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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 3745786" data-attributes="member: 20741">[rant]Alright. Yes. This is a rant.It's not a rant AT someone or even AT a particular rule,  per se.It's a rant about the whole damn thing we profess to love here.You see, I've come to the point where I have decided I got to put 3.5 down for a bit.  Worse, I've also come to the point where I think that the thing which is bugging the crap out of me about 3.5 is going to get WAY WORSE in 4E, not better.And as a consequence, I've come to the realization maybe I'm just a dinosaur.The problem is that I have finally reached that point in my current campaign where boredom, burnout and high level tedium are all coming together in a Perfect Storm: and I realized that I need a break.Not just from my current campaign (though that too) -  I need a break from D&D 3.5.The problem? The RAW is just too damn video gamey.  And seeing as I happen to be professionally involved in making licensed D&D computer game adventures in the recent past - that's saying something.The RAW assumes a lot of things that I knew long ago (like, 25 years ago) that I didn't like. But it had been so long away from it, it was an imperfect memory. Moreover, it was one without emotional immediacy.The problem? A game system DESIGNED so that there are No friggin consequences. The party fightsand, afterwards? It heals to max for a pittance of inconvenience. I kill a character - they raise him or her in an instant. They run out of big gun spells? They rope trick and rest in perfect safety.My RAW game has become like stock NWN1.  The party is always at max, fights have no consequences, death is a temporary game state - not an event, and it's all one big hack n slash KILL HIM AND TAKE HIS STUFF AS QUICK AS YOU CAN.The party gets treasure - and devises even more items to build or buy that maximizes their munchkinhood. They are DRIPPING with magic in my Age of Worms campaign. They are dripping with items like it was one of my Picnics to the Lower Planes Campaigns I ran 26 years ago in high school.And there was a REASON I didn't run campaign like that again for 20+ years. And while I remembered the reason I hated them - it took me until 2/3rds of the way through the Age of Worms  AP to internalize it again as a value:I hate high power games. I really do.  Most of all, I hate high power games without consequences. And the RAW - that's what they are all about: no consequences. Another encounter. More XP, More treasure. Level up. Quick!! More feats - more spells, More power.  FASTER damn it. More!!! We need to LEVEL FASTER!!!!Injured? Cure Light wounds wand after combat. BAMF. Everybody's at max again. Dead? QUICK - preserve life! Whew, Ok. Fix that again. BAMF Deduct some gold. Next room! ROPE TRICK.  Back at it, boys!Now, in fairness, I KNOW that the game need not be like this; that this video game like nature of the game we run is ultimately a choice as much as it is a consequence of the rules. I know that there are options which prevent it - campaign styles which discourage it. And yes, alternative D20 systems designed to ameliorate its effects.But the idea of my PAST campaign was to sample RAW in all of its unbridled glory.  To let the game play and be exploited just like it was written. To let the players run rampant with the rules as written and FILL THEIR BOOTS with as much as they could carry away, or exploit or reveal to be a Golden Covered Chocolate Munchkin.That was my two year experiment. It had its moments, I'll admit.  But I got to stop this craziness. And I got to stop it now.Somewhere at about 9th-10th level, the game upped its power level to Super-Heroes Without Capes. And it was about then I just plain started getting crabby about the whole damn thing.The video game nature of the system in all its munchkinized luminosity was beginning to shine through in RAW OVERWHELMING POWER - and I bloody HATE IT.There. I said it.It's not attacks of opportunity. It's not miniatures and "complex combat" that has got me down. Quite the contrqry. That's all good. It's none of that.  It's power levels without restraint; it's magic items that are no longer chocolate - they are THE MAIN FRIGGIN' COURSE BY DESIGN. It's healing resources that are so Uber - it's laughable.This may appeal to somebody out there. But you know what? Screw this. It ain't for me.So I've resolved to take a break from 3.5.  No, not Iron Heroes or True 20 or Castles and Crusades. Not even Conan.. Nah.I'm going to dig out the Rolemaster 2 books again and blow off the dust. I'm going to start my PCs again at first level and make then PLAN their battles. Because if they get it wrong - the dice will lop of limbs - kill characters and wreak havoc upon them.I'm going to Flip to the Ram/ Butt/ Bash/ Knock Down/ Slug Attack Table and grin like a Rat Bastard GM.I'm going to Lightning Bolt these bastards and HURT EM. With an "E" electricity and a "C" fire.I'm going to look at them like they have snakes growing out of their heads when they "detect magic".  I'm going to see them get EXCITED when they find a superior steel broadsword and act like the GODS have interfered when they find a weak magic blade.I'm going to make them look at their food supply and worry about eating having to eat their horses. I'm going to watch them apply a poultice of herbs to heal a wound, not search through the latest Heward's Handy Haversack for a Cure Light Wounds wand.I'm going to watch my players look NERVOUS when they get in combat and the percentile dice start dropping in the open. I'm not going to fudge behind a screen. I'm going to run Rolemaster combat in the bloody open and let the dice fall where they may.  I am going to kill some party members - and they aren't coming back.There are going to be challenges - and there are going to be friggin' CONSEQUENCES again.It's going to be Grim - and it's going to be Gritty. It's going to be Westeros just before the fall of Valyria. And screw this "Man, Myth and Uber-Magic" stuff. Nah. There is going to be PP and I: Poverty, Pestilience and Inequality.  With not a wizard in sight in living memory.This 4 color superhero stuff might be fun to play - but by God - is it ever tedious as hell to run.[/rant]</blockquote>

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