Back to D&D after 18 Yrs

[SSquirrel]

If you are a fan of the Thomas Covenant series, Monte's Arcana Evolved was a setting very inspired by that series of books. Hard to find the core book in print at the moment, but lots of good AE pdf available. For sheer insanity take a peek at his Ptolus book too.

No not a suggestion to actually try and find and buy Ptolus, but it's an impressive book indeed and any gamer would drool over it

 

[retem]

Indeed. The SRD is a great way to familiarize yourself with the 3.5 rules and not pay for doing so. You might prefer the Hypertext SRD for ease of flowing from one topic to another relavent one.


Uh, yeah. Pretty much my point exactly. Far too much source material for what may be a DM and one single PC.

Thanks for the hypertext link...Very helpful

 

[retem]

After such a long absence from the game, I strongly recommend you avoid 3.5. It's complicated and assumes a lot of previous knowledge about RPG systems. Based on current information, 4E will likely be a bit friendlier, but still quite complex.

My recommendation is Basic Fantasy RPG (www.basicfantasy.org). It's a flexible variant of Basic D&D, and should be good for getting back into the saddle before moving on to a more complex system. Plus, it's free.

Castles & Crusades is also a nice system, but you may be unwilling to shell out for a pile of books you won't use once you move into 3.5 or 4E (if you do at all).

I don't mean all this to sound patronising. I jumped into 3.5 after a long break from AD&D, but nearly quit because of the density of rules I had to wade through. I wouldn't want a returning gamer to drop out for similar reasons.

Perhaps a stupid question, say my group and I want to play around with "Basic Fantasy". Could we use AD&D modules to play?

Thanks again all for your help.

 

[Korgoth]

Perhaps a stupid question, say my group and I want to play around with "Basic Fantasy". Could we use AD&D modules to play?

Thanks again all for your help.

I don't see why not. When dealing with modules written for a slightly different version (and compared to the difference between the old stuff and the new stuff, the differences between the old versions is only slight) you're only going to run into trouble dealing with 3 things: 1) spells, 2) classes and 3) monsters. If there is a spell listed in the module (on a scroll that you find, or that a NPC can cast) that doesn't exist in Basic Fantasy then just use a similar spell that does. That doesn't take much time to change. If there is a NPC with a class that doesn't exist in Basic (like Ranger), just treat it as the nearest equivalent (Rangers and Paladins are Fighters, Druids are Clerics, etc.). If there is a monster that doesn't exist, either use the minimal statistics that the module will provide (usually enough to run the monster anyway) or just substitute in another monster.

These are really minor substitutions and usually very little such work is required.

An alternative to Basic Fantasy is Labyrinth Lord, found here:
http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.htm

It is also free and good.

Also, a note about the "Basic Game" from WOTC that has the minis... that is a 3rd Edition product. So it won't help you get into 4th Edition, which is going to be very different.

Upthread, dmccoy gave a link to "OSRIC". That's basically the 1st Edition rules right there, so don't feel bad about having lost your original books. Also, pretty much all the original stuff is available for purchase (cheap!) in PDF.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Perhaps a stupid question, say my group and I want to play around with "Basic Fantasy". Could we use AD&D modules to play?

Yes. It would be kind of like using Keep on the Borderlands (which is, of course, a Basic D&D module) with AD&D. Or like using T1 (an AD&D module) with the Basic/Expert sets. In other words, it's not an exact match, but it's so close that it's not a big deal.

There are several free systems that are clones or "in the spirit of" various older editions:

OSRIC = 1E AD&D compatible
Labyrinth Lord = very much like the Basic/Expert sets (i.e. B/X)
Basic Fantasy Role Playing = similar to B/X with a few variations (not really a clone, but more its own thing while being very compatible).

You may want to check out the "Simulacrum Games" forum.

 

[Greylock]

Perhaps a stupid question, say my group and I want to play around with "Basic Fantasy". Could we use AD&D modules to play?

Thanks again all for your help.

All of the classic modules are compatible with Basic Fantasy, and with Castles & Crusades as well. My group dropped 3.x and went "old school", and we're quite happy.

 

[Greg K]

Uh, yeah. Pretty much my point exactly. Far too much source material for what may be a DM and one single PC.

It depends on how you look at. He doesn't have to buy anything other than the core books now (and may never buy anything more than core). Familiarizing himself merely allows him to see how much support is out for 3e and an idea of the topics covered. Granted, some of the stuff may not be around next year depending on the final draft of the GSL and which companies switch over to 4e, but some things may catch his fancy before then.

 

[diaglo]

there is always OD&D(1974).

welcome back.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

there is always OD&D(1974).

If you go that route, check out my OD&D site, and the OD&D Discussion Forums.

 

[Elephant]

You can't go wrong with Microlite20

http://home.greywulf.net/m20/

ENWorld discussion:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=219419