What has changed your experience with D&D - the game or you?

[JeffB]

Well certainly I've changed in some ways, and the rules have changed in many ways too.

The big difference to me is the change of "styles". I still prefer the things I did as a kid. I still prefer those old modules (warts and all) compared to 99% of the new. I still prefer Greyhawk over the Realms or Eberron, or Planescape, or DragonLance. I sill prefer each class being best at what it does, and not so well rounded. I prefer having a bunch of Orcs, Bugbears, Ogres & Giant Rats as the enemies of my world to 1/2 Fiends, 1/2 Vampire Drow, Tieflings, or what have you. I'd rather buy and read stuff by Gary Gygax, Rob Kuntz, or Tom Moldvay over SKR, Monte Cook or other D20 notables any day of the week...not that they aren't talented...Michael Jordan is a talented basketball player(to say the least)..but I hate basketball, so I don't wanna watch him..ya know?

The new game rule-wise is overall a great effort.I like many rules elements that were cleaned up but of course there's alot of extraneous rules that IMO, don't need to be there. Now that I'm older and have a family I don't get much time to play...but I play RPGS for fun. Lots of rules are not fun, for me..never were..I preferred OD&D and the Moldvay/Cook revisions with some AD&D stuff thrown in to strict AD&D.

The style and presentation of the game has changed so much. I don't recall ever having so many rules problems/laywering...now everyone wants to argue about/exploit the rules. Rules are KING. JUst look at this board or one like it. Rules discussions and/or arguments everywhere.

All I was hoping for in 3E was a cleaned up D&D game in the same vein of the originals..I got the cleaned up part (if overcomplicated at times), but the current game is made for a different generation of folks or a different mindset, AFAIC. Alot of folks feel that 3E is more like 1E than 2E was, and for the life of me I cannot see it.

So I haven't changed much, but the game certainly has. That said, I do like some of the new stuff..although I figured I'd absolutely despise it, I've read a bit of Eberron, and it very much appeals to me in a general sense (however, I'm a big fan of pulp 20s/30s stuff). So I'll be buying it. And I love Arcana Unearthed from Monte..not everything, but overall it's great. So it's not that I cannot enjoy the new or hate change.

Tough question really..at least for me...

 

[Kanegrundar]

I started playing when I was 14, so I'd say that I've changed a LOT in the last 13 years. Also, I left D&D during 2E for greener RPG pastures. The new rules as well as the branching out of the system with D20 Modern and the Open Gaming movement have really increased what I can do with my gaming dollar and time.

Kane

 

[DaveMage]

In 24 years (started in 1980 at age 10) I have changed in the sense that I no longer have as much time to play as I did when I was a teenager.

Also, with 3rd edition, I'm using miniatures (and/or counters) which I never did in any other edition.

The only thing I lament with 3E is the time that combat takes. With AD&D and 2e, combat wasn't as complex and didn't take as long. Now, it's more of a tactical game than it used to be for me. And actually, I *like* it the 3E way, but not as much gets accomplished in the 3-5 hour sessions that I play in.

Still, when I actually do get to play, I'm enjoying the game as much as I ever have.

 

[Quasqueton]

Also, with 3rd edition, I'm using miniatures (and/or counters) which I never did in any other edition.

The only thing I lament with 3E is the time that combat takes. With AD&D and 2e, combat wasn't as complex and didn't take as long. Now, it's more of a tactical game than it used to be for me.

See, this is one of the things that strikes me as odd. I used minis back in BD&D and AD&D. Back in the 80's (80-89) I never had anyone enter my game with any surprise or problem at our using minis. I tried a couple games back then with new groups who didn't use minis, but I never stayed with those groups (my decision to not stay had nothing to do with the lack of minis, though.)

I now have many more minis than I had back then, but that is because I have a disposable income now, where I hardly had any money at all as a teen. So comments like the above quote make me wonder if the poster's current use of minis has more to do with having the money now to buy them, rather than a neccessity of the new game. A difference in the player and his world more than a difference in the game -- because the AD&D1 system then assumed the players were using minis just as much so as D&D3 does now.

Quasqueton

 

[diaglo]

See, this is one of the things that strikes me as odd. I used minis back in BD&D and AD&D.

and before then.. i came from the wargaming side.

i used minis before i ever played D&D.

 

[Bregh]

Flexor and JeffB said it well enough for me that I don't need to elaborate.

 

[RFisher]

The rules or your age?

Well, having less time to dedicate to gaming definately is a factor in how my gaming has changed. I have a feeling things will change again once my kids get old enough to join in.

The rules or your culture?

I suspect I don't keep up with cultural changes very well.

The rules or your knowledge and understanding of the rules?

Hmm. I think my basic understanding of the rules hasn't changed, but it has gotten deeper.

The rules or your play style

Yeah. My play style has changed. Well, actually, I think maybe my desired play style has changed to more like my actual play style. Though the actual play style has shifted over the years as well.

The rules or the people you play(ed) with?

Hmm. My current group doesn't feel vastly different than my high school friends or my college group.

So, what has changed more about your experience with Dungeons & Dragons -- the game, or you and your world?

Both.

When I started c. 1981, I was just having fun.

Sometime in the mid-1980s, I started wanting the game to be more like 3e. By the 1990s I was not playing (A)D&D anymore because I was searching for that game.

Sometime in the mid-1990s, I started to get close to the game I wanted, and I started to discover that maybe I didn't like what I was wanting.

When 3e came out in 2000, it seemed like exactly what I'd been wanting. I didn't like it as much as should have, though. I started searching again, but this time I didn't know what I was looking for.

That search brought me back to the games I started with: classic Traveller, D&D Basic/Expert, and OAD&D. I saw those games in a new light now & found an renewed appreciation for them.

At some point, my drive to create worlds different from the "standard" (A)D&D/Traveller world lessened. I expect that pendulum to eventually swing back the other way, and then I'll be revisiting Fudge, BESM, Risus...

So, the D&D rules have changed from D&D B/X and OAD&D to d20 D&D. On the other hand, I've changed to find renewed appreciation for the classic rules that haven't changed.

 

[takyris]

Both have changed a fair amount for the better. The rules now offer a lot more options, and I'm not such an obnoxious munchkin teenager anymore.

 

[Psion]

I think not being able to stay up all night and game all weekend and having more money than time has been the biggest change...

 

[DaveMage]

See, this is one of the things that strikes me as odd.

So comments like the above quote make me wonder if the poster's current use of minis has more to do with having the money now to buy them, rather than a neccessity of the new game. A difference in the player and his world more than a difference in the game -- because the AD&D1 system then assumed the players were using minis just as much so as D&D3 does now.

Quasqueton

No - nothing to do with money to buy them (although I do have that now). No one I played D&D with ever used minis in their games. I've played with a total of about 10 different GMs from 1E - 3E.

I was never interested in minis before because 1) I do not have the skill to paint them, and 2) I had no use for them.