D&D 3E/3.5 New to gaming - Should I wait for 4E or should buy the 3E Core Rules?

[CanadienneBacon]

Just joining several of the voices who said to wait for 4E's release June 2008. Assuming your money situation won't permit buying used 3.5 books now and then new 4E books in 8 months, that is. If you can afford to ebay a few 3.5 books now and then fork out cash again in June for new 4E books, that's what I'd do. You'll have a much easier time finding players and a group to game with if you wait for the new edition to come out next summer.

Regarding having a look at the 2E books, sure. Wonderful stuff, own a bunch myself that I still use. If I were new to the game, though, I might be tempted to go with the current edition and learn those rules first before getting my head all confuddled with other rules from what is, essentially, a while other game. If you're clever about compartmentalizing information, however, it shouldn't be a problem for you.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Thanks for all the advice. One more q:

My cousin told me I could borrow some of his 2E books, should I even bother looking at them?

The rules? I probably wouldn't bother. Rules-wise AD&D is just *nasty* IMO, and that goes for both 1e and 2e. A mess of kludges, setting-specific limitations masquerading as mechanics, early and not terribly well-conceived game design, opaque (1e) or listless (2e) prose, and, often, arbitrary distinctions between DM and player information that make the game more cumbersome for both. 2e especially suffered from seemingly wanting to encourage a kind of play that the D&D rules were never suited to. Reading those rules would actually make it harder to play other RPGs, including 3e and (presumably) 4e.

The setting and background material? Absolutely. AD&D 2e had some of the most creative and compelling settings ever produced, for gaming or otherwise, a lot of lovely and evocative artwork, and a great sense of flare and drama.

As I and others have said, your best bet if you want to play Dungeons and Dragons specifically, rather than tabletop RPGs in general, is to get a copy of "Basic" D&D (you'll see this called at turns "Basic," "BECMI (Basic/Expert/Champion/Master/Immortal, the five sets comprising the original release of this version)," "RC (Rules Cyclopaedia, a compilation of the previous five)" or "MoldvayMentzer/Cook (the authors responsible for editions of this version)" D&D. It's an excellent, easy to learn game and fairly cheap and widely available, and free of most of the worst of AD&D's problems.

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

If you are new to roleplaying games I would not recommend AD&D in any form. I unfortunately started with 1e and then 2e and it just complicated things for me. Luckily I had other RPG experience so I was not completely scarred. 3e was a vast improvement to D&D as a game system IMHO. I wish I had started D&D with one of the earlier editions like Rules Cyclopedia which is an amazing product!

My biggest suggestion to you is to concentrate more on finding yourself a good group of people to play with, this is key. The RPG hobby is a social experience, the rules are secondary. Not to say a good rule set can’t help with it (and it will); it is the people who will make or break it for you.

 

[DaveMage]

My biggest suggestion to you is to concentrate more on finding yourself a good group of people to play with, this is key. The RPG hobby is a social experience, the rules are secondary. Not to say a good rule set can’t help with it (and it will); it is the people who will make or break it for you.

I agree - this is very good advice.

 

[Geoffrey]

Seriously: buy this for $4.00 (or, if you prefer hardcopy, you should be able to get one off of ebay or amazon for $10 or less). This edition is easy to understand for players and DMs alike, and by the time you've exhausted its possibilities 4E will be released and you can either move on to it or to one of these: Expert Set, Rules Cyclopedia. Much better idea than either trying to teach yourself to play via the SRD or dropping $90 on a set of books that will be obsolete in 6 months (or waiting 6 months to start playing).

A similar suggestion is this FREE PDF, which has rules virtually identical to those recommended by T. Foster: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=29547&it=1

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

There is one more thing I wanted to add to what I stated before. That is safety. When you are trying to find a gaming group to play with you need to be very careful. Unfortunately there are those bad eggs out there that frankly give the rest of us a bad reputation. I have had my share of bad experiences since I started playing RPGs. Here are my suggestions:

1) Try to find any groups or clubs in your school or college. If not, see if there are any local
Community clubs as well.

2) Check your local game store. A lot of times there will be adds on a bulletin board somewhere.

3) Be very VERY careful answering or posting “looking for/gamers wanted” ads on the internet. There are some good sites like ENWORLD out there where the Community is for the most part very good, but remember… This is teh Internets…

4) ALWAYS try to meet the majority of the group in a safe neutral environment like a Game store or my favorite a restaurant before the game starts. This way you can meet and greet and if the need warrants you can easily flee or call for help if it goes bad… I prefer restaurants because its casual, you can sit and talk and get to know everyone a little. For me table manners are important. If I cant stand eating a meal in the presence of someone for 30 minutes to an hour… How am I going to be able to spend 4-6 hours gaming with them? It might seem a little petty of me but that’s how I am. My sister eats like a horse and I can’t eat meals with her…. Doesn’t mean I don’t love my sister, just… *shudders* She eats like a horse!

 

[TerraDave]

Kida: there are rules, and then there is how to play. These aren't the same thing. The SRD gots bunches of rules, but does not really tell you how to play.

The advantage of T.Fosters links is that it will give you an idea of how to play, while being light on the rules (though I think even there their are some slightly confusing things, but nothing compared to other editions).

Once you have looked at that stuff, maybe played with some other people (and whatever doesn't matter as much as the general experience), then you will be in a better position to evaluate/play/reject 4th ed when it comes out. (Though you are certainly part of its target audience).

T. Foster: I am really fighting off not buying those myself and blowing off the rest of the afternoon. $4 dollar pdfs, for the rules cyclopedia or an entire box set, that I can read at work, this is like crack.

 

[Kesh]

I seem to think that exerting a power mentally is different than maipulating arcane energies to produce a desired effect.

Threadjack:

Not really. I've always viewed it as a trifecta: Wizards use arcane formulae and symbolism to force mana to obey them. Clerics call upon the favor of their god/faith to shape mana into the form they request. Psions use their sheer willpower to mold and flow mana into their desired outcome.

I was working on a project to modify the SRD psionics rules into a more fantasy-themed set, but I put that aside when 4e was announced. Still, it's not difficult to create a more fantastic interpretation of psionics. I chose a new name (Mysticism) and went with the "force of will" explanation for performing magic. It's very flexible though, and can be used for other themes: calling upon dark powers, animism, chaos magic (using the Wilder class as a base), etc.

 

[Mistwell]

Buy the 3.5 Player's Handbook on eBay. You can probably get it for $12 or less.

 

[Stormrunner]

Also (heresy, I know) don't necessarily focus totally on D&D. There are a LOT of game systems out there, in a lot of genres - fantasy, space, superheroes, cyberpunk, horror - and as a newbie you haven't sunk oodles of time, sweat, and money into any one system yet, so you're free to choose: you're probably more flexible now than you'll ever be again.

Go to your Friendly Local Game Store (usually abbreviated FLGS on the boards) and give a cursory skim through any game that looks vaguely interesting. If it sounds like it would in fact be interesting to you, make a note of the name. Between now and June, try out some of the systems that sounded interesting by finding groups that are playing them and asking if you can "sit in" and observe a session. Explain that you're new to gaming and are trying to find out what sort of games you like. If they won't let you sit in, they probably wouldn't let you join permanently either, so no big loss. Perhaps the DM will let you run a minor NPC (one who's doomed to die this session or otherwise doesn't majorly impact the PCs - that way if you don't come back the DM doesn't have to do a lot of work explaining your character's sudden disappearance). NPCs usually have a much smaller/simpler set of powers/spells/gear than a standard PC, so it's easier for you to keep track of.

My rule of thumb is try anything twice - if you didn't like a game the first time (or even if you did), try it a second time - with a totally different gaming group. A good or bad DM can make or break many games - this seems to be especially true of "diceless" games like Amber or comedy-based games like Toon or Paranoia. Maybe it wasn' the game system that sucked, but the way it was being played.