New player asking for some advice/help, please. 3e vs 4e. Which one is for me?

[Ariosto]

Conan retroclone = ZeFRS, for Zeb (Cook)'s Fantasy Roleplaying System.

The Mongoose RQ SRD, as I recall, does not include the characteristic ranges for humans -- or for more than a perhaps not adequately representative handful of other critters. Swapping in scores from a 3E (or 4E?) Monster Manual might be close enough to "git 'er done", though.

Labyrinth Lord and OSRIC2 are quite comprehensive, though.

 

[Kask]

Well then we'll have to agree to disagree,

Right, we can only speak from our own experience and knowledge. It is entirely possible you don't game with people who have the amount of experience I have.

 

[Vegepygmy]

I find it odd when people who've been playing for years tell someone "if you are new to the game, you should start using X", where X is a game different to the one they started with. It's like saying "I don't think you're smart enough to enjoy the old games".

Not at all. They're simply recognizing that the path they took wasn't necessarily the best path they could have taken.

I learned to drive a stick shift by climbing into a friend's pickup truck and lurching around a parking lot all night. Later, I learned to ride a motorcycle, which also involves shifting gears manually. I have since formed the opinion that it would have been easier to learn how to shift on a motorcycle first rather than a pickup. Does this mean that anyone who first learns how to shift gears on a motorcycle is not smart enough to first learn how to do it in a pickup truck like I did? Of course not.

 

[Belphanior]

It is entirely possible you don't game with people who have the amount of experience I have.

Yeah, I can scarcely imagine what would happen if my entire crew was like you...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I find it odd when people who've been playing for years tell someone "if you are new to the game, you should start using X", where X is a game different to the one they started with. It's like saying "I don't think you're smart enough to enjoy the old games".

It might be a trick...

When an application offers you the option between "basic", "advanced" and "expert" mode, what do you pick?

Of course, it might also be that they remember having quite a few troubles to learn their first system, and that the new one seems indeed easier.

I don't know. Getting into D&D was hard for me at first. My first game was Shadowrun (3e). I created my first character there and made a lot of mistakes. But I slowly grew to understand the system.
But D&D was so different. Vancian Magic, Hit Points... It all didn't make sense to me. Who'd come up with such an unrealistic system? Spell slots, what is wrong with drain?

 

[Betote]

It could be that I actually enjoyed that part about being confused and not really knowing very well what it was all about. We started with RuneQuest (3rd edition, I think - the Avalon Hill one) and yes, we mad mistakes, but that were part of the fun. Discovering by ourselves how was it done.

I don't think we would have had as much fun if we had a "beginner-friendly" game as our first experience.

That said, the basics of a RPG aren't as hard as we'd like to think. If you want to do something, roll a die (or a handful of dice) and check the results. That's it. So, when I'm being asked about starting with RPGs, I usually point to the direction where I think the fun is, that is, I recommend a game I've had fun playing. If anything, I limit myself to games which have been published in Spanish, for obvious reasons The only other limitation is that, if I'm trying to hook someone into RPGs, I recommend games which are complete in just one book.

My picks are usually Call of Cthulhu or Aquelarre (Spanish Middle Ages game, with an interesting view of how faith and the occult work), for this exact reason. If RuneQuest was still being published here or we had Spanish language versions of Labyrinth Lord or OSRIC, I would consider that, too.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Right, we can only speak from our own experience and knowledge. It is entirely possible you don't game with people who have the amount of experience I have.

Perhaps you should start charging for your advice. Do you have a paypal account?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Perhaps you should start charging for your advice. Do you have a paypal account?

I agree. It's too valuable to just keep giving away here, completely unsolicited.

 

[BryonD]

I find it odd when people who've been playing for years tell someone "if you are new to the game, you should start using X", where X is a game different to the one they started with. It's like saying "I don't think you're smart enough to enjoy the old games".

Perhaps they just think that some of the new games are better than the choices they were limited to when they started.

 

[Mournblade94]

Umm, if you are DM who has run his campaign up to that level you know. If you don't, you aren't ready to competently run a high level game and your experienced players will trounce you.

I am a highly competent DM that loves to run EPIC campaigns.

I always have to look up variables and such. I just happen to have a system.

Saying that someone is not competent enough to run high level adventures, or that DMs that run high level adventures are somehow better than DMs that run low level adventures wreaks of Bantha POODOO.