I DMed four versions of D&D this week...

[MerricB]

regarding your RA AD&D game, how was the party able to cope with the demons? Were they able to quickly recognize their power and implement a retreat?

Thankfully, they were. The halfling rogue who was sneaking ahead almost got eaten, but the group didn't foolishly try to slay them and instead took another path.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

I'm currently playing in a regular Pathfinder game and taking part in irregular D&D Next playtests, as well as continuing to run one 4e campaign and play in another. I'm enjoying all of them but the one thing that strikes me is how similar Pathfinder and Next are, and how different 4e is once we get into combat. The rest of the time, when we're exploring and roleplaying, all three games feel pretty much the same i.e. like D&D. I'm curious to try 2nd edition again - if I had more time I think I'd try and run a group through Dead Gods or an Al-Qadim adventure to see how the system feels 13 years on from when I played it last.

I'd love to see how 2E runs this time around; although I started with 1E (and Moldvay Basic), my first real DMing of a campaign came during the 2E days. (My first session had eight players, so some things don't change that much!)

It's fascinating to see 2E's inconsistent approach towards rules: the result of freelancing out the Complete series with not much internal oversight. Great rules and complete rubbish all mixed in together. With 1E, I can blame Gary Gygax for the missteps; I don't know who to blame in 2E!

Unfortunately, I kind of get the same vibe from character options in 2E as I do with Pathfinder. PF allows amazing character variety, but that goes hand-in-hand with amazing character optimization, and there's a few (common) combinations that give me pause. This session it wasn't a problem, because the session lacked straight-up fights, but every so often I get extremely frustrated with how combats run. 4E really spoiled me for interesting fights. This isn't to say that I haven't had great fights in 3E and PF, but they tended to be the exception and not the rule. (I've had a lot of boring, grindy fights in 4E, but fewer since Essentials came along).

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Yeah congrats on a weekend of awesome gaming, amazing to get all that in and still have time for some boardgames, let alone eating and sleeping!

Ah yes, eating and sleeping. Funny you should mention them...

Cheers!