Why don't I get warm-tingly feelings when I buy a 3E product like in 1E/2E/Basic D&D?
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francisca
I got dice older than you.
Certainly being 12 and totally stoked about the game, when all was new, is part of it, but in my case, it's not all of it by a long shot.
I put some of it down to the presentation of the material. Reading either the 3.5 PHB or DMG late at night will put me to sleep. Even to this day, the 1E PHB and DMG will keep me from sleeping, and I have to get out of bed and go scribble down some ideas.
The 3.5 PHB reads like a cross between a boring business procedures manual and a poorly written UNIX SystemV man page. If you've read either, I think you get the idea. If you've read both, I pity you.
The 1E PHB and DMG are simply better reads than their 3.x offspring, in my opinion.
I put some of it down to the presentation of the material. Reading either the 3.5 PHB or DMG late at night will put me to sleep. Even to this day, the 1E PHB and DMG will keep me from sleeping, and I have to get out of bed and go scribble down some ideas.
The 3.5 PHB reads like a cross between a boring business procedures manual and a poorly written UNIX SystemV man page. If you've read either, I think you get the idea. If you've read both, I pity you.
The 1E PHB and DMG are simply better reads than their 3.x offspring, in my opinion.
MoogleEmpMog
First Post
I chock it up mostly to the presentation and writing. The art is largely uninspiring, the layouts in core D&D materials and many d20 books are extremely bland, and the writing is flat as a board. The PHB and DMG are the worst offenders.
There's also the small matter of "been there, done that" - most if not all of us have seen more than enough generic elves, dwarves, halflings, dragons, orcs, wizards and such, be it in fiction or game books.
There's also the small matter of "been there, done that" - most if not all of us have seen more than enough generic elves, dwarves, halflings, dragons, orcs, wizards and such, be it in fiction or game books.
For me there are three reasons, two of which others have mentioned.
1. Age/jaded. What enthralled me as a teenager doesn't have the same effect now. I've seen a lot of it, other stuff just falls flat.
2. Boring user manuals (the core books), that read like software manuals. In Eric Mona's thread about why people don't subscribe to Dragon, many mentioned that it's been boring, lifeless. The rulebooks read the same way.
3. Time. When I get together with friends to play, the old excitement often comes back. But we have too many other commitments. Sessions are (at best) every other week. We don't have the time to sit around and talk about gaming the way we did in college. Heck, compared to college, I hardly ever see friends, what with work, family, and other demands. All of this drains a lot of the intensity from gaming (for me, at least).
Don't take this as whining, however. Having more to life than gaming is a good thing! Just means life is full of trade-offs.
1. Age/jaded. What enthralled me as a teenager doesn't have the same effect now. I've seen a lot of it, other stuff just falls flat.
2. Boring user manuals (the core books), that read like software manuals. In Eric Mona's thread about why people don't subscribe to Dragon, many mentioned that it's been boring, lifeless. The rulebooks read the same way.
3. Time. When I get together with friends to play, the old excitement often comes back. But we have too many other commitments. Sessions are (at best) every other week. We don't have the time to sit around and talk about gaming the way we did in college. Heck, compared to college, I hardly ever see friends, what with work, family, and other demands. All of this drains a lot of the intensity from gaming (for me, at least).
Don't take this as whining, however. Having more to life than gaming is a good thing! Just means life is full of trade-offs.
jayaint
First Post
This might sound fairly silly, but one thing I've always done is NOT read the Monster Manuals. I refuse to do it. I mean, some of the simplest, low CR mosnters have tingled the hairs on theback of my neck, b/c I was experiencing them for the first time, just like my character. Even on the few times I have DM'ed, I will just open up to the Orc entry to get a feel for the kind of info I need to jot down, and then make up my own monsters from there. It makes the games I play in... well, exciting. Even now.
-jay
-jay
Open Game License. They specialized in focusing on the rules aspect and left the worlds to others, for the most part. Used to be you'd get a book and the rules and the world were rather unseparable. With the exception of Monk and Paladin not being able to multiclass freely, you don't get too much of that anymore.
But then... as you age your demographic shifts, too. I used to devour fantasy novels myself, but somewhere around age 30 I stopped even looking over the new titles. Now I just kind of hang on waiting for the final sign of the approaching apocalypse when Jordan finishes his series.
D&D is now a mechanics company. How you use the machines and parts they sell requires inspiration of your own.
Also, if you've been busy reading fantasy or keeping up with the published works, you tend to learn the old tricks. Jaded indeed.
Maybe it's time to look for that warm fuzzy feeling from using D&D as a vehicle for your own artform of plot development and execution. Or maybe you're just in a rut and need to change the pace a bit somehow before getting back to it.
Good luck.
But then... as you age your demographic shifts, too. I used to devour fantasy novels myself, but somewhere around age 30 I stopped even looking over the new titles. Now I just kind of hang on waiting for the final sign of the approaching apocalypse when Jordan finishes his series.
D&D is now a mechanics company. How you use the machines and parts they sell requires inspiration of your own.
Also, if you've been busy reading fantasy or keeping up with the published works, you tend to learn the old tricks. Jaded indeed.
Maybe it's time to look for that warm fuzzy feeling from using D&D as a vehicle for your own artform of plot development and execution. Or maybe you're just in a rut and need to change the pace a bit somehow before getting back to it.
Good luck.
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