped board or insist football fields be 150 yards - see how people take it. People spend so much time learning a game and they just shut down. This is why in my twenties I have so much trouble playing D&D with my group as a teenager. "Oh, they changed the rules again? I have to buy a new book? What's wrong with my 3.0 book?". As a teenager it was the same getting them to switch from 2E to 3E, and it'll get much worse as work and family eat more time in my thirties and forties. I understand the profit motive to print new books, but what tends to happen is the game just doesn't get played. Older gamers are rare and drop out of the hobby or stick to one edition and give their money to used book stores when their books break or they want additional splat books.
I want to play the same D&D when I'm sixty. In 2045 I want to play it with my sister, uncle, future unborn nephew, and my oldest friend, all of whom haven't played the game in 1d4 decades. That's what D&D is. The differences between 3E/4E/PF are only significant if they keep us from enjoying the game together. I want everyone to have one common PHB and edition so we can all just sit down and play. Like Monopoly I want them to pick it up and play because they know the rules. If you change editions every four to ten years this becomes impossible because everyone's operating on different rules and resources. This is why people don't stick with D&D. This is a big reason D&D is a niche hobby primarily associated with young people with lots of time. And you get old and play Scrabble with your kids and family and old friends.
I'm not saying the game should be a stale board game. At it's essence D&D is a vehicle for creativity and improvisation. That game, a standard-issue roleplaying game, should be on sale for decades like Monopoly. It would still be D&D - where you can make up anything you want and spend $800 on new third party splat books and homerule to hell, it would just have a single solid foundation that everyone knows. People would learn the rules and roleplay together and maybe, by some chance reunion, pick up exactly where they left off thirty years later.
That's what I want. I know, I'm dreaming...
