The D&Ds That Never Were

[Ancalagon]

Here's an interesting D&D That Never Was: a version of 3e that was built on what I disparagingly call the "2.8e" books- Skills & Powers, Combat & Tactics, Spells & Magic, and High-Level Campaigns. But to be clear, the thing I am disparaging is exactly what I am postulating to be the central feature of this version of 3e- the extreme customization, with subabilities, modular class building, etc. A version of 3e far more finicky than what we got, with poor attention to balance, but with lots of cool tactical combat rules, and possibly utilizing some form of spell point system. Because of its modularity, we never get a sorcerer, and this 3e doesn't need a separate barbarian class (or ranger or paladin). Instead, the options for building one of the "Big 4" cover almost all your possible options, with druid, monk, and bard as likely additional class chassis.

That's quite a plausible proposition. In fact, I was a bit surprised that did not happen - at least not until I grasped the "unified d20 roll" core of 3.0, and then I understood.

 

[Charlaquin]

My 4.5 or streamlined 4E?

Possibly!

 

[Shiroiken]

In this universe Gygax stays on at TSR past 1985. They use the golden age and manage the company properly and Lorraine Williams never comes on board. Gary seemed open to the idea at least that one day there would be a 2E, 3E etc of D&D.

According to an old Dragon article, Gary was actually part of the early work on 2E. He wanted it to be backwards compatible, so 1E characters could play with 2E characters (especially for ones that didn't make the cut). In another article, he looked a couple of decades into the future of D&D, where he figured a 3rd edition would then begin after a successful run of 2E (with a worldwide player base). I wish I still had those mags, because then I could provide more details...

 

[Zardnaar]

According to an old Dragon article, Gary was actually part of the early work on 2E. He wanted it to be backwards compatible, so 1E characters could play with 2E characters (especially for ones that didn't make the cut). In another article, he looked a couple of decades into the future of D&D, where he figured a 3rd edition would then begin after a successful run of 2E (with a worldwide player base). I wish I still had those mags, because then I could provide more details...

What year roughly I can look it up.

 

[Greg Benage]

There's an alternate version of OD&D that features a freeform magic system based on the spell complexity rules in Chainmail (complete with immediate, delayed, and negated casting results). In this reality, magic remains as freeform as other character abilities in the early game.

Likewise, there's an alternate version of OD&D that slightly better develops the freeform class-based adventuring rules so that we never get abominations such as thief classes and skill systems tacked on.

 

[Shiroiken]

What year roughly I can look it up.

I wish I knew. Pretty sure it was before Gary was ousted, but I know he did a little bit of work afterwards (very little). It might have been the summer right before, which would have been 85? I'm pulling this from my old man memories, so...

 

[Krachek]

What if the actual 5ed have been release in place of the 4ed?
4ed produce a clash, but was it necessary to produce the 5ed?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[muppetmuppet]

I want a world where people liked 4th edition, especially my players. They hated it so much. We now play 5th edition but I tend to use some 4th ed adventures from time to time, the NPC's and humanoid spellcasting monsters are so much easier to run.

 

[DND_Reborn]

You know I read about a lot of people not likely Unearthed Arcana. I loved it and all the things it added to the game. Worked flawlessly in our group, but of course preferences differ.

Dangerous Journeys was crazy. We used to joke that BECMI was EGG's Bachelor's Degree, AD&D was his Master's, and DJ was his Doctorate in game design (i.e. in levels of complexity that is). We only played DJ for one summer. Loved some of the ideas, but way too much over-complicated rules, etc.