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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GregoryOatmeal" data-source="post: 5690694" data-attributes="member: 6667661">This started as another rant about why WOTC should reprint 3.5 but forked into a related train of thought.I'm edition-fatigued. We all play the same game with about a 1%  difference between the editions/spinoffs/clones in what the actual game  is. Those small variations on what is essentially the same thing create  huge logistical barriers to actually playing the damn game. For example I  meet Jim. Jim seems like a cool guy and I'd love to have him play in my  3.5 game but first he needs to go spend $40 on a used 3.5 PHB because  he lost his old one and bought a $50 PF corebook that's essentially the  same minus some very small tweaks. If Jim is a normal person keeping  track of those minor variations in rules would make his head spin, as  they're buried amongst two-hundred pages of rules. With 4E and PF this  has gotten remarkably bad. Back in the day you just said "2E" or "3E"  and people showed up and knew what to do.Only roleplaying gamers would tolerate so many constant changes in a  hobby. Try modifying the rules of Monopoly (Monopoly 2012) or Football  (Advanced Football). Make Monopoly players role 3d6 on a pentagon-shaped  board or insist football fields be 150 yards - see how people take it.  People spend so much time learning a game and they just shut down. This  is why in my twenties I have so much trouble playing D&D with my  group as a teenager. "Oh, they changed the rules again? I have to buy a  new book? What's wrong with my 3.0 book?". As a teenager it was the same  getting them to switch from 2E to 3E, and it'll get much worse as work  and family eat more time in my thirties and forties. I understand the  profit motive to print new books, but what tends to happen is the game  just doesn't get played. Older gamers are rare and drop out of the hobby  or stick to one edition and give their money to used book stores when  their books break or they want additional splat books.I want to play the same D&D when I'm sixty. In 2045 I want to  play it with my sister, uncle, future unborn nephew, and my oldest  friend, all of whom haven't played the game in 1d4 decades. That's  what D&D is. The differences between 3E/4E/PF are only significant  if they keep us from enjoying the game together. I want everyone to have  one common PHB and edition so we can all just sit down and play. Like  Monopoly I want them to pick it up and play because they know the rules.  If you change editions every four to ten years this becomes impossible  because everyone's operating on different rules and resources. This is  why people don't stick with D&D. This is a big reason  D&D is a  niche hobby primarily associated with young people with  lots of time.  And you get old and play Scrabble with your kids and family and old  friends. I'm not saying the game should be a stale board game. At it's essence  D&D is a vehicle for creativity and improvisation. That game, a  standard-issue roleplaying game, should be on sale for decades like  Monopoly. It would still be D&D - where you can make up anything you  want and spend $800 on new third party splat books and homerule to  hell, it would just have a single solid foundation that everyone knows.  People would learn the rules and roleplay together and maybe, by some  chance reunion, pick up exactly where they left off thirty years later.That's what I want. I know, I'm dreaming...</blockquote>

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