Dungeons & Dragons Lite: Am I the Only One?

[Remathilis]

While *I* love rulebooks and bloat, my Eberron game hasn't delved beyond these books so far:

Players Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Monster Manual
Eberron Campaign Setting
Expanded Psionic's Handbook

Granted, we JUST Started, but with a wide variety of things to choose from (new races, classes, prcs, spells or feats) NO ONE has gone and chosen something out of them. (Yet).

Makes Porting Books around easy, though...

 

[Aus_Snow]

More books != More fun

Sure. Equally, more books !!= more fun.

 

[ghul]

No, you are not alone. But it seems most people like you are now playing C&C.

Me, I like keeping the game fresh.

Indeed. I have been the DM all my life, with only few and limited breaks as a player, or RL getting in the way for 2 - 6 months here and there. The longest I've gone without actually playing D&D was about a year back in the early 90's . My point is, I've run 1e from '81 - '89; 2e from '89 - '00; 3/3.5e from '00 - present. I've rolled with the system through each its incarnations, for better or worse. Now in my mid-30's, married, kids, and I'm still trying to create the best damn game I can for my players, so that when Tuesday night arrives, the air is charged with excitement and the mood is palpable. But the system has jaded me.

I have reached the point where I am unsatisfied with the rules heaviness of the current system. For all the reason submitted by past posters on these EN forums, I too am bringing my group to the Castles & Crusades system.

--Ghul

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Am I alone in my new, simple ways?

Yes.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I find that the sheer amount of books out there allow me to explore the game system in ways that would've required a metric ton of book keeping in the old days on my part with little help from the company outside some vague references to check the wandering prostitute table.

No, on a more serious note, I think that with such a wealth of material out there, it's easier than ever to customize your game. For example, you went with the simplistic route. That's good for keeping the game simple and fast moving.

I've seen other games where the GM has an approved list.

I've seen other games where the GM just goes with official WoTC stuff because it's "official".

There are no wrong answers.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I'm using Core only as a learning tool for myself as a new DM.
Fortunately, I have mostly entirely new players who won't want PrCs (I hope) and one guy who has experience but has a character concept that precludes PrCs to a point.
I did let the experienced player play a character concept from a Mongoose book, but that was like, the one possibly balanced one from that book. 8 entire skill points for a declining penalty (over the first five levels) to Charisma based checks.

 

[Li Shenron]

We have two campaigns. One is quite book-heavy, a 3.0 FR campaign where every FR book is allowed by default, but people can also pick stuff from all 3.0 and 3.5 books as long as they are generic supplements (not of another setting), and of course if the DM doesn't see a problem with the specific choice (especially if it's 3.5).

The other campaign is 3.0 "classic" homebrew with a few house rules, where only the PHB and the 5 classbooks are allowed (but PrCl are severely limited via RP).

 

[VorpalBunny]

I routinely restrict the books I'll allow players to bring into a game. Currently, my Eberron game uses resources from:

PHB
DMG
MM
Eberron Campaign Setting
Unearthed Arcana (Cloistered Cleric core class)
Complete Divine (one spell)
Complete Arcane (one spell)

 

[Jackelope King]

So my question is, has D&D bloat reached the epic proportions of the late 2e days?

If two books per month are somehow equivalent to six books a month.

Are all of you playing in campaigns with 25th level Half-Gelatinous Cube/Half-Stone Golem Paladins?

Nope. I've never seen the legendary "25th level half-gelatinous cube/half-stone golem paladin" or other such nonsense that people tell me is apparently epidemic these days.

Am I alone in my new, simple ways?

Nah, there's plenty of folks like you. Find the game you like and enjoy it: that's the whole point of a game. Just don't consider it your obligation to belittle the games that other folks enjoy either.

 

[Quasqueton]

You know, some restaurants have a wine list and a dessert menu.

And then one day, a patron realizes he doesn't have to look at the wine list and dessert menu. He jumps up on a table and loudly proclaims his epiphany:

"Hey, all you diners! I've decided to not order wine or dessert. I don't have to. I'm just ordering off the main menu. Am I alone? Or do you all want to leave here drunk and fat?"

The other diners look at the odd man on the tabletop. Does he not realize that many diners already dismiss the wine list and dessert menu from the hostess when they first sit at the table? Or does he not realize that many diners enjoy the wine and dessert, and they don't get drunk or fat?

* * *

Why do some players think playing core-only is an epiphany? Plenty of players play in core-only campaigns. And why do those players think that playing with some/all optional/supplemental material leads to "25th level Half-Gelatinous Cube/Half-Stone Golem Paladins?" Plenty of players play with the optional/supplemental material without insane characters.

And then to add to the funny, they call playing with 2-3 optional/suppmental books "Lite". I guess my core-only game is "Liter".

Quasqueton