Nebulous
Legend
Hairfoot said:I agree with a lot of what Jack7 is saying, especially the "porn" part, but I think some respondents have homed in unfairly on individual statements.*
Regardless of its shortcomings as a system, I liked the fact that 1E was about adventures, plots, mysteries, and heroism. It was notably lacking in extensive descriptions of armour made from unique types of rock, shapechanging dragon-born illithid-spawned half-tanarii, acid-bleeding ghost-touch punch-daggers infused with souls of ancient demons, and extensive lists of power-ups which defined where and what your character could do. This is the porn.
I have spent many hours poring over lists of magic items, races, equipment, and feats, wondering how to optimise or "pimp" my character for a game. Entertaining though it was, it wasn't what originally sucked me into the joy of roleplaying. I like D&D 3.5, but like Jack7, I hope there's more adventure and less porn in 4E.
I agree with Hairfoot. As much as I do like 3.x, and D&D in general, i don't like the slant toward oodles of strange magic items dangling from every part of your body, offering a plethora of minor and major bonuses. The equipment and class abilities ARE the characters now, with little emphasis on anything else. Of course, this is controllable by the DM and player, but it takes practice and patience, especially when trying to wrangle disparate people who have different character goals, one roleplaying, the other pimping himself out with magic dingleberries.
In relation to the "porn" aspect, i see how D&D needed to change from it's early days (at least from a business standpoint, they needed to sell books), and this explosion of power creep was just a natural evolution of the game. It's not the preferred way i like to play (or run) D&D, but it IS workable.