D&D 3.x Mike Selinker about the release of 3.0 D&D

[Emerikol]

Mike Selinker on the release of 3.0. Happy 25th birthday, D&D 3E
do you remember where you were? I was out of the hobby until near the end of 3.5.

I went to Gen Con that year as I knew 3e was coming out. I'd been following it on Eric Noah's board which is part of this boards history. I went to a playtest session and ran into Monte Cook. For whatever reason at the time I had not paid attention to the authors so I didn't know him from Adam. I think for just a second he was surprised I didn't know who he was. He turned out to be an incredibly cool person for introducing a game. I'm been a Monte fan ever since though his cypher system is not to my tastes.

 

[Emerikol]

I ran a several long 1e campaigns and one that transitions to 2e. I was in college during that time so my game tailed off a bit. I played some after graduation. When 3e came along, I played another long campaign. For me a long campaign is at least three years but mine were much longer. I had high level characters in 2e using the Gygaxian advancement rate.

 

[Nebulous]

I don't remember the launch day, but I remember Dragon magazine teasing the hell out of it for a long time leading up to 3e.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I was completely oblivious to it. I was deep in grad school and hadn't gamed in about 2-3 years. I wouldn't discover that there was a new edition until early 2002, when I picked up an issue of Dragon magazine I saw in a magazine rack on a whim.

 

[Atomoctba]

I was DMing a campaign and playing another, both in AD&D 2e. I and my group spent months complaining about how easy resurrection became and other small pet peeves. We eventually changed to 3.0 and 3.5, but as easy as that we changed to 4E and later, to 5E. No one of us regard that as the "best" edition, but we had lots of fun playing it even so.

 

[CacklinSlayers]

The Infinity Engine crpgs opened my eyes to dnd. I became obsessed with the idea that I could make my own stories and play in this wonderful world with my friends, but the 2E rules were really hard to wrap my teenage brain around, and the crpgs didn't really do a great job explaining them to me. Besides, living in the Dutch countryside meant that there was no store in a wide radius where I could buy the books. I decided to write my own rules system, including a monster manual and everything... never played it ( probably for the better), but I remember having a lot of fun making it all up.

Then 3.0 happened. Bought the core books while on a school excursion in London, and suddenly it all clicked. The rules were so logical, so transparant, and it all looked sooo cool! The core set became my bible with which I converted one high school friend after another. Finally I could play out my rpg dreams.

Thank you, 3E Your stat blocks give me headaches now, but I will always love you because you were my first.

 

[Stormonu]

I was posting back on PlanetAD&D back in the day. I'd gotten frustrated with 2E and was mostly playing the likes of Vampire or just about any other RPG I could interest others in. When 3E was announced, I watched with great interest. Got the books as soon as they came out. All the other RPGs went back on the shelf to collect dust for a (long) while. However, I seem to recall that Sword & Sorcery's* Creature Collection came out before the MM did - one of the first 3rd party products I scooped up. I bought a ton of 3rd party product back then - ah, the days of having a well-paying job and no kids!

I lagged going to 3.5E - rebuying all the content all over again really ticked me off. When 4E came around, I went to Pathfinder instead as I was still so enamored with 3E.

Today, I doubt you could get me to play 3E - or only E6 if I did. The system's too dense and ripe for abuse by spellcasters.

* White Wolf's D&D printing brand

 

[CleverNickName]

Mike Selinker on the release of 3.0. Happy 25th birthday, D&D 3E
do you remember where you were? I was out of the hobby until near the end of 3.5.

Yep. I was in Poor Richard's Bookstore, in Colorado Springs CO. I had just moved there only a few months earlier, and one of my coworkers recommended I check out that particular bookstore because of its wide variety of gaming books. So anyway, I was browsing the shelves looking at their RPG book selection (like you do), and saw the brand-new 3rd Edition Player's Handbook. I thumbed through it, and by the time I finished reading the Druid class description I had decided to buy it.

I still have it--and it still has the eTools CD-ROM in the back.

 

[schneeland]

When 3e launched, I had just wrapped up my community service, and I was quite unaware of the game, because it would still take a bit until it started hitting German hobby stores (and my Internet was dial-up with extra fees per minute). I was also quite busy playing Baldur's Gate and would soon move to start university. If I remember correctly, it was early 2001 that I found a new group and thus also become aware that there was a new version of D&D. That one fell apart after one campaign, but luckily it didn't take too long until half of the people from the old group had founded a new one, and from then one, we kept playing for quite a while. It was a good time games-wise

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I remember putting it up on our shelves in our old location. I remember having a stack of preorders.

I probably ran Sunlit Citadel to teach people to play it (once that adventure came out - looks like that was September).