New D&D is officially released

endfire79 · July 15, 2014, 11:58:22 AM

Thanks Brant, that was a great lesson on the D&D saga.

I must admit, I started out on tabletop when it was 2e, but was pc gaming with the 3.0/3.5e rules. I probably didn't get messed up as much with the rules, as I wasn't table top gaming much at that point.

Nefaro · July 16, 2014, 01:15:46 PM

Quote from: Double Deuce on July 13, 2014, 01:54:49 AM
Prior to this new version my kids always asked for me to run 1e because those are the books I have that they think are the "coolest". A few weeks ago my daughter was trying to have a go as DM using 1e and was having all kinds of trouble with the THAC0. Finally she looked at me and said this thing is so stupid. Sometimes I think the only real flaw in the old school DnD stuff was the THAC0. Well, that and the layout of the DMG.

Even after digging through 5e, I think I still like the pre 2e AD&D system better, apart from the THAC0. This edition should let me play all my stacks of old stuff with little conversion and minimal rules and no damn THAC0.

Naaa... Saving Throw tables. Those also sucked. THAC0 was an easier way to figure out "To Hit" because otherwise it was yet more 'To Hit' tables based on character class & level or Monster Hit Dice. Which was an even larger pain in the ass.

There really weren't many different systems in the character mechanics in those old games, but it still managed to have a good amount of unwieldy junk. Tables galore for something so simple. >:( The D20 system from 3.0/3.5 was so much more uniform and didn't require you to reference such things.

vyshka · July 18, 2014, 08:32:08 PM

Quote from: Toonces on July 13, 2014, 03:54:27 PM
If you really want the "long" version there's an excellent book called Playing at the World that goes into painstaking detail about the evolution of D&D.

http://www.amazon.com/Playing-at-World-Jon-Peterson-ebook/dp/B008PN6K9Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405284849&sr=1-1&keywords=playing+at+the+world

In the process of reading that, and have another book called Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It.

I'm tempted to jump in to 5e to see what it is like. I picked up a few of the PF pdfs, but haven't done much with it, and haven't played a tabletop rpg in a while.

Double Deuce · July 18, 2014, 11:48:27 PM

I only initially grabbed 5e because it was free. After having read it, I started liking it more.

Martok · July 19, 2014, 11:07:03 AM

Quote from: vyshka on July 18, 2014, 08:32:08 PM
In the process of reading that, and have another book called Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It.

I've been told I need to read that one as well. Would be interested in hearing your take on it.

bayonetbrant · August 18, 2014, 03:24:28 PM

here's another take on the D&D "Edition Wars"

http://ironbombs.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/a-brief-history-of-the-edition-wars/

I'm not down with 100% of what he's got here, but it's a good resource and worth reading if you care about such things

MetalDog · August 19, 2014, 07:58:24 PM

Awesome read, Brant. I stopped playing after 2nd Edition, for lack of time and players. But, if I was able to get some OSR folks locally, I would LOVE to play again!

bayonetbrant · August 19, 2014, 08:59:37 PM

like I said - not sure I agree with him as he seems to have spent a little too much time online w/ the "old school" crowd and plays up a lot of "editions" whose adherents probably number in the dozens rather than the real market wars w/ Paizo and Wizards and the piss-poor market coordination of all the OGL releases (there were 4 different "dwarves of __" books released in a 5-week period at one point, by 4 different publishers)