D&D General D&D Editions: Anybody Else Feel Like They Don't Fit In?

I just want to say that I appreciate the conversation, even where people don't agree. Just knowing that it's "not just me" is helpful. :)

I'll ponder some of the ideas and suggestions and may eventually share my heavily kit-bashed Homebrew rules as I hammer them out. Just in case anyone would be interested.
interesting to see what you come up with
 

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OP, have you looked at Dragonbane? It sounds like it might be a good fit - streamlined rules and back to more reasoned and dangerous power scale.

I also could see a market for scaled back 5e that reduces the superhero feel.
 

So, this may feel like a strange thread, but I hope people will bear with me.

I have been playing and DM'ing "Dungeons & Dragons" since the early-80s, and I am feeling more and more like there is no place in the hobby where I truly "fit" anymore. I grew up with the mechanical simplicity of B/X D&D, starting with the 1980 B/X Boxed sets supplemented by an AD&D Monster Manual. We quickly abandoned "race as class" and cherry-picked rules from the hardcover books (I read them all, and still have my Dungeoneer and Wilderness Survival Guides, but that basic game continued. I had some enduring campaigns as 1st-Edition turned to 2nd, and I kept playing D&D, but I always longed for a better skill system; as the combination of "wing it" and Nonweapon Proficiencies never quite cut it for me.

When 3e dropped, I loved it at first, but the longer I played, the more something became clear to me. Dungeons & Dragons had become more "over-the-top fantastical" than I liked. Cook and Tweet basically had turned the default setting of Dungeons & Dragons into a high-magic Monty Haul campaign. The magic system still grated and the constant embrace of making characters MORE magical was taking it further from the kind of fantasy stories I want to tell.

I grew up on Arthurian legends, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Conan, and a bunch of other "Sword & Sorcery" stuff. I didn't want my fantasy game to let me play the medieval equivalent of the X-Men, where every character has magical powers. I've thought about going back to the OSR, but the truth is that I want a game that has more rules guidance than those games offer. I just don't want one where every character can teleport, cast spells, and all of the other high-magic shenanigans that D&D embraces from the get-go.

The 5.24e embrace of this flavor has me turned off more than anything else. But I don't see a home for myself. Part of me wants to go backwards, but OSR type games are usually either too lethal (or grim-dark), too enamored of outdated game mechanics (OSE), or they're overly enamored with tables and whacky subsystems (looking at you DCC). I want there to be more fun combat options, but I don't want a lot of fiddly rules that will slow the game down. I see promise in something like DCC's "Mighty Deeds of Arms," or DMScotty's "Luck Dice" (or Professor DM's "Deathbringer Dice") or whatever you want to call them. I see some fun sub-systems in DC20, but I also see it getting way too fiddly.

Shadowdark speaks to my tastes a little (I love "roll to cast"), but I'd have to houserule some additions and alterations to it to really get the game I want. There's some other heavily house-ruled versions of OSR or "simplified 5e" that work for me, but they aren't there. But while I love the d20 resolution mechanic, I may need to walk away from a D&D that is becoming increasingly fantastical. And I don't know where to go.

Sorry for the wall of text, but is anybody else in this boat?
I understand what you’re saying, but I find I5e the most old-school friendly version of the modern game. Because of bounded accuracy, you can drop all the fantastic elements and magic. Just play sword and sword no sorcery needed. It can, fairly easy feel very old school. At least it does for us, who were also raised on BECMI and 1e
 

elaborate I feel like I walk in half way to the conversation.
I do hate the endless spell caster-based subclasses as that makes it feel like magic is the only thing that matters
Not sure how to do that. A low or rare magic game simply doesn't feel right if it's full of spells, even if the spells are cast by the PCs. It's still a ton of magic on camera. And in any case, it would be odd to see a bunch of PC spellcasters and no NPCs with similar abilities. So you add those in and BOOM!, you're back to WotC mega-magic.
 

OP, have you looked at Dragonbane? It sounds like it might be a good fit - streamlined rules and back to more reasoned and dangerous power scale.

I also could see a market for scaled back 5e that reduces the superhero feel.
I have heard things about the author of Dragonbane that lead me not to want to send him money, but I'll give it a look if I can find a free download somewhere. ;)
 

No, you are not alone.
I started with Holmes Basic. I enjoyed the feel of Basic D&D and AD&D 1e provided I ignored things like psionics (due to mechanics), Expedition to the Barrier, certain spells, and certain monsters,. The same was true of early AD&D 2e using the core books and some of the player handbook reference series. However, I came to dislike the mechanics of early D&D.

5e is an edition that I like using the core rules, some third party material, and a few house rules (e.g. removing certain PHB races, subclasses, and various spells).
In contrast, I dislike 5e's official supplements. I found SCAG, Xanathar's, and Tasha's to all be very disappointing with Tasha's player material being the worst for my taste (and I am refraining from writing what I really feel Tasha's to avoid not only disparaging a product that others might like, but the designers as desginers). Therefore, my, overall, feeling toward the 2024 previews is pretty much the same as it is towards Tasha's- although, I have found a few things worth stealing from the 2024 previews

I am still willing to run a house ruled 3e or 5e 2014 using core books and third party material. However, with 5e 2024 moving farther away from the fantasy I prefer, I find myself more interested in running/playing the following rather than continuing to house rule 3e or 5e:
  • Savage Worlds (Lankhmar, Solomon Kane, Beasts & Barbarians, Hellfrost, Sundered Skies),
  • Barbarians of Lemuria/Sword & Sorcery Codex;
  • Honor + Intrigue; and
  • The Witcher
The new Conan Quickstart from Monolith looks interesting and Conan may be an addition to the above list.
 
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I have heard things about the author of Dragonbane that lead me not to want to send him money, but I'll give it a look if I can find a free download somewhere.
Haven’t heard anything myself and don’t intend to go headhunting. In any case take a look at the website and see if it describes what you’re looking for.

 


OSR type games are usually either too lethal (or grim-dark), too enamored of outdated game mechanics (OSE), or they're overly enamored with tables and whacky subsystems (looking at you DCC). I want there to be more fun combat options, but I don't want a lot of fiddly rules that will slow the game down. I see promise in something like DCC's "Mighty Deeds of Arms," or DMScotty's "Luck Dice" (or Professor DM's "Deathbringer Dice") or whatever you want to call them. I see some fun sub-systems in DC20, but I also see it getting way too fiddly.

Shadowdark speaks to my tastes a little (I love "roll to cast"), but I'd have to houserule some additions and alterations to it to really get the game I want. There's some other heavily house-ruled versions of OSR or "simplified 5e" that work for me, but they aren't there. But while I love the d20 resolution mechanic, I may need to walk away from a D&D that is becoming increasingly fantastical. And I don't know where to go.
I haven't found any game that combines D&D medium crunch with medium fantasy (that is, lower than high but not actually "low fantasy") that is also well balanced, well edited and well supported.

If you find one, do let me know.
 

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