Thanks for the thoughtful replies Rift and Delericho.
I must admit that when I started this current campaign, I thought the group I would be DMing for was a great deal more experience than they actually are. This goes for the girl playing the pixie warmage also. All of them love RPGs and roleplaying (we all met at the local ren faire) but it seems their past DM didn't exactly have a firm grasp of the rules himself.
As a bit of background, part of the reason I went thru the toil of trying to make the game more accessible is that up until 4th Ed was announced, I was actually planning on releasing some D&D/OGL supplements of my own. About 1/2 of what I'd been working on is moot now but a good portion of it was building an MS Office based suite of DM tools for storing character/party data at each level so characters could be easily tracked and character sheets easily customized and printed. (It also was proving quite handy for adding class levels to monsters.) Thus part of the self-justification in allowing this group to soak up so much of my time was that ultimately it would improve the quality and usefulness of my tools — which it most certainly did.
Still, in hindsight, I'd obviously much rather have fun running a game than laboring to cure [what I perceive as] the ills of D&D. I'm just hoping 4th Edition sees me primarily at the head of the table behind a DM screen rather than at a drafting table in front of a computer screen. I guess only time will tell...
BTW, since You mention a vitality or mana based system, I was actually preparing to investigate whether such a system could be used to bridge the gulf between Vancian Spellcasting and Recharge Magic. Fortunately, 4th Edition was announced just in time to save me from delving into that deep, dark pit of sorrows. *laughs*
Laithoron, I don't think you are out of the woods just yet.
First, let me clarify, if you haven't figured it out by now - I am a jaded, cynical, sum'biotch naturally. And even more so about 4th Edition.
But this is what comes to my mind when you describe the situation with your group.
- 4th Edition is released.
- Your Pixie Warmage player is either going to have to make a new character, or you're going to have to spend several nights and maybe a weekend or two to remake the character.
- All of your players that were just starting to get a handle on 3.5 rules are going to have to try coming to grips with the 4th Edition rules.
And since your group doesn't sound terribly hardcore, that might be more than they are willing to go through.
But hey, you're optimistic. I hope it works for you. But I would recommend you hold on to all your 3.5 tools... Just in case. :-)
No worries, I have a whole closet full of all my old 2nd Edition books still so I assure You my current 3.5 books aren't going to be fueling a bonfire or anything. We elves are too sentimental for such rash acts. ;)
This thread touches on some recurring thoughts I've had about the incoming 4.0. Mainly, I don't believe 4.0 is going to be the magic bullet that we're being told, and I'm starting to resent the implication from WOTC that the user base is stupid enough to believe it.
I've been on board for all the transitions from one edition to the next, and for each one there has been this element of trash talking the older edition. Pointing out it's horrible, horrible failings, while showcasing the new versions seemingly bulletproof, watertight solutions to all the old "problems".
I went through all my old Dragon magazines from the time periods around new edition releases, and it was very enlightening. The edition where this trash talking seemed minimal was 1st to 2nd edition. It was very prevalent for 2nd to 3rd, and for 3.0 to 3.5., but this current blitz of "How Bad System X Is" is getting old. 3.5 did not become the old busted joint overnight, no matter how badly WOTC wants you to think that. It is the same awesome system that fixed that horrible, horrible 3.0.
So no, I don't think anything is wrong with 3.5. At least, no more than there ever was. But a great effort is being made to point out all of its shortcomings to sell you on buying the new version.
/tinfoil_hat_off
As an addendum, who would ever tell you how bad their last iteration of a product was, to sell you on an upcoming version, while still trying to get you to buy products associated with and supporting the old, "flawed" edition?
I know the software industry does this to a certain extent, but this 4.0 vs. 3.5 stuff is getting ridiculous.
"3.5 is soooo bad. Haha, man, I can't believe so many of you spent that much money on a flawed system. But no really, 4.0 will be AWESOME."
I like 3.5, and I have no plans to upgrade to 4.0, mostly because that would require much more money than I have. And thats what it comes down to: money. WOTC feels that it needs to squeeze every last penny from our wallets, and thats not so bad as long as they keep releasing things like 75 dollar minis (which is totally worth it) and monster manuals up to XXVIII, because I can use that stuff. But when they say that the books I've spent 4 years and over 200 dollars aquiring need to be "streamlined", and the only way to do that is to buy ALL NEW books, then thats not ok.
GURPS is the ultimate in rules light RPGs. Combats are fast and easy, but characters are the most well developed and individualized in the industry.You're rocking my world here. You think GURPS has simple combat? I currently play in both a GURPS game and a D&D game. Just to make a simple attack in GURPS requires so much more complication.
In D&D:
*snip*In GURPS:
*snip*GURPS is a more realistic system than D&D, but has a lot of overhead. Both the examples above are simple ones, but when GURPS combat gets complicated, it gets way more complicated than any D&D game I've ever seen.
Yes. When we switched from GURPS fantasy to D&D 3.5 we were surprised how FAST fights were resolved ... just a matter of point of view.
If you want really fast battles try WFRP. :-)