innerdude
Legend
I'm nearing my thousandth post on EnWorld now, and in the eight years I've been here, I've seen nearly all of the arguments (and participated in most of them ) around how D&D is constructed.
But for the last 5 years my participation in these arguments has been purely as a bystander, as I've not run or played anything bearing a familial lineage, superficial or otherwise, to the actual D&D product. When I engage in discussions about "D&D", it's completely in the abstract these days.
And truthfully, the longer I'm away from the "D&D" family, more and more I find I don't miss it.
About the only thing I DO miss is actually using the d20s in my dice bag (Savage Worlds only uses the d20 for random tables). And at some point, if I felt the "lore" was compelling enough, I might consider using D&D to get the "best" expression of a particular setting like FR or DL. But other than that, all in all I just don't see myself ever really embracing "D&D" again, and simply sticking to any number of excellent alternatives.
So I guess I'm wondering for those who left D&D for a time and came back, what was the impetus? What was it about D&D specifically that made you come back to it?
But for the last 5 years my participation in these arguments has been purely as a bystander, as I've not run or played anything bearing a familial lineage, superficial or otherwise, to the actual D&D product. When I engage in discussions about "D&D", it's completely in the abstract these days.
And truthfully, the longer I'm away from the "D&D" family, more and more I find I don't miss it.
- I don't miss the entire hit points/cure light wounds/short rest paradigm at all.
- I don't miss classes. I don't miss having to figure out exactly how to "build" my character so I'm at least competent in the four things I care about without having to find some convoluted set of rules loopholes. I would really have a hard time going back to a class-based system now after the freedom of a pure attribute/skill-based system.
- I don't miss the spell system. I never really liked "Vancian" casting to begin with, and by the end of my run with Pathfinder had basically swapped Psionics Unleashed for the entire "base" magic system (including clerics).
- I don't miss the "lore" at all. Since I'm running a system that so thoroughly encourages homebrewing and makes it supremely easy to do, I don't feel compelled to follow ANYTHING related to anything about cosmology, cultures, races, etc. If I don't like something or want to change it, a simple "Hey players, I'm going to change this or get rid of it, you good with that?" is pretty much all that's required.
- I don't miss alignments. It's a breath of fresh air just to play a character and let the character's consistencies (and inconsistencies) just arise naturally.
- I don't miss the "gonzo" aspect of D&D once you hit level 9 or 10, when your character goes from supremely-heroic-but-still-plausibly-based-in-reality to straight-up Marvel superhero.
About the only thing I DO miss is actually using the d20s in my dice bag (Savage Worlds only uses the d20 for random tables). And at some point, if I felt the "lore" was compelling enough, I might consider using D&D to get the "best" expression of a particular setting like FR or DL. But other than that, all in all I just don't see myself ever really embracing "D&D" again, and simply sticking to any number of excellent alternatives.
So I guess I'm wondering for those who left D&D for a time and came back, what was the impetus? What was it about D&D specifically that made you come back to it?