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The Road to 3E

The creation of D&D 3E was a pivotal point in the TTRPG industry, and game designer Jonathan Tweet looks back at its development along with other pivotal elements of his career.

Upcoming D&D

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_{Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants
August 15th}

_{The Practically Complete Guide to Dragons
August 15th}

_{Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk
September 19th}

_{Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
October 16th}

_{The Book of Many Things
November 14th}

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_{Revised Core Rulebooks
(D&D 50th anniversary)}

_{Vecna Storyline}

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_{Red Wizards Storyline}

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EVERWAY Then and Now

Years before I worked on D&D 3rd Ed, Wizards of the Coast hired me not to work on D&D but to...

Feb 10, 2021

#The Road to 3E

Jonathan Tweet: Third Edition and Per-Day Spells

On the Third Edition design team, we were tasked with rationalizing the game system, but there...

Feb 24, 2020

#The Road to 3E

D&D 3E Design: The Unbalanced Cleric

What do you call a D&D cleric who can’t heal? A 1st-level 1970s cleric. The original first-level...

Jan 27, 2020

#The Road to 3E

Diversity in D&D Third Edition

With 3rd Ed, our main goal was to return D&D to its roots, such as with Greyhawk deities and the return of half-orcs. By staying true to the feel of D&D, we helped the gaming audience accept the sweeping changes that we made to the rules system.

Dec 5, 2019

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3E and the Feel of D&D

For 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, the big picture was to return the game to its roots...

Nov 8, 2019

#The Road to 3E

Jonathan Tweet: Streamlining Third Edition

The D&D 3rd Ed project was part big-picture vision and part a collection of individual decisions about rules, terms, and characters. In terms of rules, a lot of what we did amounted to streamlining.

Oct 16, 2019

#The Road to 3E

Jonathan Tweet: Legacy of Ars Magica

Ars Magica had an obscure origin, but it had long-lasting effects. We did a number of...

Oct 2, 2019

#The Road to 3E

Jonathan Tweet: On The Origins of Ars Magica

By the time I started college in 1987, I was a die-hard Chaosium fan, and I taught my new college friends RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu. These friends and I talked a lot about roleplaying games and game design, and we tried to figure out how to create the best possible games.

Sep 9, 2019

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Jonathan Tweet: My Life with the Open Gaming License

In 1978 at age 12, I bought my second roleplaying game, Metamorphosis Alpha (MA) by Jim Ward. That’s the day I became a fan of the Open Gaming License and the d20 logo. Or at least I would have been a fan if someone had gone back in time and told me about them.

Aug 17, 2019

#The Road to 3E

Jonathan Tweet: Prologue to Third Edition

The story of Third Edition D&D starts, perhaps, with Peter Adkison reading 2nd Edition AD&D (1989) and being sorely disappointed. For one thing, he felt the new system left several underlying problems in place, so players didn’t get much benefit from the effort it took to switch to a new system. For another, 2nd Ed stripped away all the charm and character of 1st Ed. No more half-orcs, arcane sigils, monks, or assassins. Demons and devils were renamed to avoid the ire of superstitious parents. The new AD&D was tamed and genericized.