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Are OD&D, AD&D, Basic (BX, BECMI, etc.), 3e (& 3.5), and 4e all "Dungeons & Dragons"? In my opinion, yes, they are... the same way that soccer, rugby, American football, Canadian football, and Australian football are all "football". I consider the different editions to be related to each...

Comparing a Call of Cthulhu "edition" to a D&D "edition" is like comparing apples to oranges. The rule changes from one edition of Call of Cthulhu to the next are very minor. The core systems haven't significantly changed in the entire history of the game. The rule changes from one edition of...

"You can have any color you want as long as it's black." - Henry Ford First off, acknowledge the fact that no single edition of D&D will satisfy all customers. Right now, there are three main groups of customers: the old-schoolers, the 3e/Pathfinder players, and the 4e players. They're...

Regarding "going back in systems" - why are they playing Pathfinder then? Shouldn't they be playing 4e? ;) Kidding aside, there's nothing inherently wrong with 2e. It's a perfectly good edition that stands apart from 3e the same way that Pathfinder stands apart from 4e. All three of them...

Flashlight Brown - Ready to Roll A song about playing D&D with your friends. YouTube - Flashlight Brown - Ready to Roll Slough Feg - High Passage/Low Passage Just one song off of an entire CD based on the Traveller RPG. YouTube - Slough Feg - Traveller 02-High Passage/Low Passage

I think one needs to also consider customers' expectations. 4e markets itself as a carefully balanced system, so it's only natural that 4e players will be more scrutinizing of the balance in that system and be less tolerant of "breaks". There is also be a greater desire for "official" fixes...

I had an interesting experience when I purchase the Castle Ravenloft boardgame. My normal FLGS was out of stock, so I had to go to the one at the mall. I'm not a big fan of malls, and I was there with my wife, so I really just wanted to buy the game and go home. The sales clerk (possibly the...

I think there may be a problem of marketability. Would a non-crunch book aimed at 4e players sell well enough to justify publishing it? If it doesn't contain new powers and feats to further power-up their character, would they even give it a second look?

Just a point of clarification here: There are magic weapons other than swords in 0e, but swords are special. All magic swords (and only magic swords) in 0e are intelligent weapons. Page 27: "Among magic weaponry swords alone possess certain human (and superhuman) attributes. Swords have...

I doubt "balance", as we understand it these days, was really a design goal of the older editions. After all, real life isn't at all balanced. Most characters in fantasy novels aren't balanced. Sorcerers are often portrayed as major powers in fantasy stories. Thieves rarely are. If one of...

It means that I'm still not sure where that die went. I didn't think I rolled it all that hard...

Yeah, there's some wonky stuff in every D&D skill system. That's why I say that I haven't seen a good one. On the whole, though, the skill systems have become "less bad" over time.

In my opinion: 2e's NWP were poorly designed. 3e's skill system is less bad than 2e's NWP. 4e's skill system is less bad than 3e's. I haven't seen a D&D skill system that I think is good, only "less bad" than what has come before.

You're right- you'd lose some granularity in movement (6 vs 5 squares for some heroes) and you'd have to combine "slowed" with "immobilized", but I think the resulting streamlining might speed up and simplify the game a bit. I'm going to have to try this out. The nice thing about the Betrayal...

Good point- I've played it twice now and I think you're spot on - the dual squares/tiles movement scheme doesn't seem to add anything to the game. I think it would work better if they just dropped the squares and went with only tiles like in Betrayal. The only rationale I can see for keeping...

It's also worth mentioning Basic Fantasy, which is a Moldvay/Marsh/Cook Basic/Expert clone. It uses the ascending AC system from 3e and it makes race and class separate, but other than that, it's really close to B/X.

The '83 Red Box was my introduction to D&D, too. The fact that it was sold in stores like Toys R Us and Kay-Bee Toys alongside classic games like Monopoly and Clue meant that it was very easy to find. At my grade school only a few of us ended up sticking with the game, but it seemed like...

There's nothing wrong with the building mechanics themselves, nor is there anything wrong with a group that likes a game with a lot of character-building. My personal preference is to run/play in a version of the game that minimizes character building, that's all. I really don't enjoy building...

I really dislike character building. I used to be more neutral on the subject until 2 events soured me on it: 1) I was playing in a 3e tournament and one of the players on our team kept whining about how the 15th level rogue he'd been given was so poorly built. He spent lots of tournament...

I know what you mean. All I really want is a "tuned up" version of the game, not a complete overhaul. I like little mechanical clean-ups like ascending armor class and 3 saving throw categories. I don't like big, intrusive changes like skills, feats, powers, and (worst of all, IMO) making...