Dungeons & Dragons Lite: Am I the Only One?

[Sebastian Francis]

We're being buried in an avalanche of 3.5 books. Stormwrack, Races of Stone, Windwalker, Races of Copper, Heroes of Happiness, Heroes of Horror . . . I can't keep up.

But I don't have to. You see, after taking some time off, here's what I've decided to do. I'm going to start a 3.0 campaign (I never got into 3.5) using *only* the following books:

1. Player's Handbook
2. Dungeon Master's Guide
3. Monster Manual 1 and 2
4. Arms and Equipment Guide
5. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer

And that's it. D&D Lite. No spells, feats, equipment, prestige classes, base classes, or races are allowed UNLESS THEY ARE FOUND IN THE ABOVE BOOKS.

So my question is, has D&D bloat reached the epic proportions of the late 2e days? Are all of you playing in campaigns with 25th level Half-Gelatinous Cube/Half-Stone Golem Paladins?

Am I alone in my new, simple ways?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Am I alone in my new, simple ways?

Nope. My group is slowly chugging through RttToEE. Core rules and a couple of splat books only.

 

[maggot]

My campaign has is the three core books, plus a smattering of the Manual of the Planes and the Monster Manual II, but both of those are DM only. Setting is homebrew with about five pages of text.

 

[Akrasia]

I don't consider even using only the core books 'D&D lite'. You're probably playing the game the way that 70+ percent of people who play 3e play the game. And standard 3e is not a 'lite' game.

I consider using the RC (or playing C&C) 'D&D lite'.

 

[Sebastian Francis]

I don't consider even using only the core books 'D&D lite'. You're probably playing the game the way that 70+ percent of people who play 3e play the game. And standard 3e is not a 'lite' game.

I consider using the RC (or playing C&C) 'D&D lite'.

Certainly true. I was being mildly ironic. It seems that using core stuff is "Lite" when one views the avalanche of stuff available!

 

[John Desmarais]

We're being buried in an avalanche of 3.5 books. Stormwrack, Races of Stone, Windwalker, Races of Copper, Heroes of Happiness, Heroes of Horror . . . I can't keep up.

But I don't have to. You see, after taking some time off, here's what I've decided to do. I'm going to start a 3.0 campaign (I never got into 3.5) using *only* the following books:

1. Player's Handbook
2. Dungeon Master's Guide
3. Monster Manual 1 and 2
4. Arms and Equipment Guide
5. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer

And that's it. D&D Lite. No spells, feats, equipment, prestige classes, base classes, or races are allowed UNLESS THEY ARE FOUND IN THE ABOVE BOOKS.

So my question is, has D&D bloat reached the epic proportions of the late 2e days? Are all of you playing in campaigns with 25th level Half-Gelatinous Cube/Half-Stone Golem Paladins?

Am I alone in my new, simple ways?

Were I to run D&D again I'd do the same thing.

John D

 

[Agback]

I'm going to start a 3.0 campaign (I never got into 3.5) using *only* the following books:

1. Player's Handbook
2. Dungeon Master's Guide
3. Monster Manual 1 and 2
4. Arms and Equipment Guide
5. Living Greyhawk Gazetteer

I should think that ought to be more than enough. Were I to run D&D again I would use only the 3.0 PHB, DMG, and MM1. And not use everything in the latter two books. Though the Arms & Equipment Guide sounds intriguing.

One problem with all the supplements is that everything gets much more complicated than I like. There come to be too many possibilities to prepare against, I can't keep track of what the PCs are able to do and what the NPCs ought to be able to do.

The other is that the rules become hopelessly dysorganised. Races ought to be all in one place, classes all in another place, feats all in a third place, spells all in a fourth, rules for environmental conditions all in a fifth, monsters all in a sixth, equipment all in a seventh, magic items all in an eighth. With all these things muddled together and scattered at random through books with no combined index precious playing time is wasted hunting for rules.

 

[The Shaman]

Am I alone in my new, simple ways?

I bought the Castles and Crusades players' handbook today - I think your game sounds way too complicated for me...

 

[scourger]

I've only run core games for 3.0 & 3.5. Even if I use a setting, I just use that setting book. I don't even use prestige classes. It's still too much by about 7th level. If I ever get around to running D&D again, I'm thinking about making the replacement characters start over at 1st level just to try to keep it at lower levels.

 

[painandgreed]

So my question is, has D&D bloat reached the epic proportions of the late 2e days? Are all of you playing in campaigns with 25th level Half-Gelatinous Cube/Half-Stone Golem Paladins?

Am I alone in my new, simple ways?

Personally, I see no use for half your books. Nothing in MM II I'd use off hand. Arms and Equipment is worse than worthless. Have a homebrew world rather than Greyhawk. However, I do use Savage Species.