Wik
First Post
Welcome back. Have you looked any at pathfinder? will you be returning to lew? there is a living pathfinder here if you are interested to know more. You were greatly missed at living en world when you left, but no guilt and no pressure.
Nah. Part of my gaming change is to not spend any more money on RPGs. Unless they look really, REALLY exciting (and I haven't been that excited about a gaming product since, what? Iron Heroes? Frostburn? Unearthed Arcana? In any case, it's been awhile).
While Pathfinder is put forward by some really cool guys, the product itself actually seems less interesting for what I want than core D&D. See, we're playing Dark Sun, which is a setting I haven't had a chance to play for a looooonnnnng time.
As for living campaigns... I enjoy them, I really do, but the big problem is my own life. It goes from incredibly slow, where I can dedicate a lot of time to an online game, to a 24/7 situation in a heartbeat where I simply do not have time to keep my energy level up. It is, basically, not fair for me to run OR play a game. I do miss it, though!
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One of the things I really like about 3e the second time around is how easily I can houserule things. And how readily I can ignore the rules on the GM's side of the screen, and just not CARE. I have absolutely no problem going "hm. I'm going to ignore this monster's improved grab. Maybe I'll just give it a rend ability instead. DONE."
I've also been able to throw in some favourite 2eisms - Piecemeal Armour (ala Skills and Powers), Dark Sun Weapon Materials, Psionic Wild Talents, and even dumbed down Character Kits! - and had no real worry about stuff like "Game Balance".
This may sound funny, but three(ish) years or so of 4e has taught me that Game Balance is overrated... and it's also made me want to interject more 2e into my game and not feel guilty for wanting to say that.
Really, my "3e" game is destined to become something like version 2.95 with a 4E update.
Seriously, though:
* 3.5E as the starting base.
* Add in e6 variant (which fixes most of my big complaints of the game).
* "Three Token" system where players can spend tokens for game/narrative effects - and the GM can spend those tokens against PCs.
* 2eisms - Psionic Wild Talents, Character origin "kits", Piecemeal Armour, Weapon Materials
* 4E Dark Sun weapon breakage rule (modified - made more complex)
* 4E Critical Rules mixed with 3e Critical Rules mixed with other critical rules mixed with...
* 4E Starting Hit Points (sort of)
* 2E Material Components for spells
It's been a lot of fun browsing books, figuring out what to add. Before the Dark Sun campaign actually begins (we're doing a prequel right now, and then going balls to the wall to finish our 4e campaign before really starting our Dark Sun game properly), I might even make some big changes to the setting itself, to make things wholly my own.
If only there were a way to add Grippli to Dark Sun....