I've been playing (A)D&D since 1990 or so, starting from 2e, then 3e and 3.5e, which I'm still playing. While I'm still very fond of classic fantasy settings, I'm getting more and more tired on the D&D gaming system.
So, I'm looking for some ideas for different GSs with classic fantasy settings, having the following features, to avoid my personal pain-in-the-necks of D&D 3.5. I underline personal here: those are my feelings based on my gaming experience, I'm not trying to flame the D&D system, I just want to find other systems more suited to my tastes.
1. Reasonably fast combats
I'm tired sick of hours upon hours spent preparing and running a combat between PCs and a NPC with a page or so of statistics, feats, modifiers, equipment and whatever, that in in-game time takes less than a minute to end. I'm feeling more and more than the result is not worth the effort.
2. Little in-game math
If you ever had the high-level party fighter hit by a Ray of Enfeeblement that reduces his Strength bonus in the middle of a fight you know what I mean: there goes 5 minutes or so recalculating his attack bonuses, damage bonuses, encumberance limits and so on... then, a round later, the wizard casts Bull's Strength on the fighter, and there we go again, then it comes a Cloudkill to lower his Constitution and so on and on and on...
3. The game should be played more than the system
There are various features of D&D that lead the players to play more the system than the game, chiefly amongst them the initiative system and the tactical grid.
Having each player to declare his action after seeing the previous players actions on a fixed initiave loop, allows the player to know exactly in which order the (N)PCs will act, so distorting their actions and allowing them to decide what to do based upon the knowledge of the timing of the (N)PCs initiative. So, for instance, I've seen players chosing their target because "he didn't act yet" or because "he will act before you in next round, I shall try to drop him before".
The tactical grid produces a nauseating feast of counting squares on different trajectories to find the straightmost way to the target that avoids the Attacks of Opportunity from the enemies, or the reiterated application of the Pythagorean Theorem to find the best point in a three-dimensional space to cast an area spell to include the maximum number of targets.
I'd like a system that helps the players to immerse in the story, not in accountant chores.
4. Availability of a classic fantasy setting...
...with sufficient material to run a campaign in it. I've no time to design form scratch a setting, or even just a campaign, nor to convert one from the D&D material I own. The more "heroic" the setting, the better.
Any suggestion is very appreciated!
Thanks,
Marco
So, I'm looking for some ideas for different GSs with classic fantasy settings, having the following features, to avoid my personal pain-in-the-necks of D&D 3.5. I underline personal here: those are my feelings based on my gaming experience, I'm not trying to flame the D&D system, I just want to find other systems more suited to my tastes.
1. Reasonably fast combats
I'm tired sick of hours upon hours spent preparing and running a combat between PCs and a NPC with a page or so of statistics, feats, modifiers, equipment and whatever, that in in-game time takes less than a minute to end. I'm feeling more and more than the result is not worth the effort.
2. Little in-game math
If you ever had the high-level party fighter hit by a Ray of Enfeeblement that reduces his Strength bonus in the middle of a fight you know what I mean: there goes 5 minutes or so recalculating his attack bonuses, damage bonuses, encumberance limits and so on... then, a round later, the wizard casts Bull's Strength on the fighter, and there we go again, then it comes a Cloudkill to lower his Constitution and so on and on and on...
3. The game should be played more than the system
There are various features of D&D that lead the players to play more the system than the game, chiefly amongst them the initiative system and the tactical grid.
Having each player to declare his action after seeing the previous players actions on a fixed initiave loop, allows the player to know exactly in which order the (N)PCs will act, so distorting their actions and allowing them to decide what to do based upon the knowledge of the timing of the (N)PCs initiative. So, for instance, I've seen players chosing their target because "he didn't act yet" or because "he will act before you in next round, I shall try to drop him before".
The tactical grid produces a nauseating feast of counting squares on different trajectories to find the straightmost way to the target that avoids the Attacks of Opportunity from the enemies, or the reiterated application of the Pythagorean Theorem to find the best point in a three-dimensional space to cast an area spell to include the maximum number of targets.
I'd like a system that helps the players to immerse in the story, not in accountant chores.
4. Availability of a classic fantasy setting...
...with sufficient material to run a campaign in it. I've no time to design form scratch a setting, or even just a campaign, nor to convert one from the D&D material I own. The more "heroic" the setting, the better.
Any suggestion is very appreciated!
Thanks,
Marco
