Mixing Versions?

[GreyLord]

I played in a game run by a man who preferred 1st/2nd Ed., but who allowed 3rd ed in. It was a mess.

He was running a published module (3.5) that I'd been through before. I warned him of my foreknowledge, and kept mum about what I knew, but that foreknowledge gave me an insight to the things he wasn't seeing straight.

1st Ed gave movement in squares, not actual feet. Squares in 1st Ed were 10 feet, so the way this man ran it the place was immense. Iterative attacks in 1st Ed were different as well, and bows started at two shots per round. Mix that with a 3.5 Ranger with Rapid Shot and the DM was in shock at what was happening.

Without belaboring all the difference he ran into, let me simply say that it's the little difference that sneak up and bite you in the behind. Expect surprises.

That would have been easy to HR. You really want to take that feat? It's not going to give you any benefits...but you can take it if you want. (If I were running a game with 1e/2e rules but allowing 3e classes in...3e classes would have to adapt to 1e/2e mindset).

(and of course the vice versa of that, if I were running 3e but allowed 1e and 2e classes they'd have to adapt to 3e rules...though I think many of them could be underpowered in relation to 3e classes overall in that instance)

 

[Herzog]

I've been running a Rules Cyclopedia D&D campaign for 17 years now (we don't play that often, so it's not really a lot of gametime) that I homebrewed with options from AD&D, 3.0 and 3.5 when they became available, until my homebrew was so close to 3.5 that I decided to convert completely.

My biggest problem: you can NEVER use premade material without including all the additions/homebrews you made.

Of course, this is true for any houserules, and I still have a problem that I want/need to run OD&D modules that I have to convert to 3.5 first, or want/need to run 3.5 modules that need to fit in the setting that I need to convert to the situation.

Mixing editions is not so different from adding your own houserules.

 

[Dordledum]

I don't think that there are (m)any groups who play RAW and without any house rules.

As long as everyone has fun, go all-out Borg!

 

[Viking Bastard]

Yeah, I do that. I always adapt to the "core" edition I'm playing, though, and I do it mostly on the DM's side. I don't really mix player material much.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mixing editions is not so different from adding your own houserules.

It can get messy when 2 people want to play different versions of the same class, or want to multiclass across editions.

 

[Reproth]

So I noticed the comments and came to the conclusion. As long as your not a complete idiot mixing editions can be fun and for the most part exciting for your faced with things you may not know.

I don't know if anyone else gets this but all my players research things so of course they basically know all the monsters, races, traps ext... this gets annoying for a DM even if there not metagaming cause of course in situations of weapon choice for a monster you can't really tell there metagaming. So of course this all started with Pathfinder in screwing with them.

So far anyone who has gotten overpowered maybe based on a technicality I use those same buffs on my monsters and ext. Its like the bloodlines rule. If my players are using major dragon bloodline with there elven ranger to get a breathe weapon I'm going to give jack ass bloodlines to my monsters like Mind Flayer who at one point has Demonic Ancestors and gained major bloodline just to mess with him. Ext

I loved all the comments and I love to hear more. Since I've now heard stories were mixing has turned out bad which I've expected. For me it has not so I will continue to do so but fairly

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I played AD&D for years before I realized there were two different versions of it, and that Classic D&D was actually a different game. I still continued to use material from all three interchangeably.

Right now, I've figured out that I can't really use material directly, but that it's theoretically possible to incorporate elements of Player's Option[/] and 4e into Pathfinder to make the best D&D ever. A magic system that doesn't feel artificial, melee combat that isn't boring and irrelevant at higher levels, and all of the customizable juiciness of Advanced Player's Guide and Skills & Powers put together.