D&D 3E/3.5 Edition Experience - Did/Do you Play 3rd Edtion D&D? How Was/Is it?

[Theo R Cwithin]

What is E6?

It's basically just D&D in which PC advancement is capped at 6th level.
Here's the original an ENWorld thread:

E6: The Game Inside D&D

Note to mods: E6 was born in House Rules, but I ran the idea of posting in General past Piratecat a while ago, and it’s finally ready for the bigtime. Thanks! This is E6’s sixth major incarnation here at EN World; in this thread I hope to talk about preparing E6 games, how to talk to...

www.enworld.org

And a link to the "white paper" (PDF) on the topic by Ryan Stoughton, the person who sort of formalized the concept:

https://www.enworld.org/attachments/e6-pdf.30010/

 

[atanakar]

Show me the downtime activity for painting your house. If you can't, then you've got to either drop your earlier assertion that if it isn't in the rules you can't do it, or you need to acknowledge that you cannot, in fact, paint your house.

Also, show me any rules in the game for having, rearing, or playing your next generation.

It's basically just D&D in which PC advancement is capped at 6th level.
Here's the original an ENWorld thread:

E6: The Game Inside D&D

Note to mods: E6 was born in House Rules, but I ran the idea of posting in General past Piratecat a while ago, and it’s finally ready for the bigtime. Thanks! This is E6’s sixth major incarnation here at EN World; in this thread I hope to talk about preparing E6 games, how to talk to...

www.enworld.org

And a link to the "white paper" (PDF) on the topic by Ryan Stoughton, the person who sort of formalized the concept:

https://www.enworld.org/attachments/e6-pdf.30010/

Thanks. This mostly for 3e, maybe 4e?

 

[CleverNickName]

Thanks. This mostly for 3e, maybe 4e?

I think it was originally written for 3rd Edition, but the concept can be easily adapted to any edition (its even backwards-compatible with BECM, if you replace "feats" with a different boon like weapon mastery or proficiency or something.) I'd be very surprised if someone hasn't already adapted it to 5th Edition.

 

[TiwazTyrsfist]

I liked 3.x a lot, but I tend to like complex systems.

I liked being able to create unexpected synergies by dipping into classes in an odd way.
I liked the magic item creation system (mostly), because it allowed for the creation of ridiculous things without DM Fiat. [The only part I really had an issue with was the economic side of Magic item creation. There are thousands of pages on that subject though and we don't need to get into it here and now.]

Though much of my view of 3.x is through rose colored glasses as this, for me, was the golden age of gaming BECAUSE it was my late teens and early 20's, when I and my friends had enough freedom and few enough responsibilities that we could get together Weekly with at least 5 people and run a campaign.

By the time 4e came out our game nights were sporadic and rarely had enough focus for anything more difficult than Cards Against Humanity.

Now, I play 10 games of Adventurer's League 5e a year over the course of 4 days at the single con I can manage to attend. There's a lot of 3rd party content that I'm sure I would love but never touch because I can bring it into the only games I get to play...

But enough nostalgia from a middle aged gamer...

 

[Umbran]

I played quite a lot of 3e, and liked it a lot.

It is rather crunchy for my current tastes, so if I were to run something, I would likely use another game. But if someone offered me a seat at a 3e table, I'd not have any hesitation based on the system.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

So you would vote "I am playing this edition right now, and so far I like it." Right?

I feel that answer implies i havent been playing for long or that its not the main edition i play.

The answer is accurate in a technical sense but i feel like its implications are completely oposite of true for me.

Ive been playing it for many years AND its the main edition i play.

But yes. Sure. The answer is technically correct. Just like the statement "trump is the best united states president" is factually true in a technical sense no matter what you think of him. This is not a political statement. Im pointing out how the fact that this statement is limited to the present progressive tense has a bleaching effect on any attempted meaning i might try to convey.

Presently he is the only usa president.

The statement is made in such a way that it only applies to people who are presently presidents.

There have been other presidents.

There ARE not other presidents (see where the meaningnis being drained?)

Therefore he is objectively the best usa president (because he IS the only one even if past ones wouod be better or worse)

You couod also say he is the worst president (again, you dont need ti measure how bad he is. Hes the only one that presently exists so the statement is true)

This is why i hate overly basic answers...

 

[pogre]

3rd edition brought us back to D&D. We played Advanced (1e) until 1986 and only dabbled in 2e. We largely moved to WFRP from the mid 80's until 3e was released. Pretty early on I made my home campaign core only for player options - it saved me a lot of the super build headaches. Oddly enough, I wrote a few pieces for 3rd party publishers - including player options

We playtested 4th and I ran a short campaign after the formal release, and although I liked it, my players did not. We played a decently long Pathfinder campaign, a Trailblazer, and a Grim Tales campaign. All fun stuff.

We embraced 5th completely and are still largely enjoying it.

I probably should skip 6e - we seem to like odd-numbered editions the best!

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I liked the magic item creation system (mostly), because it allowed for the creation of ridiculous things without DM Fiat.

Oh yes! I loved that about item creation! It was a great framework to just slap stuff together and see what popped out. I found that process to be very inspirational, and I still do that conceptually, no matter the system.
I think 3e is a nice system for learning to tinker, imo, because it has so many moving parts.

 

[CleverNickName]

@Son of the Serpent Thanks for clarifying your position; this is exactly the kind of nuance and detail I was hoping everyone would engage in. See, I actually prefer the "overly basic answers" on surveys, because it encourages people to chime in with comments, which generates further discussion.

I didn't pick the question or the responses willy-nilly either, as you pointed out. I phrased the question and responses carefully to make it hard to build "best" and "worst" and "favorite" arguments. I've been around this board enough to know where that train of thought stops. ;-)

 

[Son of the Serpent]

And the stuff that wouldn't fly anymore these days was blatant.

are you talking about modern cultural/political sensibilities or something else. Since im making a custom edition who's main influence is 3.x i would want to know if its "something else". Could be a flaw i would want to avoid that i havent noticed.

If you answer thx. I appreciate it.