billd91 said:The designers of 3E have explicity stated that they expected the PCs to have a certain amount of gear to be up to snuff when dealing with CRs of their own level. There is no such statement about 1st edition.
WayneLigon said:They didn't expect you to have X GP worth of stuff, but Stuff certainly was expected and accounted for: many, many creatures you meet after, oh, sixth-seventh level or so require you to have a magic weapon of a certain 'plus' to be able to even damage them. You could say it's a de facto expectation that after X level you were expected to have a weapon of N plus.
Most definitely - I am in complete agreement. Whether they were consciously designed to be that way by Gygax & Co or just made up in a drunken stupor at 3 AM cca. 1972, hit points, Vancian magic, classes, levels, saving throws and a lot of the other "sacred cows" work very well in a game. Although there is always room for mechanical improvement (as demonstrated by 3e, flaws and all), some concepts just work. They aren't obsolote junk, they are time-proven examples of good game design.Psion said:The assignment of the term "sacred cow" carries the assessment that the thing to be "sacrificed" is uneccessary, undesirable, or outdated.
I don't share the self-loathing and guilt that somehow empowered the notion that in any way are many of the things that are being labeled "sacred cows" are in any way outmoded gaming based on a minority view of the hobby. Indeed, many of these supposed "holdbacks" have been proven to be sorely missed aspects by those who have played other systems (frex, I hear how lack of hp, which is a "sacred cow" per the OP/poll, is a big stumbling block for people's enjoyment of playing True20.)
Technomancer said:Not that I agree that D&D does real sword and sorcery well, but to be fair, the start of the first book may be the beginning of the story, but it is by no means the beginning of Elric's career. He is already mid to high level (in D&D terms) when the story begins.
JoeGKushner said:Any book that has three core books each some odd 300+ pages is hardly what I would consider simple.
Any book that has a monthly FAQ session in it's official magazine is hardly what I'd call clear.
Any book that has a class so complicated that they have to make a stupidifed version of it (sorcerer vs wizard), is not easy to learn.
Just my opinion mind you.
Heh, the very thought that I had upon seeing the title of this thread. Much like the proposed 4th edition RuneQuest by Avalon Hill was not going to be RuneQuest, just some game that happened to have the same title.Mouseferatu said:To be D&D, the game must have classes and it must have levels. There may be other sacred cows I'd insist on keeping, but those are the two that spring to mind. While it would be tricky, I think you could still make it D&D without hit points or the current AC system.
I'm not saying you couldn't have a perfectly good fantasy RPG without classes and levels. It just wouldn't be D&D.