tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post7390636643497631564..comments2024-03-29T00:32:33.920-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Backwards ThinkingJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-19953690150756090822010-10-20T06:12:44.269-04:002010-10-20T06:12:44.269-04:00I FULLY AGREE!! (I know I'm commenting on all ...I FULLY AGREE!! (I know I'm commenting on all of your old stuff but this is revelation to me). There are so many choices that if you know how to manipulate the rules you can make a god out of nothing. I heard of a player who used such a combination of feats that he created a cleric that would benefit and become stronger if poisoned. So what did the character do? He would put snakes down his pants every time they got into a fight and was impossible to kill! Too many options, too many rules, means that there are too many opportunities for manipulation.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13584878162954242446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-37200547742477192732008-04-16T14:52:00.000-04:002008-04-16T14:52:00.000-04:00Pulp fantasy D&D is still on the drawing board. I'...Pulp fantasy <I>D&D</I> is still on the drawing board. I've been a bit distracted lately with work on my SF RPG's first supplement, but I'll be getting back to <I>D&D</I> soon, I expect. I also have a couple of posts on other topics percolating in the back of my brain and I'll probably post them soon too.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-17209561169300514202008-04-16T12:17:00.000-04:002008-04-16T12:17:00.000-04:00I'm afraid I never really enjoyed 3e much. As I b...I'm afraid I never really enjoyed 3e much. As I built my first character, I couldn't help thinking that keeping all this stuff in mind was going to be a real pain. I saw lots of pitfalls for neophyte DMs. (I wonder how many adventures got thrown off the tracks when the PCs failed a must-make spot check?) And I couldn't help thinking that I'd seen these same sorts of things done better with GURPS. There's some point along the continuum of detail where I think you should just bite the bullet and embrace the baroque glory that is GURPS, and 3e passed it for me even before the splat books gave us gestalt characters and more feats than you can shake a stick at. <BR/><BR/>True20 eases things back over the line for me, but honestly, my love of that system has everything to do with genre emulation. It plays very close to the novels I read, at least at low and mid-levels. <BR/><BR/>With my current games, which are above par in terms of player quality, we don't need a lot of crunch, and it can actually get in the way. We don't Forge-y mechanics that impose literary structures on our games, since we're not really trying to create stories. We just need a simple system to adjudicate risk, help us maintain verisimilitude, and prevent disagreement about what actually happens when my skills collide with her magic. 3e is much too much. And I'm about to post another rant about 4e, I think, at Trollsmyth. Ah well...<BR/><BR/>Anyway, enough pre-caffeine rambling. I hope you get to feeling better soon, and I look forward to seeing how you tackle pulp fantasy D&D.trollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-74243899313812399202008-04-16T08:40:00.000-04:002008-04-16T08:40:00.000-04:00I agree with you that 3e was a wake-up call for a ...I agree with you that 3e was a wake-up call for a lot of people, myself included. I enjoyed the game quite a bit -- still do -- and I am intensely curious to see how the <I>Pathfinder</I> project unfolds, since I think it's animated by a lot of old school spirit, even if the rules themselves will be far from old school.<BR/><BR/>On the monster issue, I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, I agree that there's no need for specific rules or guidelines on how to build monsters; like everything relating to DMing, it's a fine art learned through hard experience. On the other hand, I like the <I>principle</I> behind such things, as it implies a degree of logical intelligibility that I appreciate. Still, my preference remains for game mechanics to be simple enough that these questions are largely moot. 3e failed on this score in spades.James Maliszewskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-2567393770606594952008-04-15T16:42:00.000-04:002008-04-15T16:42:00.000-04:00Hey, James! Check out this thread over at RPG.net...Hey, James! Check out this thread over at RPG.net:<BR/><BR/>http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=389738<BR/><BR/>It's more about AD&D rather than OD&D, but I still think you'll find it interesting.<BR/><BR/>On the topic at hand, I think 3e was a real wake-up call for me, and others like me. We'd always wanted D&D to offer more robust support for things like skills and backgrounds, and mechanical ways to differentiate our characters. Only, it wasn't as cool as we'd thought it would be when we actually got to play with it. Something's lost when you pass a dozen different character classes, somehow.<BR/><BR/>And I never understood the need for mechanics to "build" monsters. You give the beastie the stats you need it to have. What's the problem?trollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-15600520474339200172008-04-14T11:53:00.000-04:002008-04-14T11:53:00.000-04:00A friend made the half-joking observation the othe...A friend made the half-joking observation the other day that TSR/WOTC/Hasbro have been anxiously searching for years a way to slap the Dungeons & Dragons logo onto the old DUNGEON! boardgame and sell it as an RPG.<BR/><BR/>"No more than 30 minutes. Start to stop. We promise." The slogan for 6E, perhaps? ;)<BR/><BR/>DougDoug Younghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08233615249302361280noreply@blogger.com