Search results

In much the same way, there are people currently playing D&D 3.5 despite its mechanics, not because of it. In fact, a portion of those people would rather be playing another game, but unfortunately for them, they're not persistent or creative enough to find a way to accomplish that. Think about...

Akrasia has a very good point. And I've no idea if Mearls is right or not, but if he is then it sort of reminds me of the issues surrounding the new FreeBSD 5.x SMP code. Only a handful of people in the world know that stuff backwards and forwards, because the design is so incredibly...

Not quite, at least not from my perspective. I like D&D a lot, it's even my favorite all-time FRPG. But when I say that, I'm referring to the original rules up to and including the '81 Basic/Expert sets (with possible inclusion of some of Mentzer's stuff as well). After that, things started...

Ahhh but you're talking Mentzer D&D ('83 BECMI rules) whereas I was stricly talking Moldvay/Cook D&D ('81 Basic & Expert rules). In the '81 rules, all weapon damage is 1d6 by default (see page B25). There are also some subtle differences in spells (eg, Magic Missile) and the progression of...

Now try 1e or 3e fighter against B/X fighter. The rules only go to level 14, but the attack table is linear, so you can extend it. That won't help the poor B/X fighter from getting his @ss whooped. :D Max STR is 18 (no exceptional/percentile thingamajig) which means only +3 to-hit & damage...

Back in the day, 18th level was epic. You would've had to play the PC for half a decade to get that far. :D

I picked FUDGE, OD&D and BRP. I'd also add '77 Basic D&D, and '81 Basic/Expert D&D. FUDGE is kinda special because you can really go either way with it, but it can be light. Some other light games not listed: Tunnels & Trolls, Fighting Fantasy, DSA Basic ('84 edition), the old TSR Conan game.

That goes without saying. I've played in crunchy games where we did a lot of that stuff, because such was the nature of the campaign. I only brought up those points to explain that even though we were new at gaming, and had no mentors, and the (light) rules we used didn't dwell too much on...

For me, that's precisely the problem: it's "advanced". In other words, the opposite of "basic". I don't view the addition of more detail and simulation aspects to D&D as an improvement. If I wanted those aspects, there are tons of other games out there that supply them, and do so in a very...

Finally an opportunity to use the Military Fork/Bec de Corbin/Ranseur polearm thingamajig in the 1e DMG... :D

Just in case you don't already know, that 5 ft/round is actually an error in the RC. Both the Moldvay/Cook and Mentzer books had Fighting Withdrawal set to 1/2 your PC's encounter speed. The RC was supposed to be a compilation of the BECM rules rather than a revision or new edition, so there...

I'm mainly here for the Gary Gygax Q&A marathon. It's been very, very interesting to me. Other than that, I like some of the threads that deal with OOP stuff, like the classic module threads, and so on. There's also been some interesting "generic" discussions, like the 1001 dungeon rooms, maps...

Only reason I replied was to clarify which edition I prefer, cause there's no option to vote for '81 B/X D&D... Otherwise I get lumped in with AD&D 1/2, and they're okay but not really my favorite. In fact I'd probably play C&C (an OGL, d20-derived game) before those. I really don't like...

Some people who like 3e are rapists. Some people who like 3e are child molesters. Some people who like 3e are murderers. I'll stop now, but I think the point is fairly evident. If not, then I'll spell it out: judging an entire group by some unknown subset of that group is a really, really...

I strongly prefer the '81 Basic/Expert rules to the current edition.

I have, because it's how we started gaming in the early 80's. There was nobody experienced to serve as a teacher. A couple of us had played the solo Fighting Fantasy books, and we started using those (very light) rules to run multiplayer games. Then we moved on to DSA (the basic book), and...

It's really very simple... You tell the player what his odds are before actually resolving the action. You also tell him why you came up with those odds, in case there is a "reality mismatch" at play (maybe the DM forgot something?). Frex: "Okay DEX check at -2 to jump and grab the chandelier...

Well not much has changed in that respect. Today there are hundreds of d20 publishers, and hence just as much diversity. You still don't know what rules the DM next door is using, unless he limits himself to the 3 core books. And even then house rules pop up, because that is the nature of the...

I consider it rules-light, although it's not as light as say Fighting Fantasy, Twerps, Tunnels & Trolls, etc. The whole light/medium/heavy is very subjective anyway, since people use different criteria to classify things.

It's all hot air, he's just trying to model a "study" after a premeditated conclusion. The guy wouldn't know anything about a rules-light RPG if it hit him on the head. :D Back in my early teens, we used to play rules-light games at school (between classes) because it avoided carrying lots of...