D&D General D&D Editions: Anybody Else Feel Like They Don't Fit In?

[Thomas Shey]

And admonishments against "Monty Haul" style gaming were literally everywhere.

Always rang a little hollow when the standard treasure tables would produce items galore by even modest levels. They might not be particularly powerful ones (but, again, once you got on a particular table, while some items came up more than others, if they didn't want 2nd level characters with a Sword of Sharpness, perhaps not putting it on the same table is kind of not thought through), its still a case of blowing hot and cold out of the same mouth.

 

[Micah Sweet]

True but magic items were heavily used by all classes and in much greater amounts than the current edition. Magic permeated the game.

Magic items are not spells.

 

[MichaelSomething]

We're Enworlders. We don't fit in D&D. We change D&D so IT FITS US!

 

[ezo]

is anybody else in this boat?

Many of us.

It's hard finding the perfect balance, because it doesn't exist. Any game system will always have pros and cons.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I get some people like it. I just miss the days when not every character was a spell caster, not everyone had dark vision

Shadowdark would love to talk to you about the latter.

 

[haakon1]

I have been playing and DM'ing "Dungeons & Dragons" since the early-80s …

Me too. Sounds like we have similar tastes

When 3e dropped, I loved it at first, but the longer I played, the more something became clear to me. Dungeons & Dragons had become more "over-the-top fantastical" than I liked. Cook and Tweet basically had turned the default setting of Dungeons & Dragons into a high-magic Monty Haul campaign. The magic system still grated and the constant embrace of making characters MORE magical was taking it further from the kind of fantasy stories I want to tell.

The solution that works for me is:

• 3.5e
• Core rules. PHB, DMG, and monster books. Anything else needs DM approval.
• A house rule is a Ranger variant without spellcasting and with favored terrain (from PF1) rather than favored enemy
• Greyhawk setting, which defaults to lower magic and lower levels than Forgotten Realms
• Mostly 1e & BECMI adventures, or others with that feel, including Raging Swan Press, Goodman Games Original Adventures Reincarnated, Paizo, and even Harn and Ice MERP. Oh yeah - I use “Song of Ice & Fire” rpg too. Surely JohnSnow uses it?
• Ignore wealth by level.
• Stop at “mid” levels. My 6-8th level group is talking about retiring the PC’s to start over. My 6-10th level group thinks of themselves as high level.

 

[Aldarc]

And admonishments against "Monty Haul" style gaming were literally everywhere.

A lot of DMs and groups ignored them, obviously, and come 3e, Cook and Tweet institutionalized high-magic settings in the ruleset. And the designers seem to have never really considered walking that back. Wahoo fantasy slowly came to dominate the game.

In the days before 4e was accused of being "World of Warcraft," 3e was accused of just being the other popular computer game around that time: "Diablo 2." And it was accused of such for the reason above. Ironically enough, the creators of Diablo 1 and 2 made the game based on how they had played D&D.

 

[Pauln6]

I think it is possible to play a version of 5e that fits with the traditional play style of a bunch of martials adventuring with one (possibly multiclassed) spell caster. I think they should address how to achieve this in an official sidebar for guidance. There is a lot of variation in most of the classes to achieve this, although I still think the fighter needs help. Alternate class features as part of the core class or feats that enhance class features would probably have helped.

Possibly special enhanced battlemaster manoeuvres that you get if you pick a silo of standard manoeuvres might be cool, so if you pick 3 out of the various warlord manoeuvres, you gain access to a couple of superior warlord style manoeuvres or enhanced class features. Maybe a feat with manoeuvres as a prerequisite?

 

[Jahydin]

I was pretty excited when 5E first came out. The combat math certainly needed tightening and the skill system needed a complete overhaul, but I kind of expected those things to naturally get polished out over the years with playtesting.

After about 5 years or so I realized this was never going to happen. Frustrated with WotC's output, I did some research and found Castles and Crusades. Reading through the race and class descriptions made me feel like I was "home" again. Like others have mentioned, it's free, so please give it a look through.

The system will require houserules to get it playing exactly how you'd like; thankfully this is incredibly easy and nerds like me are more than happy to help. Also, this system works best for creating your own adventures or converting OSR modules; most of the official products outside of core are pretty lackluster tbh.

 

[Jahydin]

Shadowdark speaks to my tastes a little (I love "roll to cast"), but I'd have to houserule some additions and alterations to it to really get the game I want.

What are your houserules?