Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Quixote" data-source="post: 3434001" data-attributes="member: 694">So I've spent the better part of the last year trying to "reform" my 3e campaign, and I've had some success in that area.  Mainly by stripping feats and prestige classes out of the game, I was able to recapture some of that AD&D feel.  But it was an awful lot of work for realtively little payoff, and the fact of the matter is, it's not AD&D that gives me most of my happy, fuzzy memories about playing the game for the first time.  It's the Classic edition, based on the B/X booklets and the RC.  So, just for kicks, I decided to run that.  I pulled out my old "The Classic D&D Game" boxed set and I ran my PCs through "Escape From Zanzer Tem's Dungeon" and "The Lost Treasure of Stonefast."  Then I decided to keep going, through B1 - In Search of the Unknown (I'm sure some of you folks out there remember Quesqueton...  <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    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> ) and now we're on B2 - Keep on the Borderlands.I've noticed a few things since going retro.1. No multiclassing?  It hasn't hurt my game in the least, especailly since, even when I was playing 3e, most players never, ever took advantage of the M/C option, except to cherrypick a level or two.  In theory, it sounds really nice to say that your 5th level fighter can train with a thieves' guild to become a 1st level thief.  Logically, anyway, there's no reason to realistically dis-allow such a thing.  It's just that... in years and years of playing 3e, I don't remember anyone ever significantly departing from whatever class they started in, let alone role-playing the event of picking up a second class.  In 2e, if you could dual-class, you did, because it was a real power boost.  But in 3e?  The multiclassing rules actually tend to hurt most characters' relative power, and so they usually don't get used.  In short, after switching back to basic D&D, they're hardly missed (which I didn't expect, but was surprised to notice).2. It's a human world again.  With only the human characters allowed to pick whether they're Fighters, Clerics, Thieves, Mages, or Monks, players are pretty reluctant to settle on playing an Elf, Dwarf, or Hobbit.  I even use the variant rule from the back of the RC that lets demihumans advance past their level limits, and still players prefer humans.  It makes the game feel... well, normal again.  I no longer have entire parties of non-humans trying to interact with a mostly human-populated world.  So this is definitely a good thing AFAIAC.3. THAC0 isn't so bad!  Really!  I mean, what's the difference, honestly?  In 3e, if you're a fighter attacking with a bonus of +3 and your enemy has AC 17, you know you need to roll a 14 or better to hit.  d20 + attack bonus beats AC.  Very simple, very intuitive.  In the classic game, though, if you're a fighter with THAC0 17 attacking an enemy with an AC of 3, what's the difference?  You know that if the d20 + the bad guy's AC beats your THAC0, you hit -- roll 14 or better.  What I'm driving at here is, since the numbers are practically the same, why the hate?  Why is it that whenever anyone brings up "what's bad about D&D before 3e came out", THAC0 and AC always top the list?  I'm not seeing a difference!4. In order to allow all of the roles that exist in my campaign to be fulfilled, I've only had to add two human classes (noble and scientist).  I've had to add a great deal more demi-human classes to cover all the races that exist in my campaign, but thankfully, since most basic D&D demi-humans just wind up being weaker variations on the fighter, that means that players only go for those classes when they really want to role-play something special.  That said, some concepts just make for really, really cool basic D&D classes... and when all is said and done, it turns out that all I need to run a basic D&D campaign is the Rules Cyclopedia and a little five-page house rules document that adds the extra classes and a few odd spells and weapons.  One book, and I'm playing a whole D&D camapign!  This is far and away the happiest side-effect of my little sojourn into retro-gaming.  Three core manuals, half a dozen Complete books, Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, and a whole pile of other heavy hardcovers get to stay on my shelf when I go to play... all I can say is, I'm so stoked over how much easier it is to play basic D&D that I just can't stop glowing.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Has anybody else had a similar experience with going back and playing by the "auld school" rules?</blockquote>

Verification