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Message: <blockquote data-quote="William Ronald" data-source="post: 2384458" data-attributes="member: 426">As usual, you present a very sound analysis, MerricB.I have played D&D since 1980, and noticed the creep of the rules in late 1st edition.  It was not just Unearthed Arcana but also the Wilderness Survival Guide and the Dungeoneering Survival Guide.  Certain rules, to be blunt, were more trouble to use than they were worth most of the time.  (I knew some players who had their characters avoid grappling, overbearing, and pummeling ... as the game would grind to a halt when consulting the DMG.  A similar thing occurred with psionic combat.)I thought second edition offered some improvements, but by the late 1990s, it might have been physically impossible for most people to carry all the core rules books in a single backpack.  Some books, such as the Complete Book of Elves, seemed better than others.  Similarly, 2.5 -- my former group's name for the Skills and Powers Option Books -- presented several good ideas but it seemed that you could literally play very different games using the core rules.I thought 3.0 was an improvement, but the high DCs of spells tended to exalt spellcasters over other classes.  (I prefer to play spellcasters, but let us say that I was shocked at the DCs.  Similarly, I find that there is a lot of difference between the existing magic system for levels 1-20 and the epic level spell system .)  I think that 3.5 offers improvements, but is not perfect.  Ironically, there is a good discussion of the social aspects of the game, including diplomacy at<a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=138390&page=3&pp=40" target="_blank">Five Things that Would Change the Game Forever</a> .    In the long run, I suspect that a future edition will take some of the best of the new rules from other sources. The pace of change seems to have increased.  Communication is now much faster with the Internet, and third-party publishers are offering interesting twists on the core D20 rules.  The game will change, because it has to in order to adapt to the current interests of its customers.  This is beneficial, as a company that does not cater to its customers and attract new ones often fails.</blockquote>

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