Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - about every edition of D&D
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Herschel" data-source="post: 5025587" data-attributes="member: 78357"><p>Maybe the thread can stay level-headed. I suppose it is worth a shot. I'll give my own opinions a roll in about as short a format as I can.</p><p> </p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white">OD&D:</span></span></span></strong></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Good:</em> Started it all as D&D (from Chainmail). Box sets for tiers were a nice, cost-effective way to enter the game. </span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Bad:</em> Limited in scope (to be expected). Fighters were good early, wizards were good later. </span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Ugly:</em> Couldn’t find dice outside of the boxed sets originally. (The greatest horror of all!)</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white">1E:</span></span></span></strong></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Good:</em> Ramped the game up and expanded it in almost epic proportions. Gave us the race/class splits we still see today and set up the classic game worlds. Also gave us classic adventures that taught us not to get too attached to a character.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Bad:</em> Started splatbook rampage with Unearthed Arcana. Tried to “fix” fighters with double specialization. </span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Ugly:</em> UA also introduced Drow as a PC playable race. (second greatest horror of all!)</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white">2E: </span></span></span></strong></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Good:</em> Wonderful settings and THAC0 was the greatest gaming term ever. Artwork expanded almost exponentially. Was the “Golden Age” as general popularity was likely at its highest. </span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Bad:</em> Got a bit wonky with consistency. Skills & Powers and Combat & Tactics really pushed the splatbook production to full throttle.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Ugly:</em> Expandable Monster Manual was an interesting idea, but three-ring binders are NEVER a good choice.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white">3E/3.5E:</span></span></span></strong></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Good:</em> Gave consistent rules for attack and defense instead of inverse relationships. Also made better mechanics for concealment and incorporeal. Consistent level advancement was much more streamlined. Gave rise to the skirmish game and the marketing opportunity of DDM.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Bad:</em> Gave munchkinism a boost of amazing proportions. Rules bloat was everywhere and splatbooks were seemingly never-ending. Much of the artwork turned ugly and more anime-influenced with over-sized weapons, ears and steroid-laced characters. Redundant bad artwork was everywhere.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Ugly:</em> Really taxed the DM for creation time and headaches. Turned the role-playing portion in to roll playing with the ungodly number of rules and skills for out-of-combat gaming. Didn’t figure out how to have THAC0 work or another awesome acronym or term. BAB sounds like a sheep bleeting. Template madness for half-this-n-that (like dragons) and the new mapping convention for modules was terrible.</span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><strong>4E:</strong></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Good:</em> Balanced the game like no other edition. No more being spellcaster’s lackeys for fighting men. Makes DMing fun again and puts the role-playing portions back in to my hands. Skill challenges are a great idea. It’s mechanically a tremendous system. It put players back on an even playing field. </span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="color: white"><em>Bad:</em> The original PHB reads like a technical manual. Healing surges are a great game mechanic, but awful from a flavor standpoint. The giant-to-titan advancement really annoys me. </span></span></span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: white"><em><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Ugly</span></em><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'">: Dragonborn and Tieflings as player races. Drow are terrible, and these two new pet races really challenge the Drow for the title of worst player races ever. Certain superior mechanical choices are bad from a flavor standpoint.</span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Herschel, post: 5025587, member: 78357"] Maybe the thread can stay level-headed. I suppose it is worth a shot. I'll give my own opinions a roll in about as short a format as I can. [B][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white]OD&D:[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/B] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Good:[/I] Started it all as D&D (from Chainmail). Box sets for tiers were a nice, cost-effective way to enter the game. [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Bad:[/I] Limited in scope (to be expected). Fighters were good early, wizards were good later. [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Ugly:[/I] Couldn’t find dice outside of the boxed sets originally. (The greatest horror of all!)[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [B][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white]1E:[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/B] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Good:[/I] Ramped the game up and expanded it in almost epic proportions. Gave us the race/class splits we still see today and set up the classic game worlds. Also gave us classic adventures that taught us not to get too attached to a character.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Bad:[/I] Started splatbook rampage with Unearthed Arcana. Tried to “fix” fighters with double specialization. [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Ugly:[/I] UA also introduced Drow as a PC playable race. (second greatest horror of all!)[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [B][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white]2E: [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/B] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Good:[/I] Wonderful settings and THAC0 was the greatest gaming term ever. Artwork expanded almost exponentially. Was the “Golden Age” as general popularity was likely at its highest. [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Bad:[/I] Got a bit wonky with consistency. Skills & Powers and Combat & Tactics really pushed the splatbook production to full throttle.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Ugly:[/I] Expandable Monster Manual was an interesting idea, but three-ring binders are NEVER a good choice.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [B][SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white]3E/3.5E:[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/B] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Good:[/I] Gave consistent rules for attack and defense instead of inverse relationships. Also made better mechanics for concealment and incorporeal. Consistent level advancement was much more streamlined. Gave rise to the skirmish game and the marketing opportunity of DDM.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Bad:[/I] Gave munchkinism a boost of amazing proportions. Rules bloat was everywhere and splatbooks were seemingly never-ending. Much of the artwork turned ugly and more anime-influenced with over-sized weapons, ears and steroid-laced characters. Redundant bad artwork was everywhere.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Ugly:[/I] Really taxed the DM for creation time and headaches. Turned the role-playing portion in to roll playing with the ungodly number of rules and skills for out-of-combat gaming. Didn’t figure out how to have THAC0 work or another awesome acronym or term. BAB sounds like a sheep bleeting. Template madness for half-this-n-that (like dragons) and the new mapping convention for modules was terrible.[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][B]4E:[/B] [I]Good:[/I] Balanced the game like no other edition. No more being spellcaster’s lackeys for fighting men. Makes DMing fun again and puts the role-playing portions back in to my hands. Skill challenges are a great idea. It’s mechanically a tremendous system. It put players back on an even playing field. [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white][I]Bad:[/I] The original PHB reads like a technical manual. Healing surges are a great game mechanic, but awful from a flavor standpoint. The giant-to-titan advancement really annoys me. [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=white] [/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE] [COLOR=white][I][FONT=Times New Roman]Ugly[/FONT][/I][FONT=Times New Roman]: Dragonborn and Tieflings as player races. Drow are terrible, and these two new pet races really challenge the Drow for the title of worst player races ever. Certain superior mechanical choices are bad from a flavor standpoint.[/FONT][/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - about every edition of D&D
Top