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It depends entirely on what kind of D&D I'll be running. If I'm running more or less regular D&D, I'll want some core rules (the Rules Cyclopedia), some official supplements (the Creature Catalog, Wrath of the Immortals), some third party (the Basic Psionics Handbook), and of course my own house...

Just reading through this thread, it's fairly clear to me that bringing D&D "back to the dungeon" is a ship that has sailed. Without some key, fundamental changes to the mechanics — changes unlikely to be made in the foreseeable future — it won't work. Not that WotC should even bother trying...

My sin is repetition. Falling back on the same few unconscious canned phrases to describe something that happens frequently (e.g. a monster attacks a PC with a claw/claw/bite routine, "The beast turns its attention to you and just lays into you with everything it has." — imagine realizing that...

I run sandboxes, and I aim for that immersive, lived-in feeling to whatever extent that I can manage. A good sandbox is dynamic, alive, and full of content: a place where stuff happens that doesn't just revolve around the PCs; where if the PCs keep to themselves, bigger stuff will happen anyway...

I've heard 3.0 to 3.5 compared to AD&D 1e to 2e, since that's actually kind of a fair comparison. Nobody ever really talks about "AD&D to B/X," though, because B/X wasn't based on AD&D, it was based on Holmes Basic and the white box (and Greyhawk). There are a bunch of little differences in...

If we just look at WotC — and I think that's fair, WotC is around and TSR isn't — then every new numbered edition has been accompanied by new saving throw mechanics, new XP tables, a new action economy, and a complete rebuild of the core mechanics from the ground up that makes it totally...

It's pretty clear that however OneD&D changes the classes, races, backgrounds, or even core game terms, they're not changing the overall shape of the game. There will still be d20 checks with bounded accuracy, proficiency bonus, advantage and disadvantage, short rests and long rests and healing...

I vote against "schmorp." Sounds too much like Hello from the Magic Tavern's Smorps.

I've been living in a DIY/OSR world for so long now that it never even crossed my mind that the impending EOSL for 5.0 means anything. When you're used to not having official support, the lack of it isn't something you notice. But, yeah, I might throw a party. Run some OD&D, drink some whiskey...

For standard D&D, I like "species" a lot, if only because of how it undermines the "get your science outta my fantasy!" attitude. (The argument could be made that it's just doubling down on the bioessentialism, but that's not a problem with the word chosen, that's a problem with properly sorting...

Clerics are the original gish.

The only "D&D" worth a jot is the idea of the game; the lifestyle brand is meaningless. Even if WotC were to fold tomorrow and Hasbro were to shelve the IP indefinitely, D&D would live on in every retro-clone, Pathfinder, Castles & Crusades, etc.

This. I play BXCMI, and so I use 3d6 in order, but I also acknowledge that 3d6 in order is a method that works best when the impact of scores on gameplay is minimal. That's why I don't use ability checks at all, I limit modifiers to no more than ±1 (after the fashion of Swords & Wizardry White...

I might buy this if it weren't for the fact that every time I've followed one of these discovered forgotten paths, it has consistently led to improving my games across the board. That this was part of the early design-intent of D&D is well-documented and uncontroversial, even if it didn't...

Well that's certainly a take. For the sake of argument: if I make a world with no arcane magic, then there simply won't be any wizard PCs or NPCs in that world. So the diegetic relevance of classes to worldbuilding is at least demonstrably nonzero.

Not really, no. Deciding what classes exist in the setting is a pretty fundamental part of creating a campaign.

What's good for the goose is always good for the gander. A monster might very well have unusual powers that PCs never will, but if an NPC has a class and levels, then it plays by the same rules as the PCs. The NPC might be able to do something extraordinary via an unusual spell or a rare magical...

Just get Labyrinth Lord or Basic Fantasy RPG or a D&D Rules Cyclopedia. Much less confusing.

In my Europe-analog steampunk setting, not!France is chiefly populated by gnomes, and it's ruled by l'Empereur Gnapoleon. (In the Middle Ages, it was unified under the great Gnome King Charlemin.)

The overmoderation seems to have succeeded in razing the place to a barren and uniform flatland where no interesting discussion ever happens.