It is Done! The Last Vestiges of My 3.x Era is Gone!

[innerdude]

So a few weeks ago, I put up a free, local classified ad to sell what few Pathfinder and D&D 3.x books I had remaining. And tonight, they all sold.

And yes, granted, I still have my Paizo PDFs. And yes, I still have my Golarion, FR, and Eberron campaign setting hard copies.

But I no longer have a single, physical hard copy of any core rules or rules supplements from TSR, WotC, or Paizo currently in my home.

And strangely . . . it feels AWESOME, somehow.

I am free, free from the D&D Edition Wars, free from arguing about hit points and healing surges, free to steal source material from anywhere I please, and convert it without worrying about "system." I no longer have to worry about balancing a high-level Pathfinder campaign, because I can say in all sincerity, "I won't run it, don't have the book for it anymore."

I can buy 5e, or 13th Age, or Numenara, or ignore them entirely, and in either case will still have more than enough quality gaming at my fingertips (Savage Worlds, FATE-LoA, One Ring, Fantasy Craft, Star Wars D6). It's strange to think back just how much I clung to D&D, only to realize now I never really needed it at all . . .

(Okay, okay, enough random philosophizing. )

 

[delericho]

Congratulations, I think. So, any thoughts on what the next game is going to be?

 

[Empirate]

I assume you started gaming with some form of D&D? Starting out a gaming career with D&D, I can see how it might be hard to break away from it, and liberating to have finally done it. D&Dism is a severe problem, maybe more with the community than with a gaming individual, though. Maybe I was lucky that I got in with Shadowrun, and after a brief stint of AD&D 2nd Ed, I got into Hârnmaster. Maybe I was lucky that there were always gamer friends around who brought up stuff like FATE, or next-to-rules-free homebrew, or whatever, so I never got drafted into D&Dism too much.

But don't underestimate what a good knowledge of D&D can do for you. It does a looooooooot of things very well, and provides one (admittedly often surpassed) very important standard for the whole hobby. The point may come when you'll be sad you sold it all. Coz the thing is, I believe it's the "clinging", not the "D&D", that's the bad part of "clinging to D&D".

 

[lutecius]

congrats, I guess, but I've never felt owning d&d books was a barrier to trying new games. To me, the problem was always finding enough players wanting to learn a whole new system.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, I'm glad you feel better, but I don't get how the presence or lack of a book in your home frees you from Internet arguments or trying new games? Still, if you're never going to use them again, may as well sell them and make a little money!

 

[sheadunne]

There's still the SRD and PRD. Time to cancel the internet! haha

I haven't owned physical copies of D&D or PF for several years, but it hasn't stopped me running or playing them. And now with the re-release of D&D via PDF, it's all just a click away!

Congratulations! Whether you play it or not, you've at least freed up some bookshelf space!

 

[innerdude]

Yeah, I'm glad you feel better, but I don't get how the presence or lack of a book in your home frees you from Internet arguments or trying new games? Still, if you're never going to use them again, may as well sell them and make a little money!

LOL, that's a good question, I don't know precisely why it felt so . . . satisfying, I guess you'd say. I think it was a sort of nostalgic, final "waving goodbye" to something that's been a meaningful part of my life for 25 years. I no longer have an actual D&D, hardcover rulebook in my possession.

I even sold my original Rules Cyclopedia as part of the set, which I've literally had since the week it was released in 1991, bought from a now long-defunct FLGS.

I don't know, I guess I wanted to share this here because I'm sure there's people in the hobby that haven't yet considered that there's something out there OTHER than D&D--and my RPG life is better by a factor of five or six since I started branching out into other systems. (Granted, there's probably not many who frequent this site, but still . . . .)

I guess it was a realization that in some way, "D&D" was a part of my identity, and that moving on was symbolic somehow, like making a true "break from tradition." I don't know, can't explain it other than that.

As far as the whole "no more arguing" thing, I guess it's part of that whole "breaking from tradition" thing. I think it just seems that I'm now more apt to look at a game based on its own merits, and how it actually works in play, than to worry about whether it meets my sensibility of "whether it's better or worse than D&D," if that makes sense.

 

[innerdude]

There's still the SRD and PRD. Time to cancel the internet! haha

I haven't owned physical copies of D&D or PF for several years, but it hasn't stopped me running or playing them. And now with the re-release of D&D via PDF, it's all just a click away!

Congratulations! Whether you play it or not, you've at least freed up some bookshelf space!

Dangit, you're right! The Interwebz, always ruining everything like that . . . .

Thing is too, I'm not a "collector" of RPGs in ANY sense of the word. I mean, I've SEEN the pictures of some people's collections in this forum, and it's CA-RAZY how deep some people's collections go. The actual shelf space was sort of a minimal concern . . . but you're right! I now have room for the next One Ring boxed set . . . or FATE Core . . . or the Coretex+ Hacker's Guide . . . or the next amazing setting book for Savage Worlds . . . or Night's Black Agents . . . .

 

[pemerton]

I no longer have a single, physical hard copy of any core rules or rules supplements from TSR, WotC, or Paizo currently in my home.

<snip>

I am free, free from the D&D Edition Wars, free from arguing about hit points and healing surges, free to steal source material from anywhere I please, and convert it without worrying about "system."

Congratulations on your new-found freedom!

Over the past few years I've been on something of an opposite trajectory. Having started GMing (4e) D&D against after nearly 20 years of mostly GMing Rolemaster, my D&D collection has actually increased noticeably. Though even when I GMed Rolemaster I still bought a lot of D&D stuff, because I used predominantly (though by no means exlucively) D&D story elements in my RM campaigns.

I'm now more apt to look at a game based on its own merits, and how it actually works in play, than to worry about whether it meets my sensibility of "whether it's better or worse than D&D," if that makes sense.

That makes sense to me.

Even with the D&D-verse, I think some people can have a very narrow conception of what D&D is. I already mentioned that I ran Rolemaster for nearly 20 years using a big chunk of D&D material (especially a lot of Greyhawk and Oriental Adventures stuff, plus converting many creatures from the AD&D MMs and FF). In my 4e campaign I've used classic D&D material (the old B/X module Night's Dark Terror), 3E material (Speaker in Dreams, plus an Eden Odyssey vignette collection Wonders Out of Time) and 4e material (various adpatations of H2 and P2, and in due course E1). The only time I GMed 3E I used old classic D&D scenarios from White Dwarf, plus Tom Moldvay's Castle Amber. And when my 4e campaign finishes in a year or two I'd like to GM Burning Wheel, using some of the Penumbra 3E adventures as sources for scenario ideas (I think they fit the BW tone nicely).

Maybe I'm unusual in seeing modules mostly through the prism of story material rather than mechanics, but looking at modules that way has meant I've always had a pretty expansive conception of what counts as D&D.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Maybe I'm unusual in seeing modules mostly through the prism of story material rather than mechanics, but looking at modules that way has meant I've always had a pretty expansive conception of what counts as D&D.

I don't know...maybe its my legal training or some such...but I have no problem being inclusive and exclusive about D&D.

What I mean is this: while I have no problem with calling AD&D=>3.5Ed D&D, and can understand why some call the 3.5Ed clones D&D, I don't find 4Ed particularly D&D like. It doesn't have the right feel to me.

And yet, sort of like you, pemerton, I have used D&D material in other systems, most notably and most often in Fantasy HERO. In fact, I've found I can use material from any and all editions of D&D simultaneously in F-HERO, right down to mimicking certain diverse class or race mechanics, and even nods to the various multiclassing rules. IOW, with the right prep work, I can run a F-HERO campaign in which each person at the table could essentially run a PC based in their favorite version of D&D.