He’s analyzing some of the problems with D&D’s Fourth Edition, and how they’re going to have a devil of a time getting their loyal fan base back, given that a whole lot of ’em decided to take full advantage of the Open Game License thing to keep and maintain Third Edition content. Personally, I take a kind of detached view on this, given that:
- I didn’t really do 3E. My D&D was AD&D, and that was only because my wife could DM that system in her sleep*.
- Right now I’m not really gaming, period. Long story, mostly involving kids and time and whatnot.
- When I do get back to gaming it’ll probably be either GURPS or one of the Cthulhu systems.
Still, interesting post. Personally, I think that more people in the political blogosphere who are also gamers should just come out and admit it. I mean, it’s the Internet. We’re all geeks under the skin here, right?
Moe Lane
*Yes, I’m one of those insufferable SOBs whose wife also games.
3E fixed a lot of the coherency and complexity problems with AD&D (“You have to roll high on this roll, low on that roll, and low with different dice on this other roll- except when you don’t”) and 3.5 was an improvement over that, fixing a lot of balance problems. Pathfinder made a few other alterations and introduced a whole new world with a massive amount of (coherent! well-illustrated!) background material. My group has been using it exclusively since it came out and has been much pleased with it. If you gave it a try, I don’t think you’d be disappointed.
The Open License on 3rd Edition was and attempt to recreate the downstream market for D&D products that once existed with 1st Edition that TSR sued out of existence. There were once whole legions of D&D compatible modules and campaigns out there. When they died so did much of the D&D market, “a bull wins sometimes, a bear wins sometimes, a pig always gets slaughtered.”
4E is a lot of fun although I confess to skepticism about it when we first started. But it may also have a lot to do with the group we play with.
The edition is almost irrelevant. It’s all how well the DM utilizes it. Had fun with 3rd. More fun with 3.5. Not much with 4th. I actually really like 4th, but our DM didn’t, so it never caught. Apparently we’re doing Fantasycraft next. Sort of a hybrid 3.5 in a world he made himself from scratch. At least he’ll be invested in the campaign.
And, yes, I gamed for the first time in college at Hillsdale because my girlfriend asked if I’d be interested. And, also yes, I married her.
Not only does she game, but both of her parents played FIRST edition. There. I’m done with the bragging now.
Damn your eyes, you insufferable bastards with gamer wives….I could never even find a woman who gamed 🙁
Mine is with me because (among other reasons) her previous fella wouldn’t quit playing when she was ready for some fun. Everything in moderation, folks.
My gaming group meets 3 times a week (I’m 37, and the oldest of the group, two more 30somthings with a 3 year old kid, and 3 20somethings round out the group) we play 3.5, dark heresy (Warhammer 40k role-play) Shadowrun, chivalry and sorcery, and occasionally we’ll drag out something more obscure. The DM knows all of these systems back to front and has a huge library of books. We like 3.5 because of the complexity that they seem to have stripped away in 4. Plus we all have our own 3.5 stuff and don’t want to buy more.
I like the 4e system better than 3.5 (and that’s the only comparison I’m qualified to make). Both when I play and DM, I don’t feel a need for a rigid ruleset governing the tying of knots or the proper use of the work of Pythagorus to determine how far you can run on an angle. That said, I’ve heard that Pathfinder is a reasonable improvement on 3.5, but I’ve never had a chance to try it. I love to argue the merits of one system over another, but ultimately I think that it’s a question of taste and familiarity. Play what you love, no matter how unique or obscure.
Thanks weyoun42 for reminding me I’m old, I played 1st edition, I played Traveller and a lot of the younger game systems as well! Played 3rd Edition and liked it, played around 2nd(just kept playing 1st Edition rules and ignored most of the 2nd edition ones as irrelevant). My comment above was that TSR brought about about the death of the 1st Edition of D&D by killing off the downstream market, they were never able to produce enough modules in a given year to satisfy the market and by killing the downstream market the killed themselves. What good are a set of Rules if you have nothing to use them with? And contrary to belief a lot of GM’s can’t produce a module at the drop of a hat it’s work, it takes time,immagination and judgement.
Been thinking of restarting a first edition campaign the grand kids are old enough and are starting to get interested.
Meh. GURPS is the only true system. I got started with it when it was known as “In the Labyrinth”.
Heh, My parents bough us kids the Red Box for Christmas when I was 8 or so. So, early 80s. Been gaming ever since… although V4 killed it for me.
So, I haven’t gamed in a few years. I wondered why my life was so cold and empty…
“I’m one of those insufferable SOBs whose wife also games.”
___
>_< Lucky, insufferable SOB.
I remember the old paperback set. Man, we had some busy games back in college! Wore those books out.
My D&D was AD&D
I’m still running a campaign (slowly; I have 3 kids) for 1st and 2nd edition gamers. We had one 3rd ed. gamer, but he dropped out after his divorce. 4th edition? That was right out.
I just realized how long ago I discovered D&D: over at Penny Arcade, Tycho made a remark about “grizzled veterans” clinging to THAC0.
.
I remember the days before THAC0.
@Rob: I’m jsut waiting for Gurps Girl Genius to come out.
Anybody here remember the PRESTAGS system or the Bookcase Games. Hexgonal maps, chits, etc..
DaveP. Gurps GG is apparently on hold, Kaja says she hasn’t done anything on it in the last couple of years. Steve Jackson is reportedly not happy.
xander: Last I heard of anything was in 2010.