| Harland Handescu |
Is it cool to start threads discussing non-d20 games here? I love D&D like you wouldn't believe, if by "D&D" you mean beholders, dungeons, magic missile and such. My feelings on the d20 system, on the other hand, are much less...congenial.*
What do you say, Paizo guys?
* Translation: I prefer to translate my favorite fantasy game into a set of rules that doesn't make me want to stab my face and groin with an ice pick until I die. :)
Wow! You colorfully iterated my feeling on d20 in a way I could not have imagined. Other than being complex and disjointed after starting sinmple and easy, then morphing into 3.5 before most players had converted to 3.0, being overly prone to the chaos of class-shifting min-maxers, separating from the artistic traditions of the past (not completely bad), toughing monsters to speedkill most 2d ed players converting old characters, eliminating the multiclass tradion and all of the thinking on dual-classing, convoluting combat to lengthiness (like this run-on sentence), de-balling clerics and priests, disallowing most clerical rules and norms for the previous decade, reducing/eliminating training & attribute minimums and -especially the renaming of most magic and the omission of much magic from core rules- other than all that, d20 was a pretty good idea.
I have always wanted to redo the D&D/AD&D cbt system so that there were no negative numbers. That eases younger players and some real-world barbarians into the system. I spent 15 years introducing new players to AD&D, sharing my resources and teaching new DM's only to see TSR go downhill. If they had just printed more of their materials and made them available to players, we would not be having these discussions (I am still hunting for FR materials from over a decade ago).
I was given a d20 PH by a friend of my daughter's and bought some other 3rd ed stuff that was included in lots online. I have studied the system and found it to be playable, but un-fun. My wife isn't interested in it and my son-in-lawe begs me, "please don't go 3rd ed!" My oldest son reads any gaming stuff, any system, but only plays with me. My oldest daughter is 2d ed exclusive though her husband enjoys STJ games that are too dark for the family table.
We enjoy the Mechwarrior 2d edition system and the Battle tech 3rd edition rules. FASA had a great genre with Shadowrun, but the dice were TERRIBLE!
I have recently, accidentally, received 3d edition gaming modules. They are remarkably easy to translate, therefore worthwhile to 2d ed, 1st ed and even "boxed" D&D. The new graphics and monster cutout cards from Dungeon magazine are AWESOME! The inserts for Dragon-FR maps, etc. are also very good. I have also seen some good non-playable info.