GMforPowergamers
Legend
Do you remember when everything was just fun…
Ok, well I kinda do. All of these rules arguments and balance issues has made people say things like “the game use to be about fun not balance”.
So I really looked back, and you know what I found, we use to balance things ourselves. I don’t think we ever really saw it either.
Lets go back to my first 2nd ed game. I had a elf Wizard, a Human Ranger, a Drow (elf stats) thief, a Human cleric, and a half elf Bard. We had a blast for almost 2 solid years going up to level 13…
Then our second game (same players) We had a half elf fighter/mage/thief, a Human wizard, a Dwarf cleric/thief, a human ranger (who dueled into wizard), and a human Paliden.
By our third game we had some good house rules (this is were things get weird) we had blades x3 witch cost 3 weapon profs but gave you prof in all swords and dagger, we also had missile x3 for bows and cross bows. (The funny part being we later got these rules in combat and tactics). We let everyone start with Max hp. We allowed any class to specialize in weapons. We used non weaps from dragon that gave checks to do cantrip like effects.
By our next game we had an influx of new books, and new ideas. We had weapon mastery and high mastery and grand mastery. We even allowed the x3 thing to continue. Blades x3 prof…blades x6 spec…x9 mastery of all blades. This was of cource added with cleaving crushing x3, and the other groups. There was a thing (I think non weap slot) melee combatants could take called death blow…it was a SoD for fighters. We were home brewing magic items, and at this point I found something I had not remembered for years…
Hackmaster swords. It was 94 or 95 and on AOL I found a role-playing board. It had all sorts of house rules (The funny part being a lot of us had the same ones). This guy came up with as a joke a set of rules for these uber weapons, and some one else turned them into a working thing. A +2 hackmaster longsword had +2 to hit, but did 2d8+str +2+other damage…a +3 did base 3d8…and so on. Nowadays we call those [w]s…
By 98 (the year I grad from high school) we were barely playing 2e…it might as well have been our own game. We allowed any race to duil class, or multi, or combine the two. We had no level limits. We had taken all the caps off wizards knowing spells (rolls or based on int score) we no longer made caster prep spells, they all cast from there books. We had priest carrying ‘prayer books’. Every PC had these crazy 2d4 throwing knives, everyone was specializing, most mastering weapons. Everyone was multi or duil classing (or both). Wizards always started at 3rd level, everyone else at 2nd. Max all starting hit points. Thieves could choose from a list of skills what there % ones were. We let rangers and paliden spells depend on your god, not the base list. And we had a rule called ‘Dabbler’ it cost 20% xp but you got the bard spell chart of spells added to your class.
Yea, and I saw other groups back then doing even crazier things. I am also sure I am forgetting atleast a good number of our house rules.
Then came 3e…and we started by raw…and slowly added house rules. But now looking back (and since we still have some 3.5 games going it isn’t hard) we don’t have anywhere near that many house rules. But we have something else…3pp. We all agreed that any WotC book was fine, but then we each have different 3pp that we allow, or some mix. But you see this is where the word RAW and RAI come from. This is when we started looking at errata, and asking “Why is x rule like this” no longer did we just want to have fun, but we wanted to have fun AND play be the rules.
Then they crazyness started (I am so glad we only had this for a few years) infact this is the time my screenname came from. We had players going out of there way to make the best bad asses within the rules. We never had an infinite damage loop, or a pun pun at he table, but we had our CODzilla, and our Ubber charger, and Our Hulking hurler…The only Dm in my group to regularly ban Wotc products baned Savage species…and to this day twitches when we bring up the cat barbarian.
Slowly that setteled down to. By late 07 we were happy making normal characters, and I found more and more of us shying away from 3pp. Even when allowed it came out more as maybe 1 person looking it over.
Last year 4e came out. Myself and my friend Ross are the only people who have bought any 3pp things at all yet. We have a list of house rules that can be counted on 1 hand. When we look at new books we ask “is this balanced?” or hey how does this compare…
Looking back we always worried about balance, we just didn’t know how. We started with a mix of characters, then more and more found everyone taking spell casting, so we upped the non casters, then we found it swinging back, so we upped the casters. In 2nd edition we tore the game apart and pretty much rebuilt it from the ground up.
In fourth edition we come to these boards and yell for the creators to answer us. We try to manipulate the system to fit our idea of a ‘good’ game.
Is it really that different…I don’t think so.
My conclusion: the more things change…the more they stay the same.
Out of that first game I talked about in 2e…I still have 2 of those players regularly… and am still hanging out with the others as time permits. So after all those years, the Human Ranger is playing a Human ranger tonight, and the drow (elf) thief is now a shadar kai rogue…funny isn’t it.
Ok, well I kinda do. All of these rules arguments and balance issues has made people say things like “the game use to be about fun not balance”.
So I really looked back, and you know what I found, we use to balance things ourselves. I don’t think we ever really saw it either.
Lets go back to my first 2nd ed game. I had a elf Wizard, a Human Ranger, a Drow (elf stats) thief, a Human cleric, and a half elf Bard. We had a blast for almost 2 solid years going up to level 13…
Then our second game (same players) We had a half elf fighter/mage/thief, a Human wizard, a Dwarf cleric/thief, a human ranger (who dueled into wizard), and a human Paliden.
By our third game we had some good house rules (this is were things get weird) we had blades x3 witch cost 3 weapon profs but gave you prof in all swords and dagger, we also had missile x3 for bows and cross bows. (The funny part being we later got these rules in combat and tactics). We let everyone start with Max hp. We allowed any class to specialize in weapons. We used non weaps from dragon that gave checks to do cantrip like effects.
By our next game we had an influx of new books, and new ideas. We had weapon mastery and high mastery and grand mastery. We even allowed the x3 thing to continue. Blades x3 prof…blades x6 spec…x9 mastery of all blades. This was of cource added with cleaving crushing x3, and the other groups. There was a thing (I think non weap slot) melee combatants could take called death blow…it was a SoD for fighters. We were home brewing magic items, and at this point I found something I had not remembered for years…
Hackmaster swords. It was 94 or 95 and on AOL I found a role-playing board. It had all sorts of house rules (The funny part being a lot of us had the same ones). This guy came up with as a joke a set of rules for these uber weapons, and some one else turned them into a working thing. A +2 hackmaster longsword had +2 to hit, but did 2d8+str +2+other damage…a +3 did base 3d8…and so on. Nowadays we call those [w]s…
By 98 (the year I grad from high school) we were barely playing 2e…it might as well have been our own game. We allowed any race to duil class, or multi, or combine the two. We had no level limits. We had taken all the caps off wizards knowing spells (rolls or based on int score) we no longer made caster prep spells, they all cast from there books. We had priest carrying ‘prayer books’. Every PC had these crazy 2d4 throwing knives, everyone was specializing, most mastering weapons. Everyone was multi or duil classing (or both). Wizards always started at 3rd level, everyone else at 2nd. Max all starting hit points. Thieves could choose from a list of skills what there % ones were. We let rangers and paliden spells depend on your god, not the base list. And we had a rule called ‘Dabbler’ it cost 20% xp but you got the bard spell chart of spells added to your class.
Yea, and I saw other groups back then doing even crazier things. I am also sure I am forgetting atleast a good number of our house rules.
Then came 3e…and we started by raw…and slowly added house rules. But now looking back (and since we still have some 3.5 games going it isn’t hard) we don’t have anywhere near that many house rules. But we have something else…3pp. We all agreed that any WotC book was fine, but then we each have different 3pp that we allow, or some mix. But you see this is where the word RAW and RAI come from. This is when we started looking at errata, and asking “Why is x rule like this” no longer did we just want to have fun, but we wanted to have fun AND play be the rules.
Then they crazyness started (I am so glad we only had this for a few years) infact this is the time my screenname came from. We had players going out of there way to make the best bad asses within the rules. We never had an infinite damage loop, or a pun pun at he table, but we had our CODzilla, and our Ubber charger, and Our Hulking hurler…The only Dm in my group to regularly ban Wotc products baned Savage species…and to this day twitches when we bring up the cat barbarian.
Slowly that setteled down to. By late 07 we were happy making normal characters, and I found more and more of us shying away from 3pp. Even when allowed it came out more as maybe 1 person looking it over.
Last year 4e came out. Myself and my friend Ross are the only people who have bought any 3pp things at all yet. We have a list of house rules that can be counted on 1 hand. When we look at new books we ask “is this balanced?” or hey how does this compare…
Looking back we always worried about balance, we just didn’t know how. We started with a mix of characters, then more and more found everyone taking spell casting, so we upped the non casters, then we found it swinging back, so we upped the casters. In 2nd edition we tore the game apart and pretty much rebuilt it from the ground up.
In fourth edition we come to these boards and yell for the creators to answer us. We try to manipulate the system to fit our idea of a ‘good’ game.
Is it really that different…I don’t think so.
My conclusion: the more things change…the more they stay the same.
Out of that first game I talked about in 2e…I still have 2 of those players regularly… and am still hanging out with the others as time permits. So after all those years, the Human Ranger is playing a Human ranger tonight, and the drow (elf) thief is now a shadar kai rogue…funny isn’t it.
