Thinking about hanging up the D&D (not RPG) towel (longish).

[Zogg]

1. Your group needs a setting change. Hang up the DnD towel - but come back when/if you want to.

2. Your group may NEVER agree on any one setting or gameplay philosophy. You may need to find a new group that can all think "within a box".

3. Please lose the "IMO"-speak. It's unnecessary, really.

 

[Christian Walker]

Ace!

I agree. Too many editions of D&D are becoming a huge problem for my gaming group. We have been playing together for nearly 15 years, but each new edition has alienated more and more guys.

I hate to sound like a retro grouch, but fragmentation of the hobby among systems (D&D, GURPS, WW, Buffy, etc) and revisions within a single system (1e, 2e, 3e, 3.5), is a bad thing.

I will buy the 3.5phb, but I will never buy another supplement, module, or wotc/3rd party splat book ever again. I own(ed) how many versions of the monster manual?

Stay strong in the IE, Ace.

 

[Synicism]

It sounds like you guys have more fun playing something else, so play something else. I mean, everyone else is right. There's no reason to play a game that you don't enjoy. If you guys can play together with another system with fewer arguments about exactly how to do it, then go ahead and use the other system.

Hell, I've been getting great use out of quite a few of my d20 books with absolutely no intention of using them in a D&D game, just for the setting material. I'm considering a Savage Worlds Midnight campaign right now, or a BESM Oathbound.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Yes, you need to just have FUN again, and should consider a game that illiminates or minimizes your group conflicts, of which you seem to have many. Let's take a quick look at a few:

One of your core conflicts within your group seems to be rate of advancement. Based on that, you might never find a game that you can all agree on.

Mutants and Masterminds might be a good game to consider for your group as it is less focused on advancing in power.

Another obvious conflict you have relayed is in use of source material. IMO, the DM should use whatever he wants, but keep the game flexible enough so that a player doesn't need to learn anything too off the beaten path if they don't want to. If one player wants to use a sourcebook the DM approves, but another doesn't, what's the big deal?

Possibly the most important conflict seems to be a lack of effective leadership or inspiration from a DM. This one is obviously a toughie. Getting everyone to somewhat agree on a vision/direction for the campaign vision BEFORE getting started might help.

Lastly, my suggestion is to keep your books until you haven't used them for a while. You may regret the decision later.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

L5R is pretty sweet. Though I've actually come to prefer the d20 version.

Wish I could play more exalted.

 

[Azure Trance]

Re: Ace!

I will buy the 3.5phb, but I will never buy another supplement, module, or wotc/3rd party splat book ever again.

Nevers a long time.

 

[jezter6]

I'm in a similar situation. It's not the group, as I don't have a group right now. It's that I feel like I've played 'enough' D&D for a while. It's not the system, as I'm in love with d20 Modern, it's just the whole "i'm tired of playing the party cleric" and other gripes about standard D&D.

Add to that the 3.5 crap about how everything is 'broken' and I'm just tired of it all. Heck, I didn't really like 2e when it came out, but was I all over the net complaining that everything was broken and elves were NERFED?

It just all got to a point where I'm going to try something else. Think about a genre that you havent played yet/in a while. Spycraft and modern are good games to play for a few months just to get out of the same "Kill orcs, save the town, look for new town to save" routine that D&D sometimes becomes.

 

[Desdichado]

Too many chiefs, not enough indians. We tend to that problem as well, and here's how we handle it.

1) Everyone sit down, shut up and listen to the GM.

2) Put in a rotation system, so two or three folks can GM different campaigns, or even different systems simultaneously.

That way, everyone gets the GM bug out of his system and can work with his own agenda. We're a flexible enough group to indulge and even enjoy someone else's vision for a campaign, but we also all like different things, and we like running our own vision sometimes to.

I fail to see, really, what D&D has to do with your problems. None of them really sound like D&D problems, with the possible exceptions of poor rules knowledge, and outdated expectations about what the system actually works like. And one kinda goes hand in hand with the other...

 

[Jeph]

Moving away from d20..?

...Play d02. It know no limit.

 

[jmichels`]

My advice to you is to simply box up all the D&D stuff and put it in the closet. Then play Buffy or L5R or whatever your group decides on. No sense in getting back only a fraction of what you paid for the books, and then having to rebuy them if someone in your group gets the yen to play again.