Is it still D&D?

[cougent]

OK, I am not trying to start a big bruhaha here, just postulating.

I started playing AD&D in 1981. I played for years, then took a break and played other stuff during the 2E decade. Not out of disdain or anything, just somehow got sidetracked and didn't make it back until *tada* 3E came out in 2000. Where i rejoined the D&D community, but even then I felt like it was different.

"This is not the D&D I remember"

I adapted, I got used to 3E, the stuff I liked and disliked, and I accepted that *it* was D&D.

However, now I am again feeling that strange "not quite right" sensation that I felt back in 2000. I actually like most of what I am hearing about 4E, but it just doesn't "feel" like D&D to me. It feels like a potentially cool NEW game. Whether I personally call it WD&D (WotC D&D) or whatever, just doing that makes it very much more palatable to me... just think of it it as a different game, not my treasured D&D, or my even fonder AD&D. OK that may be extremely lame to many of you, but with all the massive changes that are being discussed you have to agree it is not the same game, just the same name.

Which brings up my next personal dilemma: If I am switching to a NEW game, which new game do I switch to? WD&D, or any of the myriad of other ones out there that I have not yet tried, but that is another topic.

 

[DragonLancer]

Original, 1st, 2nd and 3rd ed all work for me as D&D fine. From what I've read about 4E, thats not D&D anymore.

 

[Crothian]

Nothing out now not even the same game of D&D you started with will be the D&D you remember. I wouldn't chase down a phantom of your past you'll never catch and learn to enjoy the current games for what they are.

 

[Nikosandros]

To me 3rd edition is a game that, although similar to AD&D and closer to it than any other game from another company, is a different game. This has not, for me, a negative connotation... it's a game that I enjoy and play.

I think that 4e will move even further from the old versions of D&D and thus it will be even more of a different game... and I have no problems with that. I will soon start a new AD&D game, so I have no difficulty in fulfilling my desire to play the old D&D.

When 4e will come out, I'll buy it and play it. It sounds like a very exciting game.

 

[Wormwood]

I expect that once again you'll adapt, get used to 4e, the stuff you like and dislike, and accept that it *is* D&D.

If not, rather than stick with the 3e you merely 'accept', why don't you try AD&D (or OSCIRC or C&C or whatever they are calling it these days) again, as you appear to really have some love for that system?

My brother-in-law plays red-box Basic with his family, for example.

 

[Psion]

I expect that once again you'll adapt, get used to 4e, the stuff you like and dislike, and accept that it *is* D&D.

Or not. Plenty of people still play 1e. A few still play (coff) OD&D.

 

[Aries_Omega]

Personally I am going to hold out on 4E for a bit and see how it develops. I went through the various stages of OD&D, 1E, 2E, 3E and 3.5 E...each time converting the homebrew campaign setting with a dwindling house rules book with each iteration. I kinda like some of the new tools...HATE not having a good ol' dead tree, print version of Dragon or Dungeon but do like the online tools. Anyways my group is not going 4E for a bit.

 

[Desdichado]

Nothing out now not even the same game of D&D you started with will be the D&D you remember. I wouldn't chase down a phantom of your past you'll never catch and learn to enjoy the current games for what they are.

Ditto. If the rules change so much that you can't call it "D&D" anymore, and calling it D&D is important to you, then don't upgrade, or something. I don't see how it matters.

I've played a lot of games that aren't D&D, and honestly, I don't agree with you at all, though. Every edition of D&D so far as been so much like "D&D" compared to the rest of the rpg market, that to say "this isn't D&D anymore" seems like a faintly absurd claim to make.

And maybe I'm different than most in another way too: AD&D and other older editions are hardly "beloved" to me; I joined up because I thought the idea of RPGs was really cool, but I left D&D because I thought the system was lousy.

 

[Flynn]

Or not. Plenty of people still play 1e. A few still play (coff) OD&D.

Yeah, but if you don't already like OD&D, it's harder to jump on that bandwagon...

Just A Thought,
Flynn

 

[smootrk]

I don't even think 3.x was even really D&D, much less the things I hear about 4e.

They (WotC/Hasbro) have the legal rights to the name "Dungeons & Dragons", but the game produced (currently & upcoming) is not D&D as I see it. It is a game similar to the old game, and in all fairness, it is still enjoyable to many extents by myself... but it is not the D&D game that was envisioned by creators and early players of the game.

D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, etc. are all copyrighted trademarks bought and sold, and applied to whatever content the current owners feel like applying the TMs to. Doesn't make it the true inheritor of the original game though.