A Realization (maybe an epiphany?) about D&D

[diaglo]

OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

If people stopped "whining" then you would have nothing to whine about and those long days spent in your parents basement would be boring

Hey, at least it's a furnished basement!

Unlike your mom!

 

[ThirdWizard]

Hey, at least it's a furnished basement!

Unlike your mom!

The classics never get old.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Hey, at least it's a furnished basement!

Unlike your mom!

Dun dun dunnnNNNNnnnnnnn!!!!!!!

 

[Storm Raven]

Hey, at least it's a furnished basement!

Unlike your mom!

His mom is a furnished basement?

 

[wingsandsword]

2) A character wanted to flail about wildly to find an invisible character he knew should be around him. You can't - you can make an attack and so have a 50% chance of making contact into a square, but you are limited in the number of attacks you make.

I would have called taking their action to make a second Spot check, possibly with a bonus personally.

I like 3.x far more than previous versions, this feels like D&D to me. Now there are actually rules for doing this sort of thing, instead of haphazard, slapped together contradictory rules that heavily reenforced stereotypes and limited flexibility.

D&D is not, and really never has been a simple game (at least by the standards of the age it came out in), and the yearning for "rules light" I think is really a longing for an older edition we first learned and understood more. We often learn the first edition we ever play very well, and nothing else ever really feels like that, everything that comes later feels overcomplicated, overwrought, but to people coming to the game the first time it feels "just right" and in 20 years they'll be longing for their simpler, older edition and muttering about the kids and their too-complicated, too-rules-heavy Nth edition.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

His mom is a furnished basement?

No. His mom is not furnished.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The heart of the rules in 3e is so clean, simple, and consistent that it is extremely easy to pare down. I think a very workable basic set of rules could fit on 2-3 pages, and only use the books as reference material to inspire the DM.

The key issue is one of setting expectations. If you prefer a simpler style of game tell your players you want to play a home brew system. If you like to stick with some of the base D&D mechanics call it a "home brew d20 style system but it is not d20(tm)".

Or maybe you should play a slimmed version of classic BRP? Or FUDGE?

 

[Mr. Kaze]

I used to play Magic:TG a lot. It was a game with very well defined rules. (or errata to make them well defined.) and it was designed as a competitive game, lots of fairness and balance being very important.

Two addendum to this:
1) Whenever the manufacturer needed to grow quarterly profits, the next expansion trotted out new rules to trump the existing rules. (I quit when the new rules included "Whenver this card goes to the graveyard, put it back in your hand")
2) As Monte Cook recently mentioned, players were rewarded for their mastery of the rules. To this end, maximizing mastery of the rules was more important to winning than actually doing anything interesting. (People quit playing against me whenever I brought out my discard deck because it wasn't fun for them.)

IMO, neither of these two traits are appropriate for a good role-playing game. The first reduces the control of the DM over the world, the second reduces the connection between the player and the character.

::Kaze

 

[Ranger REG]

yup.

d02 ain't D&D is all i'm saying....

Of course, d2 ain't D&D. How do you play a game that rely on flipping a coin? You might as well use the more popular Jan Ken Po System.