To all D&D players

Originally Posted by speculative

It's too bad the Planescape setting just kind of died out. It was the most interesting setting by far...

It's not really dead. They've just been cannibalizing it as part of the "core" view of the planes. Granted, a lot of the special flavor of Planescape has been scrubbed out of the details before they land in the Manual of the Planes or the Planar Handbook (or even the 3.5 DMG).

There will probably be some bones thrown at PS fans in the upcoming Fiendish Codex 1. Erik Mona's one of the designers and he's a cut from the cloth Grognard. Of course, that probably means the book is going to swing right past Planescape and tap more into the 1st Edition and Greyhawk material, but hey, what can you do?

I only wish the switch from 3e to 3.5e hadn't aggrivated the D20 bubble burst. We're pretty much down to Malhavoc, Green Ronin, Mongoose Press, and Necromancer games for generic D20 print support. And two of the three are venturing more into their own OGL spin-off games (Arcana Evolved and/or Iron Heroes for Malhavoc and True20 for Green Ronin). Of course, I still need to buy up some older D20 books from outfits like Atlas (Dynasties & Demogogues) and Fantasy Flight Games (Traps & Treachery) so I can't complain TOO much. It's just not like it was when everybody in the industry wanted a piece of D20.

Can't wait for the second edition of Magical Medival Society: Western Europe to come out. I missed out on the first edition before Expeditious Retreat Press sold out...

Er... heh, sorry. Had an over-informed geek moment. Anyone else out there do more of D20 than just D&D? If you don't and you're interested, there are some gems just waiting to be discovered, but there's also a lot of crap too.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

From the perspective of someone who started in the '80s under the red box Basic set rules, I'll say this - every edition of the game has it's own pros and cons.

In a lot of ways, for example, 2nd Edition was more evocative in the work they put out. They had fewer supplements that focused on new rules and options and more that fleshed out campaign worlds - a high fluff to crunch ratio. 3.x, on the other hand, has been a lot more about churning out new rules options to keep your choices open, but usually at the expense of sterile, uninspiring writing and little flavor to tie everything together. Like I said, pros and cons.

The good thing, however, is a lot of the more evocative 2nd Edition setting work is still completely valid in 3.x rules, just without the horribly unbalanced power levels and internally inconsistent rules that D&D used to put out through OD&D, 1st Edition, and 2nd Edition. Adopting the D20 as the universal resolution mechanic for EVERYTHING (except Turning Undead, which is one of the last ghosts left from the old days) was the smartest thing Wizards did when they sat down to make 3e. Imagine a game where resolving an attack roll was different than succeeding at a general skill, which was different than turning undead, which was different than picking a lock as a thief. Yup, for everything you wanted to do in 1e and 2e, you needed to remember a different form of resolution.

And don't even get me started on THAC0s. Yeah, they didn't really go away. Wizards just removed the funny math from the equation. See, my PC wouldn't get an attack bonus based on level, he'd have a THAC0 that represented the number I needed to roll in order to hit an AC of 0 (which used to be good - think of it like an AC of 20 in 3e). You'd have to calculate backwards (because lower AC was better) and then not every step was the same.

Ah yes, and Exceptional Strength. Rolled an 18 at character creation? Are you a warrior? Break out that d% because it's time to see if you've got a lowly 18/01 or a mighty 18/00!

For all the complaints about 3e being too academic, too videogamey, or combat taking too long (which reminds me, I had some 4 hour battles in 2nd Edition), it's a massive step forward. The lost flavor can be regained with a broad library, a visit to a used bookstore, or a stop by RPGNow to buy some ESDs of old TSR books. What you can't get with those old books are consistent, easy to master rules.

Of course, you don't exactly have that in 3e either. That's where Castles & Crusades and True20 come in....

There's nowhere I can't reach.