Dungeons & Dragons, Editions & You

[Chaosound 50]

I played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons & AD&D 2E From High School til late my 20s.

Came back a little on D&D 3E/3.5E.

Came back again with D&D 4E to teach my kids how to play.

Recently got a new group together to play. Originally we were going 4E but since we didn't want to buy a whole new set of books just went back to 3E.

 

Honestly I think 4E isn't bad for people just jumping in. It's super simplified. That said it doesn't really give you the feel of "real" D&D. The rules are all about maxing your character much the way most MMORPGs are.

(In relation to Nerd Poker this makes me really respect Gerry's characters as he seems to enjoy making oddball "flawed" characters)

Also rules heavily rely on using minitures/maps/tiles/markers of some sort and that can be a hassle for some.

 

3E/3.5E simplified the gameplay without making it dumb and from what I understand the game Pathfinder is the same rules as D&D 3.5E carried over and expanded.

 

I doubt anyone just jumping into D&D today would last more than one session if they went back to AD&D.

 

*flameon

[clancy 94]

While I have played other systems, most of my experience with role-playing was with the 2nd edition AD&D books. We played all through high school and college. My first DM was my friend's dad who had been playing since the 70's. He modified the rules a lot and much of the time left out aspects of 2nd edition in favor of playing how he had always done.

 

I still regularly tabletop game, but it's been a long time since I played a straight up paper and pencil rpg. This show and other podcasts have rekindled my love of the game so I'm shopping for something new. I've been reading what people have said in other posts and I'm interested to see what people have to say here.

 

I'm currently leaning towards the Pathfinder Beginners box. Then if I like it, moving to the full books. My experience was almost always as a player. This time around I will most likely need to take the reins and be the DM.

[WinterCraig 25]

My older brother had the red box and played with his friends in high school. They taught me to play but only occasionally and only when they needed cannon fodder. Late 70, early 80s.

 

When I was a teen, most of my friends were into MERP and RoleMaster, which I hated. We couldn't get really any consistent campaigns together so eventually stopped. Moved onto ShadowRun and Marvel Superheroes. Late 80s into early 90s.

 

Kind of got into Twilight 2000 and MechWarrior around same time, but only played here and there. Usually one-off characters.

 

In college, I played Star Wars d6 and 2e with overlapping groups for over two years. Mid to late 90s. We did DC heroes campaign briefly, maybe 3 full sessions and players droppd out. Not as fun as Marvel was. I DM'd a Star Wars d6 with the leftover 2e players for about a year at the end of the 90s.

 

We played Star Trek and MiB around the same time, but it was the end of college and the Fellowship was breaking.

 

Long period of time with no RPGing. Parenting, grad school, work, life and stuff.

 

Taught my son Star Wars d6 a couple years back, once he was old enough.

 

Started gettting interested in DnD once Spencer began DMing on Harmontown last year. Started DMing 4e after I started listening to Nerd Poker. I still have my 2e manuals but I really love the tabletop aspect of 4e. We were pretty heavy into BattleTech in teen years so it feels familiar.

 

My favorite characters I've played over the years:

 

2e: a half-elf Thief Assassin kit. Played the same character for more than 2 years in same group. We competed the Rod of 7 Parts together. Most of the party was x-Good and I was Chaotic Neutral. I would sneak off at night while on watch to commit atrocious acts. Like hanging the wife of a local burgher from rafter of his home afte he stiffed us on a job.

 

Star Wars d6: Failed Jedi who lost his lightsaber on Tattooine in very first session (critical fumble) and had to track the Jawas who stole it out to the Jundland Wastes (which aren't to be travelled lightly).

 

Marvel: a mutant hero turned mutant rights terrorist with Electro-Magnetic powers. Played that character for several years in high school.

[jwcrummett 35]

I've played 2nd, 3rd, 3.5, 4th and I'll throw in Pathfinder. In the past few years I've played other systems, most recently Savage Worlds. I've been writing up my own SW one-shot campaign which I call League of Extraordinaire Americans. The characters I use are Orville Wright, Annie Oakley, Harry Houdini, Nikola Tesla, and a young H.P. Lovecraft. Set in 1905, the adventure would start in Paris and then head to Istanbul and Wallachia.

 

Recently at one of our conventions' (MisCon) quarterly game days I played Dungeon Crawler Classics. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. The first one shot was with 5 players playing 0-level characters. My first got killed off 3 minutes in.

 

Another one I had played in recent years was the original Game of Thrones d20. I thought it was really good too, but the credit there has to go to our GM. The story he wove was amazingly intriguing.

 

Up until last week (moving this Thursday) I played in a game that used BASH. The storyline was good, I didn't care much for the system though.

[surenotgunshy 7]

Kind of got into Twilight 2000 and MechWarrior around same time, but only played here and there. Usually one-off characters.

 

Twilight 2000 and MechWarrior both fall into my bought but never played file. I can't remember how I got MechWarrior but I do remember never having any enthusiasm for it(Played and enjoyed Battletech though - guess the concept worked for me more as a board game). Twilight 2000 though, I found it on the second hand shelf at a hobby store. I loved that system and most of all the character generation, plotting your guys life block by block until you got to the point when the dice declared war had broken out. I made so many Twilight 2000 characters but I could never interest anyone in playing it. I'd like to look over the rules again actually, it's now even more firmly an alternate history setting but that's kind of cooler even.

 

Probably post more here later but those thoughts jumped right into my head so I thought I'd get them down.

[surenotgunshy 7]

I'm currently leaning towards the Pathfinder Beginners box. Then if I like it, moving to the full books. My experience was almost always as a player. This time around I will most likely need to take the reins and be the DM.

 

While I've never laid eyes on the beginners box myself it's gotten great reviews - I think the two posts below give a fairly good look at it.

 

http://www.sarahdark...-box-first-look

 

http://www.sarahdark...eaching-new-gms

 

Additional for minimum outlay pick it up from Amazon: http://amzn.to/XnplUf $23 US as I post this.

 

Also as Pathfinder unlike 4th Edition is Opensource you can check out everything in the full game(rules wise anyway, you're missing explanations, illustrations and flavour) in the system reference document: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/

 

If you do end up picking up the core book and I highly recommend you do you'll want the Bestiary but imo you're fine with the pdf version which Paizo sells for 10 bucks versus 40 for the hardcover(which is beautiful and worth it but if you're budget minded... plus it saves a little so you can spend it on...) and the Advanced Players Guide which I think is probably the best splat book they've put out and probably my favourite RPG product of the last decade. Six new classes the Archetype system which gives variant rules for all the classes plus a heap of new spells and feats. As a DM you're going to want to decide what is appropriate in your world or your game if you're running in the default Pathfinder setting of Golarion(as an example I don't allow inquisitors, alchemists or summoners in my game).

 

While I tend to create my own world and design all my adventures myself, it would be remiss of me not to mention that Paizos Adventure Paths are probably the most consistently praised products they put out to the point that many people convert them for use with other systems Rise of the Runelords: http://bit.ly/14QTZK0 & Kingmaker: http://bit.ly/10KnWpM are probably the two most popular.

 

Best of luck and I hope and believe you're going to have an amazing time.

[clancy 94]

 

Best of luck and I hope and believe you're going to have an amazing time.

 

Thanks Winterborn! All of that info helps and I'll be checking out all of the links instead of working, shhhh. ;-) I'm pretty sure this is the product I'm going to try first, but I love doing the beforehand research.

[Chaosound 50]

I saw the Pathfinder box at my lcbs for $40. Amazon win heh.

[clancy 94]

As much as I like to do business with my local gaming stores, I went with Amazon and picked up the Pathfinder Beginner set. It was in fact only $23 bucks (with gift card - free!). Followed the amazon link on Nerd Poker's front page, so hopefully they'll get their 5/8 of a penny. :-) Now the wait for Mr. Mailman!

[sorenconrad 6]

Doing d and d 3.5/pathfinder is the way to go. Good job

[RiffWizard 6]

I'm playing 4th edition after a 20 + year layoff and it's fun. You need a good DM to keep it from becoming board game like but it's a nice way to break up a 60 hour work week by getting together with folks to play. I bought the Pathfinder Beginner Box recently just to check it out but I have no intent on playing at this time. Looks great and as and as an side, their comic is great too and worth checking out. Any of you from NJ and interested in playing 4th edition? We may be creating a new group as we have a few players that are WAY too serious.

[sorenconrad 6]

I play Pathfinder for all my fantasy rpg games but fairly wore out on fantasy settings to be truthful. Also a touch sick of D20 in general Currently in a NWOD 1870s campaign and looking to get a NON magic GURPS action campaign back up and running by the end of the year

[RobotsPJs 123]

I've only ever played 4th. I like that you feel like a badass at level 1 (cuz of all the powers and what not) but damn does the game drag sometimes. A simple encounter can take far too long. But it's the only one my DM will play right now, so that's what I have to go with.

[Chaosound 50]

Yeah the fights in 4E can take forever. I'm really liking what I've seen of the "Next" playtest rules. Hopefully I'm going to start DMing using this ruleset soon.

[RiffWizard 6]

There are definitely ways to speed up the battle time in 4E and my thought, as with all systems, is that it's all about having a great DM and good crew. But to your point, with the wrong DM the battle times can be drawn out. Still a great edition of the game albeit very different from the 1st and 2nd editions I grew up on.

 

[Effigy_Power 47]

I like that some people are defending 4E, because it gets piled on a lot.

 

Yes, the system itself is much more combat-centric and a lot of things have been cut that seem integral to the D&D experience, there's no doubt about that. But on the other hand a lot of those things have always been more up to the disgression of the DM than the rulebook.

 

I myself started playing AD&D in Highschool and then played 3 and 3.5 for years until I moved and basically stopped, due to the pretty common reason of losing track of my old group. I just recently started playing again (in great parts thanks to Nerd Poker) and have decided to run 4E because almost everyone in my group is new to D&D. The combat card system makes playing real easy for people who have neither the books nor the experience to play this stuff off the top of their heads. I think we too often forget that roleplaying can seem very intimidating and exclusive to new players and 4E does a pretty good job to overcome that.

 

In the end no rulesystem can replace a good DM and enthusiastic players and rules should not be there to dictate what you can do, but to umpire what you want to do. I think 4E does as solid a job as any other edition, with some complexity trimmed off to make it more accessible. And that can't be a bad thing.

 

PS: Without a battlegrid 4E is really hard to play for sure. A lot of pushing and pulling is done and combat in general seems less static. On the other hand a battlegrid is pretty helpful in any edition, not to make sure nobody cheats, but because some combat simply becomes overwhelming. Considering the less-than-ideal playing location the Nerd Pokerists are doing a pretty good job at keeping things at least sufficiently fair for everyone.

 

For Glinishmore!

[RobotsPJs 123]

I like that some people are defending 4E, because it gets piled on a lot.

 

Yes, the system itself is much more combat-centric and a lot of things have been cut that seem integral to the D&D experience, there's no doubt about that. But on the other hand a lot of those things have always been more up to the disgression of the DM than the rulebook.

 

I myself started playing AD&D in Highschool and then played 3 and 3.5 for years until I moved and basically stopped, due to the pretty common reason of losing track of my old group. I just recently started playing again (in great parts thanks to Nerd Poker) and have decided to run 4E because almost everyone in my group is new to D&D. The combat card system makes playing real easy for people who have neither the books nor the experience to play this stuff off the top of their heads. I think we too often forget that roleplaying can seem very intimidating and exclusive to new players and 4E does a pretty good job to overcome that.

 

In the end no rulesystem can replace a good DM and enthusiastic players and rules should not be there to dictate what you can do, but to umpire what you want to do. I think 4E does as solid a job as any other edition, with some complexity trimmed off to make it more accessible. And that can't be a bad thing.

 

PS: Without a battlegrid 4E is really hard to play for sure. A lot of pushing and pulling is done and combat in general seems less static. On the other hand a battlegrid is pretty helpful in any edition, not to make sure nobody cheats, but because some combat simply becomes overwhelming. Considering the less-than-ideal playing location the Nerd Pokerists are doing a pretty good job at keeping things at least sufficiently fair for everyone.

 

For Glinishmore!

 

I always like a battle grid even when it's not needed just so I get a good visualization where everything is. It also helps players. I don't always use them when I run a game, but for notable battle scenes I try to have a map with some sort of figure tokens on it.

[Stargoyle 78]

Gygax Magazine has Cory Doctorow's ruleset for a four year old.

[Bad Wizard 39]

 

Twilight 2000 and MechWarrior both fall into my bought but never played file. I can't remember how I got MechWarrior but I do remember never having any enthusiasm for it(Played and enjoyed Battletech though - guess the concept worked for me more as a board game). Twilight 2000 though, I found it on the second hand shelf at a hobby store. I loved that system and most of all the character generation, plotting your guys life block by block until you got to the point when the dice declared war had broken out. I made so many Twilight 2000 characters but I could never interest anyone in playing it. I'd like to look over the rules again actually, it's now even more firmly an alternate history setting but that's kind of cooler even.

 

Probably post more here later but those thoughts jumped right into my head so I thought I'd get them down.

 

 

Im the same own both never played'

[AndrewGould 53]

I started with Blue Book - it was released here in Australia in 1977, so that's when I started. Moved on to 1st edition AD&D, and still have my old, beaten up Players' Handbook, DM's Guide, Monster Manual, and Deities and Demigods - the original edition with the copyright infringements. I've played so many other RPGs in different genres that I can't possibly name them all, but I went back to D&D for 3E and 3.5, and now play Pathfinder. I haven't played 4E, though I'd like to. Except that I never play with miniatures.

[BonkersBananas 62]

2nd edition, skills and powers. Stopped playing for about 4 years, came back to 3, then stopped again for awhile and was in a Pathfinder game not too long ago.

[Bad Wizard 39]

Love the Location Bonkers.

Is Babu with you in the "Danger Zone'?

[BonkersBananas 62]

Love the Location Bonkers.

Is Babu with you in the "Danger Zone'?

Babu, that crazy Ocelot, I'll follow him anywhere. Does it stink of piss in here?

[GregoryHammell 7]

3.5 here. just started this year after wanting to play for a lonnnng time.

 

I have the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and I want to start a campaign where I DM but so far can't find any takers.

 

I can't see myself using any edition apart from 3.5/Pathfinder.

[BonkersBananas 62]

3.5 here. just started this year after wanting to play for a lonnnng time.

 

I have the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and I want to start a campaign where I DM but so far can't find any takers.

 

I can't see myself using any edition apart from 3.5/Pathfinder.

 

2nd edition is quite fun once you get the concept of how everything is pretty much backwards from 3.0+.