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General Tabletop Discussion
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3E and the Feel of D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="GreyLord" data-source="post: 7850140" data-attributes="member: 4348"><p>I thought 3e had some great things going for it.</p><p></p><p>I did not like what 3.5 did to the iconic bard...I preferred a Half-Elf Bard to a Gnome. I think it also reflects the attitude at the time which differed when 3.5 came out.</p><p></p><p>3e seemed to want to replicate many of the playstyles of 2e (of which the Half-Elf Bard was a popular 2e thing and as such was a perfect fit for the iconic of 3e), but the rules had not been explored as greatly (a public playtest on the scale of playtests now may have shown some of the weaknesses) so many played it differently as they tried to exploit different rules.</p><p></p><p>This led to the min/max culture of 3.5 (and yes, we always had a min/max bit, but 3.5 I felt was sort of excessive to a degree) where as I think 3e was met more with a 2e type approach and many still play it in that way (those that still play 3e).</p><p></p><p>I also felt that in many ways it was an attempt to try to get it back to the 1e grittier style of play. I felt it replicated or tried to replicate that type of gamestyle that was being done in the late 70s and early 80s in it's feel. It also brought back many of the items from 1e that many wanted or would have wanted in the 2e corebook but was not there.</p><p></p><p>They had the Barbarian (1e UA), the Monk (1e PHB), and even the Assassin (1e PHB, but in the 3e DMG as a PC). I know [USER=74672]@Jonathan Tweet[/USER] says they wanted to focus on only good characters (and would know more than me which should be obvious), but it felt more like you could play an evil character if you wanted to than how 2e presented things.</p><p></p><p>2e was great in many ways, but it seems more clean cut, or Yuppie (any one remember that word) than 3e does. 2e was more of the High Fantasy time period (despite Dark Sun) with more of a feel of the Dragonlance games and High Civilized Forgotten Realms areas than 1e. 3e reminds me more of an attempt to go back to the sword and sorcery of 1e (ironically they did not do Dark Sun as the setting though) and appeal to the older gamers with Grey Hawk references abounding. It just felt like a grittier feel than 2e.</p><p></p><p>I feel 3e did a decent job if one wanted to play the same way they did with 2e in bringing in the grit and grime of 1e into a cleaner shell (2e was a cleaner cut or clearer rules in many ways than parts of 1e which is what I mean, 3e was clearly written in rules as 2e, but grittier in feel more akin to 1e).</p><p></p><p>I think 3e appealed to whole bunch of old gamers that felt 2e abandoned them when it dropped many of their favorite parts (Half-Orcs, Barbarians, Monks, Assassins, more Greyhawk type appeal and products, etc).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GreyLord, post: 7850140, member: 4348"] I thought 3e had some great things going for it. I did not like what 3.5 did to the iconic bard...I preferred a Half-Elf Bard to a Gnome. I think it also reflects the attitude at the time which differed when 3.5 came out. 3e seemed to want to replicate many of the playstyles of 2e (of which the Half-Elf Bard was a popular 2e thing and as such was a perfect fit for the iconic of 3e), but the rules had not been explored as greatly (a public playtest on the scale of playtests now may have shown some of the weaknesses) so many played it differently as they tried to exploit different rules. This led to the min/max culture of 3.5 (and yes, we always had a min/max bit, but 3.5 I felt was sort of excessive to a degree) where as I think 3e was met more with a 2e type approach and many still play it in that way (those that still play 3e). I also felt that in many ways it was an attempt to try to get it back to the 1e grittier style of play. I felt it replicated or tried to replicate that type of gamestyle that was being done in the late 70s and early 80s in it's feel. It also brought back many of the items from 1e that many wanted or would have wanted in the 2e corebook but was not there. They had the Barbarian (1e UA), the Monk (1e PHB), and even the Assassin (1e PHB, but in the 3e DMG as a PC). I know [USER=74672]@Jonathan Tweet[/USER] says they wanted to focus on only good characters (and would know more than me which should be obvious), but it felt more like you could play an evil character if you wanted to than how 2e presented things. 2e was great in many ways, but it seems more clean cut, or Yuppie (any one remember that word) than 3e does. 2e was more of the High Fantasy time period (despite Dark Sun) with more of a feel of the Dragonlance games and High Civilized Forgotten Realms areas than 1e. 3e reminds me more of an attempt to go back to the sword and sorcery of 1e (ironically they did not do Dark Sun as the setting though) and appeal to the older gamers with Grey Hawk references abounding. It just felt like a grittier feel than 2e. I feel 3e did a decent job if one wanted to play the same way they did with 2e in bringing in the grit and grime of 1e into a cleaner shell (2e was a cleaner cut or clearer rules in many ways than parts of 1e which is what I mean, 3e was clearly written in rules as 2e, but grittier in feel more akin to 1e). I think 3e appealed to whole bunch of old gamers that felt 2e abandoned them when it dropped many of their favorite parts (Half-Orcs, Barbarians, Monks, Assassins, more Greyhawk type appeal and products, etc). [/QUOTE]
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