Cergorach
The Laughing One
If what I've read on these boards and my own experience on the matter is any indication, then there are quite a few folk that have stopped playing 3(.5)E, some have moved on to other systems (such as True20 and C&C), others have stopped all together (I am one of those). Is 4E an opportunity/excuse to resurrect your D&D gaming group?
Our gaming group started playing D&D in High-school, we quickly moved on to AD&D 2E which had so much more neat options. We had a lot of fun, with ups and downs. Eventually we went to college/university, we had less time to play, we started to hit a ceiling with 2E. Which could be partly handled with tweak and house rules, but combined with less time and a certain frustration with the game, it started to become less fun. When folks started to get jobs and semi-permanent girlfriends, we decided to stop.
In comes 3E a few years later, i got enthralled by the new mechanics and possibilities that Eric reported on this very site. A couple of months before the release of the 3E PHB, after convincing my friends that this was gods gift to gamers, I resurrected the gaming group. I ran the Northern Journey campaign (which we never finished), we had lots of fun. We went full force into 3.5E, happy with all the improvements, we eventually made it to 20th level (which we never had before). It was a hollow victory, we found high level play not as interesting as we expected it to be. I had to start using a laptop to keep track of everything (Luke's RolePlayingMaster helped a lot), prep time was horrendous and i started to dread it, and the players had started to fall into standard kill/buff tactics. We took a small break and started from scratch, while it was a new challenge, the real fun was difficult to reacquire. Some got married, got more responsibilities at work, new jobs, etc. And with even less time available and the game not as much fun as it was before we disbanded again.
While I'm not currently playing in a p&p game, i find that D&D/D20/OGL still holds a challenge for me, but more theoretical. Making a 1-20+ adventure path is like a solving an equation. Fitting the basic rules in a 32-64 page booklet is like packing for vacation, everything that does not fit must go. About a year ago i got some renewed interest from some my friends, but more in one off adventures and HeroQuest (the MB version) like games. I got to work to prepare something (aiming at the beginning of 2007), but somehow it didn't really get my blood pumping (and if I didn't get excited, how could I convince others?).
Now behold! The arrival of 4E, it's new, it's tasty. I hope it's as big a change as 3E was from 2E, and the buzz says it is. I hope Morrus (or someone else) will do what Eric did for 3E, so that we can start a 4E game months before it is officially out. I'm getting excited again and itching to give it a shot. There's a lot I've learnt from my previous experiences, some ideas I've had for a 3.5E game that never materialized.
Players and D&D books: Well, don't! A lot of the trouble started when the players started to get their hands on D&D non core books, more options, more expectations. Large chunks of uncontrolled new material is a pain in the ass for the GM to prepare for (and it was to late to stop it). New material is harder to use and surprise players with, most had the books a few days after i got them. Some had Dragon, one had Dungeon, most of my 'surprise' material came from D20 publishers. Some knew more about the Realms then myself, because they read every FR sourcebook there was. Making it harder for the GM and eventually less fun for themselves. I'm going to give them the PHB (as in gift) in return they may not touch another D&D book while I GM (that atleast is the plan), if i want to introduce new material, I'll hand it out to them in managable chunks. I'm seriously considering not even giving them the PHB, but making my own (smaller) PHB so i can cut all of the higher level material. Not to mention that if i am able to start a 4E game before the PHB hits the stands, I will need to make my own PHB anyway (have templates at the ready).
Props: I'm confident that using props is going to be a lot more fun. Using cards for effects and items, using bills and coins for in game cash, perchament for player handouts, and tokens/glass-beads for hitpoints and the like. Some are available (Paizo produces some very cool item cards), others i have to make/find (i want to use 'real' gold coins, but even the plastic pirate variety becomes expensive if you want a few hundred of them).
Miniatures: While i love my (prepainted) miniatures, I'm considering not using them. Players will often know what kind of monster it is or it serves as a proxy, thus substracing from the suspense. We also tend to change over to a tactical mode of playing that's eerily similar to playing chess, while interesting in it's own right, it's not the primary reason that we play D&D (and it creates far to many problems imho). Battlemaps are either of the flat color printed kind, the drawn erasorboard kind, or the color tile kind. The first also shows whats not seen by the players, the second lacks immersion, and they are all flat. The only way i can see miniatures adding anything beyond the tactical element is WoWing players with them, that means monsters they've never seen before and/or a location that looks amazing. So I'm considering using miniatures only in situations where Tactics are extremely important, or i have some amazing (painted) miniatures they've never seen before, and/or I've made an awesome 3D location/terrain (Hirst Arts has some very cool stuff). The second requires that they either don't look at the DDM stuff (which shouldn't be that hard) or i need to paint some minis from my collection, combined with terrain building that's going to be a huge timesink (thus not going to happen often, maybe once or twice a year).
Setting: Using a setting players know of have or heard of, brings baggage, either in the form of expectations or preconceptions (both tend to be bad in my experience). So that either means I'll have to use a setting they don't know (and I'll have to be careful not to mention it's name) or I'll have to go homebrew (which is another timesink). What i do know is that I'll have to create a short (16-32 pages) players guide to the setting, I've seen some (especially the ones that Paizo and Malhavoc made), and that's awesome and an asset.
Our gaming group started playing D&D in High-school, we quickly moved on to AD&D 2E which had so much more neat options. We had a lot of fun, with ups and downs. Eventually we went to college/university, we had less time to play, we started to hit a ceiling with 2E. Which could be partly handled with tweak and house rules, but combined with less time and a certain frustration with the game, it started to become less fun. When folks started to get jobs and semi-permanent girlfriends, we decided to stop.
In comes 3E a few years later, i got enthralled by the new mechanics and possibilities that Eric reported on this very site. A couple of months before the release of the 3E PHB, after convincing my friends that this was gods gift to gamers, I resurrected the gaming group. I ran the Northern Journey campaign (which we never finished), we had lots of fun. We went full force into 3.5E, happy with all the improvements, we eventually made it to 20th level (which we never had before). It was a hollow victory, we found high level play not as interesting as we expected it to be. I had to start using a laptop to keep track of everything (Luke's RolePlayingMaster helped a lot), prep time was horrendous and i started to dread it, and the players had started to fall into standard kill/buff tactics. We took a small break and started from scratch, while it was a new challenge, the real fun was difficult to reacquire. Some got married, got more responsibilities at work, new jobs, etc. And with even less time available and the game not as much fun as it was before we disbanded again.
While I'm not currently playing in a p&p game, i find that D&D/D20/OGL still holds a challenge for me, but more theoretical. Making a 1-20+ adventure path is like a solving an equation. Fitting the basic rules in a 32-64 page booklet is like packing for vacation, everything that does not fit must go. About a year ago i got some renewed interest from some my friends, but more in one off adventures and HeroQuest (the MB version) like games. I got to work to prepare something (aiming at the beginning of 2007), but somehow it didn't really get my blood pumping (and if I didn't get excited, how could I convince others?).
Now behold! The arrival of 4E, it's new, it's tasty. I hope it's as big a change as 3E was from 2E, and the buzz says it is. I hope Morrus (or someone else) will do what Eric did for 3E, so that we can start a 4E game months before it is officially out. I'm getting excited again and itching to give it a shot. There's a lot I've learnt from my previous experiences, some ideas I've had for a 3.5E game that never materialized.
Players and D&D books: Well, don't! A lot of the trouble started when the players started to get their hands on D&D non core books, more options, more expectations. Large chunks of uncontrolled new material is a pain in the ass for the GM to prepare for (and it was to late to stop it). New material is harder to use and surprise players with, most had the books a few days after i got them. Some had Dragon, one had Dungeon, most of my 'surprise' material came from D20 publishers. Some knew more about the Realms then myself, because they read every FR sourcebook there was. Making it harder for the GM and eventually less fun for themselves. I'm going to give them the PHB (as in gift) in return they may not touch another D&D book while I GM (that atleast is the plan), if i want to introduce new material, I'll hand it out to them in managable chunks. I'm seriously considering not even giving them the PHB, but making my own (smaller) PHB so i can cut all of the higher level material. Not to mention that if i am able to start a 4E game before the PHB hits the stands, I will need to make my own PHB anyway (have templates at the ready).
Props: I'm confident that using props is going to be a lot more fun. Using cards for effects and items, using bills and coins for in game cash, perchament for player handouts, and tokens/glass-beads for hitpoints and the like. Some are available (Paizo produces some very cool item cards), others i have to make/find (i want to use 'real' gold coins, but even the plastic pirate variety becomes expensive if you want a few hundred of them).
Miniatures: While i love my (prepainted) miniatures, I'm considering not using them. Players will often know what kind of monster it is or it serves as a proxy, thus substracing from the suspense. We also tend to change over to a tactical mode of playing that's eerily similar to playing chess, while interesting in it's own right, it's not the primary reason that we play D&D (and it creates far to many problems imho). Battlemaps are either of the flat color printed kind, the drawn erasorboard kind, or the color tile kind. The first also shows whats not seen by the players, the second lacks immersion, and they are all flat. The only way i can see miniatures adding anything beyond the tactical element is WoWing players with them, that means monsters they've never seen before and/or a location that looks amazing. So I'm considering using miniatures only in situations where Tactics are extremely important, or i have some amazing (painted) miniatures they've never seen before, and/or I've made an awesome 3D location/terrain (Hirst Arts has some very cool stuff). The second requires that they either don't look at the DDM stuff (which shouldn't be that hard) or i need to paint some minis from my collection, combined with terrain building that's going to be a huge timesink (thus not going to happen often, maybe once or twice a year).
Setting: Using a setting players know of have or heard of, brings baggage, either in the form of expectations or preconceptions (both tend to be bad in my experience). So that either means I'll have to use a setting they don't know (and I'll have to be careful not to mention it's name) or I'll have to go homebrew (which is another timesink). What i do know is that I'll have to create a short (16-32 pages) players guide to the setting, I've seen some (especially the ones that Paizo and Malhavoc made), and that's awesome and an asset.
