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<blockquote data-quote="Akrasia" data-source="post: 1810153" data-attributes="member: 23012">I empathize completely.&nbsp; When 3rd edition first came out, I was very excited, and ran a campaign during my last year of grad school.&nbsp; It was fun, but only because I had some great players (including two guys who worked semi-pro in improv comedy).&nbsp; I started to find the rules frustrating as time went by, and combat tedious.&nbsp; As the campaign wore on, preparing (writing up the statblocks, making sure the adventure was &quot;balanced&quot;, looking up the necessary feats and combat material ahead of time, etc.) felt far too much like &quot;work&quot; -- precisely the thing that D&amp;D was supposed to be a break from.&nbsp;&nbsp; :\&nbsp;&nbsp; The players seemed to really enjoy it -- but from the DM's perspective, it did not seem nearly as fun as the &quot;old days&quot; of playing 1st ed. AD&amp;D or, even better, RC D&amp;D.Two years passed, I moved and found a new group, and started DM'ing again.&nbsp; I thought my earlier frustration with 3rd ed. was probably due to the fact that I just had not fully &quot;internalized&quot; the rules during the last campaign (clinging to my old-fashioned RC D&amp;D notions, etc.).&nbsp; But sure enough, after DM'ing a 3.x campaign for 6+ months, the same frustrations and irritations returned.&nbsp; I came to hate prepping for our sessions -- it still felt like work, and I seemed to be constrained by the rules as to what kinds of adventures I could run.&nbsp; Although the sessions themselves are fun (again, thanks to the fact that I have players willing to interact with the world and stories I have set up), combat remains tedious IMO (I am just not into the mini-wargame aspect of 3.x), and prepping/statting for adventures a pain.So once the current campaign arc ends in a few weeks, I have had it.&nbsp; I will never DM 3.x again.&nbsp; It just is not fun enough.&nbsp;&nbsp; :\ This is not meant to be a universal dismissal of 3.x.&nbsp; I certainly enjoy being a player in a well-run 3.x campaign!&nbsp; But as for DM'ing a FRPG, I have come to realize that 3.x is definitely not my bag.In contrast, DM'ing the session of C&amp;C last week was a blast.&nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp;&nbsp; And prepping for it did not feel &quot;like work&quot; at all -- it reminded me of the good old days.&nbsp; &nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool&nbsp; &nbsp; :cool:"&nbsp; data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Akrasia, post: 1810153, member: 23012"] I empathize completely. When 3rd edition first came out, I was very excited, and ran a campaign during my last year of grad school. It was fun, but only because I had some great players (including two guys who worked semi-pro in improv comedy). I started to find the rules frustrating as time went by, and combat tedious. As the campaign wore on, preparing (writing up the statblocks, making sure the adventure was "balanced", looking up the necessary feats and combat material ahead of time, etc.) felt [I]far[/I] too much like "work" -- precisely the thing that D&D was supposed to be a break from. :\ The players seemed to really enjoy it -- but from the DM's perspective, it did not seem nearly as fun as the "old days" of playing 1st ed. AD&D or, even better, RC D&D. Two years passed, I moved and found a new group, and started DM'ing again. I thought my earlier frustration with 3rd ed. was probably due to the fact that I just had not fully "internalized" the rules during the last campaign (clinging to my old-fashioned RC D&D notions, etc.). But sure enough, after DM'ing a 3.x campaign for 6+ months, the same frustrations and irritations returned. I came to hate prepping for our sessions -- it still felt like work, and I seemed to be constrained by the rules as to what kinds of adventures I could run. Although the sessions themselves are fun (again, thanks to the fact that I have players willing to interact with the world and stories I have set up), combat remains tedious IMO (I am just not into the mini-wargame aspect of 3.x), and prepping/statting for adventures a pain. So once the current campaign arc ends in a few weeks, I have had it. I will [I]never[/I] DM 3.x again. It just is not fun enough. :\ This is not meant to be a universal dismissal of 3.x. I certainly enjoy being a player in a well-run 3.x campaign! But as for DM'ing a FRPG, I have come to realize that 3.x is definitely [I]not [/I] my bag. In contrast, DM'ing the session of C&C last week was [B]a blast[/B]. :) And prepping for it did not feel "like work" at all -- it reminded me of the good old days. :cool: [/QUOTE]

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