Who still plays Basic D&D?

[SHARK]

Greetings!

WSMITH, my friend, hang in there! I really encourage you not to let bad players ruin *your* enjoyment of the game. I'd love to have you play with us, and you are welcome to come visit us should you be able WSMITH! Friends are always welcome at my house.

As I mentioned, I don't have bad players, or even players that are irritating. I smilingly joke with them (But they know I'm serious! ) about I'm the DM, there are things that I know, and that I'm doing for whatever reasons that they don't know, or don't understand, and that's just the way it is. I don't care what rule X says on page 128. You know? I mean, I really do care, but if I forget about it exactly, or have some other campaign-reason why X doesn't apply, I shouldn't be catching a lot of flak from the players, you know? It's a GAME--and the idea is to have fun. What do you think?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Larcen]

Could you explain what Basic D&D offers that a stripped-down 3E wouldn't offer? From what I can see, the main "negative" of 3E is that it overwhelms you with choices. You can always take 'em away.

I just started reading this long thread so I hope what I am about to say is not old news by now...

Sure, you can pick at 3E, but once you do you better be prepared for the consequences. If you drop a single rule element, you may find a snowball effect as the whole balance of the game starts to unravel. Want an example? Ok, here's one:

Let's just say that to simply things, the DM wants to drop the Feats system. That's all fine and dandy until all the fighters start to realize that Feats were THEIR bread and butter, and claim to fame, over rangers and barbarians.

So what do you do? Maybe you can give fighters other advantages instead? But now you have starting down a long road, believe me.

So bottom line is, you either have to play 3E as is, or be prepared to play it unbalanced or unrecognizable. M2C.

 

[mmadsen]

If you drop a single rule element, you may find a snowball effect as the whole balance of the game starts to unravel....Let's just say that to simply things, the DM wants to drop the Feats system.

Dropping Feats entirely is hardly a minor change; of course it has consequences. Reasonable changes -- particularly if you want a Basic D&D feel -- might be dropping most of the classes or restricting races to particular classes, etc.

 

[mmadsen]

Sure, you can pick at 3E, but once you do you better be prepared for the consequences. If you drop a single rule element, you may find a snowball effect as the whole balance of the game starts to unravel. Want an example?

A good example of a change back toward Basic D&D that might have unforeseen consequences would be removing Attacks of Opportunity and the whole miniature-wargaming style of 3E (that oddly harks back to early D&D).

Really though, you take away the counters, and the DM rules that you can't run past the Orcs to the evil Wizard and that the Orcs with Longspears get first attack. Is that so bad?

 

[BeholderBurger]

yeah it is

 

[Numion]

Sure, you can pick at 3E, but once you do you better be prepared for the consequences. If you drop a single rule element, you may find a snowball effect as the whole balance of the game starts to unravel.

But since OD&D didn't have much balance in the first place, what's wrong with that?

 

[WSmith]

But since OD&D didn't have much balance in the first place, what's wrong with that?

I am not sure what exactly you mean. It didn't have balance, in that several hundred playtesters didn't playtest the kinks out of it and crunch the numbers to make sure all rules fit nicely like a finished puzzle, (which is a very good thing mind you when trying to create the "best RPG"). However, it was a playable and fun game for 20 some odd years. Plus not being "balanced" is one of its benefits. If you omit something in 3rd ed., it needs to be compensated for some other way to keep it balaced. Do away with feats and you will need to give the fighter something else. Do away with AoOs and you have cheapend the creatures with natural reach like the ogre.