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<blockquote data-quote="firesnakearies" data-source="post: 4551132" data-attributes="member: 71334"><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>1st Edition AD&D and earlier:</strong> No <em>Dark Sun</em> yet, so campaign settings were weaksauce.</p><p></p><p><strong>2nd Edition AD&D:</strong> Foolishly wasted time and resources printing supplements for any setting OTHER than <em>Dark Sun</em>.</p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>3rd Edition D&D: </strong> Would have been really awesome . . . but they neglected <em>Dark Sun</em>!</p><p></p><p><strong>4th Edition D&D:</strong> Seems great so far, but we'll see whether or not they've come to their senses about the best campaign setting ever . . . <strong><em>Dark Sun</em></strong>!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Seriously though, the pre-<strong>3E</strong> versions of the game had two <em>glaring</em> problems in my eyes. One was a great deal of meaningless and annoying restrictions on basic character creation choices, like which races could be which classes, excessively strict alignment straitjackets, <em>level caps</em> for demihumans, and things like that. The other was the inexplicable variety of wildly different (and often counterintuitive) mechanical rules systems for various aspects of the game, rather than the elegant uniformity of <strong>D20</strong> and <strong>4E</strong>.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>3rd Edition</strong>, though, was (potentially) a total nightmare of powergaming absurdity, due (to a lesser degree) to <em>billions</em> of classes with very modular abilities which could all be mixed and matched in silly ways to create these ridiculous ultra-hybrid "characters" with obscene combinations of capabilities and no unifying concept whatsoever. </p><p></p><p>Worse than that, though, was the fact that magic items were <em>vastly</em> over-important. Or at least, they very easily <em>could</em> be. At high levels, it mattered much less what your character could actually <em>do</em>, and much more what you had on your gear list. Infinite wands/scrolls/potions (especially healing and the ten thousand buffs!) just made the game a mess. It wasn't about how much an adventure <em>challenged the characters</em>, but just about how much <em>money they had to spend</em> to win.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>4th Edition</strong> makes me happy. They <em>might </em>have gone slightly too far in the opposite direction in addressing a couple of the issues I raised with <strong>3E</strong>, though. Namely, going from near-totally unrestricted multiclassing freedom to what seems to be a rather extremely withered functionality in that area, AND going from effectively<em> unlimited</em> healing per day to a very concrete and unavoidable hard limit which can essentially FORCE a party to stop/rest/retreat/go back to town in mid-adventure.</p><p></p><p>But I love the new edition! It's my favorite so far, and I don't think it really has any <em>serious</em> weaknesses to worry about. I think that the current crop of R&D folks working on my favorite game are probably the most talented to date, and I have <em>great</em> hopes for the future of <strong>4E</strong>.</p><p></p><p></p><p>$</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="firesnakearies, post: 4551132, member: 71334"] [B] 1st Edition AD&D and earlier:[/B] No [I]Dark Sun[/I] yet, so campaign settings were weaksauce. [B]2nd Edition AD&D:[/B] Foolishly wasted time and resources printing supplements for any setting OTHER than [I]Dark Sun[/I]. [B] 3rd Edition D&D: [/B] Would have been really awesome . . . but they neglected [I]Dark Sun[/I]! [B]4th Edition D&D:[/B] Seems great so far, but we'll see whether or not they've come to their senses about the best campaign setting ever . . . [B][I]Dark Sun[/I][/B]! Seriously though, the pre-[B]3E[/B] versions of the game had two [I]glaring[/I] problems in my eyes. One was a great deal of meaningless and annoying restrictions on basic character creation choices, like which races could be which classes, excessively strict alignment straitjackets, [I]level caps[/I] for demihumans, and things like that. The other was the inexplicable variety of wildly different (and often counterintuitive) mechanical rules systems for various aspects of the game, rather than the elegant uniformity of [B]D20[/B] and [B]4E[/B]. [B]3rd Edition[/B], though, was (potentially) a total nightmare of powergaming absurdity, due (to a lesser degree) to [I]billions[/I] of classes with very modular abilities which could all be mixed and matched in silly ways to create these ridiculous ultra-hybrid "characters" with obscene combinations of capabilities and no unifying concept whatsoever. Worse than that, though, was the fact that magic items were [I]vastly[/I] over-important. Or at least, they very easily [I]could[/I] be. At high levels, it mattered much less what your character could actually [I]do[/I], and much more what you had on your gear list. Infinite wands/scrolls/potions (especially healing and the ten thousand buffs!) just made the game a mess. It wasn't about how much an adventure [I]challenged the characters[/I], but just about how much [I]money they had to spend[/I] to win. [B]4th Edition[/B] makes me happy. They [I]might [/I]have gone slightly too far in the opposite direction in addressing a couple of the issues I raised with [B]3E[/B], though. Namely, going from near-totally unrestricted multiclassing freedom to what seems to be a rather extremely withered functionality in that area, AND going from effectively[I] unlimited[/I] healing per day to a very concrete and unavoidable hard limit which can essentially FORCE a party to stop/rest/retreat/go back to town in mid-adventure. But I love the new edition! It's my favorite so far, and I don't think it really has any [I]serious[/I] weaknesses to worry about. I think that the current crop of R&D folks working on my favorite game are probably the most talented to date, and I have [I]great[/I] hopes for the future of [B]4E[/B]. $ [/QUOTE]
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