How much use did you get from D&D 3.0e?

[roytheodd]

How much use did I get from 3rd ed? Well, it got me back into role-playing after a very long hiatus (2nd ed got me out by the way), it got me buying up books, it got me a job at the game store, it then got me a job for a game distributor and now I'm a salesman for that company. All because I ran a 3rd ed campaign - no joke.

As far as other mileage, eh, we got up to around level 5 or 6.

 

[Breakstone]

I ran (and played in) a Third Edition game right when it came out that went from 1st to 9th level...

Then I had a number of campaign starts that never turned out... so I'll say a total of 6 levels total of that...

Then I ran a campaign with a new group that went from 1st to... 4th level? I can't quite remember, but I think that was about right...

And now we're in the climax of a campaign that's gone from 1st to 7th level.

So, in total, I've gotten three years and about 26 levels of gaming! Does that mean I'm a 26th level DM?

However, we're not converting to 3.5 (we're harvesting for house rules instead), so we'll still get more out of Third Edition yet!

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

Well, haven't been doing as much gaming for the last three year as I'd have wanted but this is what it sums up to:

One campaign from 1st to 6th level (7 characters average)

One campaign from 6th to 6th level (7 characters - one session - I moved and the campaign terminated)

One campaign from 3rd level to 12th level (5 characters -my current)

-Zarrock

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

About 12 levels in one campaign that is still ongoing.

 

[drothgery]

Hmm...

I didn't play for about a year between getting the 3.0 books in a town where I didn't know any gamers, losing my job, getting a new job, moving across the country, and linking up with some gamers via ENWorld's Gamers Seeking Gamers.

Since then, playing about once a week (less time off for days when half the players and/or the DM couldn't make it), I took one character from level 3 to 12 (the rest of the party was level 6 when I joined; he leveled pretty quickly for a while there), and one that's gone from level 1 to level 15. He just might hit 16 before the campaign ends, but I'm not counting on it.

 

[Vymair]

Ran one campaign of 6 players from 3rd - 15th
Running current campaign of 6 players from 1st - 7th (ongoing, switching to 3.5).

Played a

Cleric/Bard from 5th - 8th
Psychic Warrior from 1st - 7th
Cleric/Ranger from 1st - 6th
Rogue/Savant from 3rd - 6th
Druid from 3rd - 13th (ongoing, switching to 3.5)
Sohei/Monk in OA Game from 1st - 5th
Fighter from 1st - 4th (ongoing)
Barbarian from 2nd-3rd (ongoing, switching to 3.5)

So i got plenty of use from my books

 

[Ranes]

I only got into third edition a year ago. My first campaign began last November and is still running. We've played twenty-six times for about four hours per session. That's 104 hours of use. Tripling that will account for my preparation time, bringing me to 312 hours and counting... Then there's been the reading and re-reading of the books and just having fun with them. I'd have to say double our last number to account for all of that.

I've had approximately 26 days' use out of 3.0, by no means too much. Of course, I'm plotting my expedition to acquire the 3.5 books regardless.

[Edit]: The party will reach 5th level as soon as they get themselves out of the deep hole they're in and make that long overdue trip back to civilisation, btw.

 

[takyris]

After a decade-long hiatus, got back into D&D when I heard about 3rd Edition coming out.

Started playing in August 2000. Finished that campaign two days ago. About once per week (every Monday, with some misses), about 4.5 hours per session. Characters started at level 1. When the last blow fell on Monday, two characters were 20, and the rest were in the high teens (18-19, due to level drain, death, XP funneled into items, etc.).

$60 for three years of weekly entertainment that was usually more fun than whatever was playing in the theater? I'll take that.

-Tacky

 

[Agamon]

Started my campaign in September 1999 (2e/3e hybrid until the official release) and it just ended last week (that has nothing to do with 3.5, however). That game was bi-weekly and went about 10 levels (obviously, we didn't use the recomended 3E xp chart...).

Played numerous other games, too many to count, that lasted from a couple sessions to 6 months.

I've also been playing in Living Greyhawk for a year, I'm currently Level 4. I'll be getting some more use out of 3e from LG until it converts to 3.5.

The question should be, how much use will I get out of 3.5? The answer is, very little. Other than LG, I don't plan on playing D&D again for quite some time. My next campaign is MnM, the one after that is 7th Sea. d20 Modern and Buffy might get thrown in there somewhere, as well.

 

[Desdichado]

I actually agree with diaglo (is that a first? I'm not sure) about slow level advancement. Unfortunately, I also seem to be stuck in continuous abortive campaign mode. It's hard to get a campaign to last for more than a few months with all the groups I've played with since 3e launched, for a variety of mostly coincidental reasons. I have hopes that we'll get something more longterm going here soon, but I don't think it'll be 3.5 -- we're itching to run d20 Modern, M&M, Buffy or maybe even GURPS more than anything else.

We did have an idea to do an artificially fast game, though -- one level per session of 3e with rotating DMs. That only ended up lasting three or four weeks too, due to some weird circumstances, but we kinda want to get it going again as an experiment of sorts.