Third Edition Culture- Is is sustainable?

[Sebastian Francis]

Last time I checked, no one from WOTC comes to your house and forces you to use them.



Grow a freakin' backbone, and run your own game. Are you a DM, or whipping boy?

You're a mean, rude, poo-poo head.

 

[Psion]

Of course, reading through and mastering the content of most prepackaged 3e modules is a huge time-consumer in itself.

Agreed. This is why WLD and Goodman dungeon crawl classics fare well in my reviews. They acheive what many earlier 3e/d20 adventures fail to do: they aren't hard to figure out. You can run them by flipping them open and reading.

You know, I've been thinking the same kind of thing. I'm 33 years old, happily married, and have a 2-year-old daughter. Maybe I'm not at a station of life where I can properly DM 3e. Maybe the DMs who boast about running four high-level 3e campaigns are all 20-year-old university students with no real responsibilities and tons of free time. :\

30 something with 3 kids (ages 0-8), and running one game weekly. Two is pretty much out of the question, but one is by no means unmanageable.

 

[fredramsey]

That's SIR Poo-Poo head to you, Whipping Boy

Don't make me come over there and force you to use a new prestige class!

Hold in that gut! Stick out those Feats! Now, modifiers... cal-cu-LATE!

You're a mean, rude, poo-poo head.

 

[Retro-Rocket]

My previous campaign went to 27th. I stopped having fun running the game around 15th and it showed. Not only did I lose my sense of the players and their abilities, but I could not keep up with the NPCs. It basically became a game where those who won initiative survived.

Why in heavens name did you continue to run a campaign for 12 more levels after you stopped having fun with it? And why rub more salt into your own wounds by going into Epic levels?? You could have just told your players that you where out of your depth and not having any more fun running the game. Heck let someone else GM for a while.

 

[Sebastian Francis]

That's SIR Poo-Poo head to you, Whipping Boy

Don't make me come over there and force you to use a new prestige class!

Hold in that gut! Stick out those Feats! Now, modifiers... cal-cu-LATE!

[Stares in mirror]

"It's my campaign...it's my campaign...it's my campaign..."

 

[Desdichado]

You know, I've been thinking the same kind of thing. I'm 33 years old, happily married, and have a 2-year-old daughter. Maybe I'm not at a station of life where I can properly DM 3e. Maybe the DMs who boast about running four high-level 3e campaigns are all 20-year-old university students with no real responsibilities and tons of free time. :\

I don't know if anyone's boasting anything quite like that, but I don't see how that's really a problem either. In our group, the youngest player is, I think 29, and the oldest is about 35. We're all married and have a few kids; I have four. I'm running a game that is a chimera of so many d20 products that it's difficult to keep straight exactly what rules I am using half the time. We've also got an RPGA legit Greyhawk game, an Eberron game, an on-again off-again d20 Call of Cthulhu game and talk of other options in the future as well with just this one group. We're all full-time working professionals and homeowners in addition to our other responsibilities, and at least some of us spend a lot of volunteer time on church, homeowner's associations, etc., as well as plenty of other hobbies and drains on our time.

I think the complaints about the complexity leading to prep time are greatly exaggerated relative to d20. I don't spend more than an hour or two per session of prep time normally, and most of that is relative to plots, locations and other "cool stuff" rather than on complex NPC builds or anything like that. Most of that is easy to wing, which is the joy of the "unified mechanic" approach d20 takes. Granted, I spent many hours prior to my campaign starting, putting together campaign guides for all the house rules and the like, but that was a one-time task, not an ongoing one.

 

[Belen]

Why in heavens name did you continue to run a campaign for 12 more levels after you stopped having fun with it? And why rub more salt into your own wounds by going into Epic levels?? You could have just told your players that you where out of your depth and not having any more fun running the game. Heck let someone else GM for a while.

I made a promise to bring them to epic level, if just once, so I kept it.

My wife did run the following game due to my severe burn out at the time. Personally, I will never run a game from 1-27 over a 2 year period again. 8 month campaigns seem to work best.

 

[fredramsey]

...and that's all I'm trying to say

I'll make a confession... I don't use Diagonal Movement properly!

I felt as though the 1-2-1-2 rule for diagonal movement added nothing to the combat, so I dropped it.

Someone else may drop something like cover for being around the corner of a doorway. And that's fine! Someone else might drop AoO all together! And someone else might play Basic D&D (I've been tempted sometimes myself).

But the important thing is, yes, the DM should run the game. Now, do I make exceptions if a player wants something? To a certain extent, sure. But I have disallowed things as well, such as half-dragons. I don't like them.

It will be hard if the players are used to getting everything their way. But, I bet, if you approached them and said, "Hey, I need to get the game under more control so it doesn't take me so long to prepare, and it's not as much of a pain to run. Here's what I think we should do." If any of the players refuse to let you run your game the way you see fit, you need to ask yourself why you are playing with them.

Gaming is a relationship, just like any other. Give and take. But in this instance the DM HAS to have more votes than the players when it comes to mechanics. Seriously.

I hope you can find a way for you and your players to be happy, no matter what system you finally use.

[Stares in mirror]

"It's my campaign...it's my campaign...it's my campaign..."

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

"The main issue with 3e IMO is that too many bonus' stack. It then becomes confusing and stops the game while everyone figures out what mods they have, whether they stack, what condition they apply too"

Your players should have this sort of stuff already on their character sheets so they can see it at a glance. I'm complete fascist when it comes to knowing your bonuses going in. If halfway through an encounter someone goes, "Oh, I forgot to add my Weapon Focus for my to-hit during those last combat rounds", my response is "Add them next time, and don't forget them. It's not my job to keep up with them."

 

[Akrasia]

... 30 something with 3 kids (ages 0-8), and running one game weekly. Two is pretty much out of the question, but one is by no means unmanageable.

Of course, what is feasible for you is not feasible for every 30-something with a full time job.