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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RFisher" data-source="post: 2085414" data-attributes="member: 3608">I'm going to be quoting out-of-order. Sorry.I don't know that I could explain it to you in just a single post. It took me years of playing & lots of time hanging out at DF & other places to figure it out myself.Firstly, I don't believe that more options necessarily makes for a better game. Would chess be a better game if every piece could move like a queen?Yes. I could play a bare-bones d20 system game. Classic D&D, however, is closer to what I want than the d20 system D&D. Why would I use the d20 system & change the XP progressions, put a max on HD, create race-classes, adjust classes to make up for the elimination of the feat & skills systems, &c. when classic D&D already has all those things?I have found that I want combat in a role playing game to be abstract. The player should think on a tactical & strategic level. Decisions like making a shield bash should be abstracted. The combat rules should be as simple as possible so that the optimal choices are obvious.I'll grant you that some things, like grappling, are things that I add to classic D&D. (Although, there are published rules for grappling in classic D&D, just not in the books I happen to use as a base.) It's easier for me to add those things to classic D&D than to change lots of things in the d20 system to be more like classic D&D.We let clerics & MU's use spontaneous casting instead of memorization/preparation in the 1980s. We didn't need the 3e for that.While I like the description of the 3e sorcerer--an inate spell caster--it's really weird to me that they cast the same formulaic spells that wizards do. If I were going to add a sorcerer to the game, I'd want their magic to be different from standard MU magic.Generally, I find that many of the options provided by 3e are things that either:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I don't want or need rules to regulate. (e.g. Craft, Profession, Knowledge)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Are details that I prefer be abstracted away. (e.g. Power Attack, Combat Expertise)</li> </ul>(Hmm...I thought I had a 3rd point, but it's slipped my mind...)& I don't discount the nostalgia factor. As much as I can appreciate the design of 3e, it will never evoke the emotions in me that OAD&D does. (Although, I did have a pretty poor opinion of OAD&D during the 1990s.) On the other hand, although I've played more OAD&D in my life than classic D&D, I now prefer classic D&D to OAD&D.When it comes right down to it, though, whether my analysis is correct or not doesn't really matter. What matters is that when I DM classic D&D I'm happy. When I DM 3e, I'm not. I can enjoy playing 3e, but I find playing classic D&D more enjoyable. As much as I struggle to understand, that's just the way it is.</blockquote>

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