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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Why 3.5 Worked
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<blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7883814" data-attributes="member: 6785785"><p>I had a couple of friends who were into RPGs but D&D never really clicked for them until 3E. This was for a variety of reasons that I don’t really need to go into other than to say that the effort made by 3E to clearly define everything really clicked for my group.</p><p></p><p>Then 3.5 came along and I think the game became far too codified at that point. There were many options and tons and tons of rules. It started to become cumbersome. Also, I don’t think that many of the options presented really offered all that much to the game. A lot of it seemed pretty superficial, but the “variety” of options was supposedly one of the perks.</p><p></p><p>I also found it to be the edition that my group argued about the most during play. I think the rules had become so codified that DM rulings were seen as almost unnecessary at times. Players would often know specific rules better than the DM (especially feats and similar options) and this resulted in a lot of clashes about rules. </p><p></p><p>I was nearly exhausted by the whole experience when 4 E came out. We tried that, and although I found it fun to DM, eventually the novelty wore off for the players. They asked if we could play Pathfinder instead, and so we did. </p><p></p><p>I didn't realize that I was jumping back into the same situation that had nearly exhausted me. Pathfinder started out just fine. But then the endless splatbooks soon made things worse than they had ever been with 3.5.</p><p></p><p>So I think that ultimately, 3E and 3.5 and Pathfinder are all solid games at their core, and each version brought something new and innovative to the D&D catalogue...but each wound up collapsing under its own weight. Too much bloat and power creep and a system that rewards knowing all the new options...that’s a bad combo.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hawkeyefan, post: 7883814, member: 6785785"] I had a couple of friends who were into RPGs but D&D never really clicked for them until 3E. This was for a variety of reasons that I don’t really need to go into other than to say that the effort made by 3E to clearly define everything really clicked for my group. Then 3.5 came along and I think the game became far too codified at that point. There were many options and tons and tons of rules. It started to become cumbersome. Also, I don’t think that many of the options presented really offered all that much to the game. A lot of it seemed pretty superficial, but the “variety” of options was supposedly one of the perks. I also found it to be the edition that my group argued about the most during play. I think the rules had become so codified that DM rulings were seen as almost unnecessary at times. Players would often know specific rules better than the DM (especially feats and similar options) and this resulted in a lot of clashes about rules. I was nearly exhausted by the whole experience when 4 E came out. We tried that, and although I found it fun to DM, eventually the novelty wore off for the players. They asked if we could play Pathfinder instead, and so we did. I didn't realize that I was jumping back into the same situation that had nearly exhausted me. Pathfinder started out just fine. But then the endless splatbooks soon made things worse than they had ever been with 3.5. So I think that ultimately, 3E and 3.5 and Pathfinder are all solid games at their core, and each version brought something new and innovative to the D&D catalogue...but each wound up collapsing under its own weight. Too much bloat and power creep and a system that rewards knowing all the new options...that’s a bad combo. [/QUOTE]
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