Dungeon and Dragon players

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Wow, YouTube has everything! For those of you who didn't get to play Bloodlines, here's most of the hotel. The diary entries are hard to read, but worth it, in my opinion.

(The playthrough here doesn't make it apparent, but you do have to turn the boiler room back on in order to have enough power to run the elevator, which is needed. Also, the player missed a fetish in one of the rooms, that, IIRC, would have boosted his Blood Pool...)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt871DyKQbQ[/youtube]

I've been playing since 1999...so I never really got to experience the glory days or anything, but I did get to start out on 2.0 and be super confused about thAC0 =)

All my friends complain about how 2.0 was so much better, but then we keep playing 3.x anyway? *shrugs*

I'd really like to sit down some time and learn the original D&D (not advanced) and make a campaign from it for me to run. The Advanced series is alright and everything, but sometimes I feel like all the rules get in the way, and I wouldn't mind stripping everything down to the basics and having some fun...instead of spending so much time creating the perfect character, or argueing what a certain rule is, only to eventually check the book anyway instead of going house rules...

Idunno, maybe it's just me, but sometimes I feel like less is more.

er, I wonder if someone might outline in more detail the complaints about 4.0, I did play 3.5 some time ago but not in proper depth or for a proper length of time, so how does 4.0 differ?

I really enjoy Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. From what I have been told of the previous editions this is a more streamlined DnD, easier to keep track of things I think. It's also really the first edition I have played more than once. One time with friends in Ohio we ordered pizza and played 3.5 (or 2nd edition - can't remember which). I had no idea what I was doing, and we really didn't use a grid or minis. We just rolled dice, and the DM told us what we were facing and where. Now with playing 4th, I've pretty much decided I love this game. There are so many races and classes to experiment with. So far, I like the dwarf, eladrin, and elf. Other people would probably go with more exotic races, but the three I mentioned are ones I have used. I have even played human. Fighter, rogue, warlock, warlord, and cleric are classes I have played.

Some old-time players dislike 4th edition because of the new concepts of "healing surges" and daily powers for everyone. Basically, back in the day, if you had, say, a 1st-level fighter, he could hit things with a sword or bow, and that was about it. He could have up to 10 hit points, plus Constitution bonus (for an absolute maximum of 14), and no matter how tough he was, once those hp were used up, he was down and dying. Even worse was the old-school magic-user - just 4 hp plus bonus, no armor, not many useful weapons, and only one lousy first-level spell per day (I liked to take Sleep, so that I could get away from groups of orcs). Most old-school players didn't even bother naming a character until it hit at least third level, because death was so common for those just starting.

Now, hit points are figured differently, with some adjustments for race as well (which only makes sense when there are two new races, one descended from dragons and the other from demons), and each character also gets a certain number of times per game day in which, when not in combat, they can spend a "healing surge" and recover up to half their hp. There are new powers that can be used once per day, once per hour, and once per encounter, that give a character greater flexibility (for instance, a dragonborn can use a low-powered version of a dragon's breath weapon - I think that's a once-per-day power). Armor use and weapons are also defined differently - your mage can indeed wear chain mail, it's just going to slow down his spell-casting (which, depending on the effectiveness of the party's fighters and healers, might be a trade-off worth making). First-level characters are now vastly more likely to grow up to be higher-level people one day.

I think what sticks in some old-schoolers' craws really harshly, though, is the fact that the in-rules discussions of what various classes can do best uses some terminology that has become widely familiar from MMOs, particularly when discussing the various battlefield roles (mages, due to their area-affecting spells, are referred to as "Controllers", while paladins and clerics, who can bolster their teammates' effectiveness and morale, are "Leaders").

I've been playing DND and other things sense before there was dirt it seems... happens to be a strong special interest of mine. I've played DnD (all versions up to 4.0), GURPS, Rollmaster, Rifts, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulu, WoD (Both old and new) as well as others which I can't think of right now.

From the sounds of it the OP is likely playing 4.0... I didn't like what it looked like when I looked it over but haven't played so am not going to review it here.

And yes I've been accused of being a devote of satan for my gaming habit, but am infact agnostic so I'm must be truely evil.

Someone mentioned a game where they played cartoon characters.... this is likely Toon by Steve Jackson games http://www.sjgames.com/toon/ Toon is NOT a modification of DnD.



Anyhow I've always been facinated by the rules for RPGs, the numbers and patterns of how to get determine what is happening. Anything that I play I quickly figure out how it all works and have had a tendancy to GM more often then play, I have a very open GMing style where the game world "Reacts" to the players. Basicly I know what all of the major players of the story are doing and they change course based on what the players do (sometimes not to the NPCs best interests... depend on what they know or think they know).

As a player I'll often do things I think the character would do even if I know it's going to be bad for the character. So perhaps I'm "Hard Core" in my own way.

I've also found RPGing to be a wonderful social outlet for someone who isn't very social.




In the end I actually don't play DnD much anymore, I've kinda moved away from level based to skill based systems. (WoD, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk and GURPS are all skill based)

Also my fasination with the rules as led me to develop my own homebrew system which I keep telling myself I will self publish, we will see. (Actually my Avatar is artwork done for that system... a troll (player character) to be exact)

Anyhow I've yammered enough.

I have been playing RPGs since I was 14. I don't like 4th ed at all. Too much focused on combat, feels too much like WoW IMO.

For those that want a good system based on 3.5, Pazio's Pathfinder is the way to go and there customer service is second to none. Unlike WOTC who lied about the computer 4th ed tools being ready on the day 4th ed would be in the stores.

If people feel that 4th edition DnD is more combat and less roleplaying, then the older versions were like what? Was there more "roleplaying?"

Three words: ThAC0 is WhAC0.

And this thread makes me want to run an IRC game.
*scratch chin*

Perhaps... a Pathfinder d20 game wrapped in Eberron? Hmmmmmm.

I looooove playing. Last campaign I was a halfling barbarian.

Yes, I have had people think I was a Satanist.