It’s a sad fact. At least, for me it is. At work, talking with my Dm about AD&D, he pointed out how much harder it was to make the saves back then. It was more exciting back then, so much more thrilling and dangerous. Now it feels like it’s all about the magic items and how as efficiently possible you can distribute them amongst the slots available (as you reach higher levels). In the creators’ attempts to explain everything and engineer a system that is simple, accessible and logical, they have in my oh so humble opinion stripped away all the mystery and magic of role-playing. It has become a game of numbers first with role-playing a distant second. Everyone knows the stats, it seems, and nothing has remained sacred.
I have all three core books and a few splat books, but why did I buy them? I am not a Dm. Sometime in the future I will be and probably only for Alternity but now and in the past I have had no use for them except to have access to those things that I really shouldn’t have: The monsters’ stats, the magic items, everything.
As a sixth level barbarian in an AD&D campaign my party once confronted a vampire. It was still day and we came across a rundown tower/stronghold. We walked inside and looked around. The floors cracked, light was seeping through holes in the ceiling and walls. We thought it was abandoned. I went into the basement: it was empty. Except for a door leading to something even lower. Being the sensible one in the group I opened it. It opened with a noise that would wake a dead man. I peered my head inside with my torch preceding it. I couldn’t see anything but then again the light from my torch didn’t illuminate all the walls. I jumped in, my heart pounding (and I’m not talking about my character). I landed as soft as I could with my arsenal of weapons (I had Multiple Specialization J) onto the sandy floor. The light illuminated the wall behind me but not the wall ahead and this room was only about four meters wide. I grabbed my +1 longsword and slowly moved forward. I was alone there. My “friends” didn’t feel like joining me. I was scared, I mean, really scared. We had heard that there may have been vampires here but I had no idea what they could do. I was the only one in our group who had a +1 weapon, but I doubted that I would stand a chance against a vampire. As I moved forward the silhouettes of four coffins standing upright started to appear, leaning against the far wall. I wanted to run but I decided that since it was still day we could bring them upstairs (as they were still sleeping) and expose them to the sun. They had been plaguing the nearby town, so I was thinking I could get a reward or something. However, by the time I got one of the coffins up there it was already dark and the coffin started moving violently. We had tied up the coffin with a long piece of rope but as soon as the vampire punched straight through the coffin, I ran. I ran as fast as I could.
The thing is, I was scared because I didn’t know a thing about them. Except maybe that they were allergic to garlic and silver but little more. Also, you didn’t stand a chance if you didn’t have a silver or +1 weapon. Now that is also somewhat true but acquiring a +1 weapon is not exactly a real trial. I mean 2000gp? Come on. A full-plate in the olden days was 15000gp and you wouldn’t get that kind of money any time soon.
If I meet a vampire now, I doubt I’ll be afraid, I know it’s strengths and it’s weaknesses. If I lose some con (or whatever ability it is you lose) I’ll have it restored, just like everything else can be restored, it seems.
However, I may just be melancholy and looking at the past through rose-colored glasses. If I think about it, we probably didn’t role-play that much back then either. Still, multi-classing was rarely done, but now…Brrr.
Am I the only one? Am I the only one who feels that D&D 3E isn’t as exciting as 2E?
I have all three core books and a few splat books, but why did I buy them? I am not a Dm. Sometime in the future I will be and probably only for Alternity but now and in the past I have had no use for them except to have access to those things that I really shouldn’t have: The monsters’ stats, the magic items, everything.
As a sixth level barbarian in an AD&D campaign my party once confronted a vampire. It was still day and we came across a rundown tower/stronghold. We walked inside and looked around. The floors cracked, light was seeping through holes in the ceiling and walls. We thought it was abandoned. I went into the basement: it was empty. Except for a door leading to something even lower. Being the sensible one in the group I opened it. It opened with a noise that would wake a dead man. I peered my head inside with my torch preceding it. I couldn’t see anything but then again the light from my torch didn’t illuminate all the walls. I jumped in, my heart pounding (and I’m not talking about my character). I landed as soft as I could with my arsenal of weapons (I had Multiple Specialization J) onto the sandy floor. The light illuminated the wall behind me but not the wall ahead and this room was only about four meters wide. I grabbed my +1 longsword and slowly moved forward. I was alone there. My “friends” didn’t feel like joining me. I was scared, I mean, really scared. We had heard that there may have been vampires here but I had no idea what they could do. I was the only one in our group who had a +1 weapon, but I doubted that I would stand a chance against a vampire. As I moved forward the silhouettes of four coffins standing upright started to appear, leaning against the far wall. I wanted to run but I decided that since it was still day we could bring them upstairs (as they were still sleeping) and expose them to the sun. They had been plaguing the nearby town, so I was thinking I could get a reward or something. However, by the time I got one of the coffins up there it was already dark and the coffin started moving violently. We had tied up the coffin with a long piece of rope but as soon as the vampire punched straight through the coffin, I ran. I ran as fast as I could.
The thing is, I was scared because I didn’t know a thing about them. Except maybe that they were allergic to garlic and silver but little more. Also, you didn’t stand a chance if you didn’t have a silver or +1 weapon. Now that is also somewhat true but acquiring a +1 weapon is not exactly a real trial. I mean 2000gp? Come on. A full-plate in the olden days was 15000gp and you wouldn’t get that kind of money any time soon.
If I meet a vampire now, I doubt I’ll be afraid, I know it’s strengths and it’s weaknesses. If I lose some con (or whatever ability it is you lose) I’ll have it restored, just like everything else can be restored, it seems.
However, I may just be melancholy and looking at the past through rose-colored glasses. If I think about it, we probably didn’t role-play that much back then either. Still, multi-classing was rarely done, but now…Brrr.
Am I the only one? Am I the only one who feels that D&D 3E isn’t as exciting as 2E?
