So. 3E/3.5E, is it still D&D to you?

[Kormydigar]

Gotta pipe up to mention the steady power creep that seems to be happening, but the feel of it has turned more towards the OD&D I first loved. As a player that wants more, faster, now, I love the new edition since I can get levels faster than any other version, and along with that comes the gold and items to match. Eggsalad (excellent) to me as a player & DM, now I can get to epic level in less than a RL year. The mechanics may have changed, but the feel has come back for me after I tasted 1E, spat it out, and skipped over the deranged 2E. Oh, lemme throw in an 'IMO' on all of that, just in case it's not understood.

I voted for similar feel but noticably different. I played 1st Ed, tried 2nd Ed when it first came out, ended up not liking it, and switched to GURPS. When third Ed hit the market I got all excited about D&D again. The faster leveling, more goodies, ect. is what makes the feel noticably different. Not bad, just a different feel. I like it MUCH better than 2nd Ed. On the whole it does still feel like D&D to me.

 

[Kanegrundar]

It may be a different edition, but it's still D&D to me!

Kane

 

[Henry]

Ladies and Gentlemen, taking bets to Diaglo's time till posting, place your bets here, window's open till 5:15...


For me, it's a different experience, but it's a positive one. I've had to "re-train" some newer players from expecting lighting-fast advancement, because the advancement after level 9 or so is the most different; in the olden days, we advanced pretty fast to level 3 or so, then slowed down a bit, but then we hit level 10 and drug to a HALT. Coincidentally, that's where most old campaigns ended, because after a year or so of the same setting, we got bored.

I do not deny they are different games, but because I've seen the changes as steps forward, not steps backward or perpendicular, it's still felt like "D&D" to me.

 

[Psion]

Same feel. Less house rules. Less banging my head against the wall for restrictions.

As I consider that dispensible to the feel of D&D (i.e., its the feel I was striving for with the house rules), I took choice #2

 

[Melan]

I chose the third option for the third edition.

It is similar, but noticably a different experience.

Is it D&D? Most certainly. The core of the game is the same. The focus is the same. Many elements of the game are the same. Is it noticably different?

Again, yes, unless you house rule it. Fast level progression alone changes the group dynamic considerably: in AD&D, you had to sweat blood to get to 9th level, and by that time, you were the king of the hill and, in theory, could have more hit points than an ancient red dragon (a dragon had 88 hp, a fighter could have 100 or even more if he rolled well). And you didn't get much more powerful - except Magic-Users, but in their case, it was more like "even more powerful Fireballs". This changes the play of the game.

So does the removal of race/class restrictions, which can lead to very "un-D&Dish" combinations (although there some which make sense - elven Paladins, for example). And multiclassing - in AD&D, you could have a Ftr4/Clr4 NPC and he was 4th level, damnit! Some of it was silly and some of it was great, but again, different.

But it is D&D. Whether 4e will be, I can not tell, but I assume it will get further away from the game's original form - for good or bad.

 

[Piratecat]

Combat is so tactical and s-l-o-w, and while all those options and neat combat tricks are kinda cool, you have to pay for it with increased time between turns, etc. Sometimes it feels like playing a old-school cardboard box wargame (e.g. Squad Leader) rather than D&D. Still fun, just kinda...different.

Weird. 3e combat for us is very cinematic and much faster than it used to be in 1e or 2e. We spend a lot less time discussing rules, too.

 

[Lord_Anthrax]

*looks through rulebooks*

Classes? Check.
Experience Levels? Check.
Alignments? Check.
Nouns of Verbing +X items? Check.
Name's Adjective Noun spells? Check.
Dungeons? Check.
Dragons? Check.

Yep. Still looks like D&D to me.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

I'll say similar, because the style of play and the settings remind me of our old high school AD&D game. But different, because this time around the ruleset is actually pretty good, fairly consistent, and not at all a pain in the ass to use.

I don't think I've ever been so shocked by a gaming book as I was by the 3.0 Player's Handbook; it was as though the authors had looked at AD&D and said, "You know, I bet someone could make a roleplaying game out of that."

--
and then went ahead and did just that
ryan

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I've been playing D&D since the blue box. You kids talk about "dice". We had chits you had to cut out and put into dixie cups ... and we were thankful!

3rd edition is more D&D than D&D (sorry diaglo)

• I don't get into arguments about where people are in a combat.

• People can arbitrarily die just as quickly, only now its more in the high levels (where they get rezzes) instead of the low levels (where they don't).

• Orcs are tougher. They are chaotic, which is a shame, but they are tougher.

• Elves are weaker. They look like they got wacked upside the head, which is a shame, but they are weaker.

• The modules make more sense and are less capricious.

• Wizards have a more diverse spell selection than Magic-Users ... they also have a better name.

• Bards can no longer solo a Panzer division.

• There is more meaningless crap for me to dive into than ever before. People act like there was no crap in the days of 1e. Oh, there was, there most gloriously was. But the 3e crap is better than the 1e crap ever was (I'm thinking specifically about a module that had a penguin artist and a rip off of Thomas Heretic ... no lie).

• Cripes. The 3e era is like the future from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure "The Air is clean, the water is clean, even the DIRT is clean! Bolwing averages are way up, mini-golf scores are way down. And we have more excellent water slides than any planet we communicate with."

3e rocks my socks.

 

[Wormwood]

My group quit D&D in the 90's.

We started 3e in August 2000---and love it to this day.

So the answer is, "No, 3e isn't D&D...because I actually like 3e".