Dungeons and Dragons: 3rd Edition

[Alucard]

Um... I use GM generally because in the same group in which I am the Dungeon Master (or Campaign Master... @_@), I also tend to run Cyberpunk/Shadowrun, Battletech, Vampire, and GURPS.  Oh yeah, I've also run Tunnels & Trolls. Should I call myself a TM now? -_-;

I say GM as a general term. Cause I don't like specifying, OR having to remember which thread needs me to say GM and which needs DM or CM.  Besides, with as often as the campaign ventures OUT of the dungeon, as well as the few campaigns I've run that never even WENT underground into the traditional dungeon area, I really fail to see the point.

Btw, since 3rd edition was written and created by the creators of 2nd edition (or at least endorsed thereby) it's a valid version of Dungeons & Dragons.

And, btw, buddy-boy, you're kinda rude to be dumping this garbage like that. -_-;

Siobhan L.R. Ward
The Cybernetic Ninja

You sound like my Mom bustin' out the "buddy-boy" and "rude."

You're wrong on one point - D&D was not taken over by, it was SOLD OUT to the makers of  third edition. I don't know the details but I know that 3rd edition is NOT in the spirit of the original D&D and is should NOT be called D&D in the true sense of the game.

Anyone who thinks differently and has played 3rd edition is welcome to come to my house in Michigan this summer and I'll arrange for my Dad (who actually knew Gary Gigax & family quite well when he was younger) to DUNGEON MASTER (that's right, not "game master") for us for a REAL game of Dungeons & Dragons (2nd edition or earlier) I think you'll be singing a different tune after you play a real game of D&D.

I admit that I do not play a lot of other serious RPGs but then again there really isn't any need since a game of D&D can easily last a lifetime without getting boring.

[Priss]

...

I really don't care if i sound like your mom. And I honestly don't know why you just *had* to tell me I sounded like her. -_-;

Another thing? I don't care whom you are your dad know.  I've played 1st edition with Margret Weis and Tracy Hicks.  I've played in a campaign that has been going on since early seventies, and is currently *still* running to the best of my knowledge, though I've since left it.  

That said, I've played a REAL D&D game, and if you'd actually read an earlier post you'd realize that I've DMed REAL D&D games as well, up to and including the Expert system.

HOWEVER, I play and DM/GM 3rd edition for the simple reason that the group I play with would rather play the version of a game that the members can EASILY get books for.

Just because *I* might know where to get copies of 2nd and 1st edition rulebooks and supplements doesn't mean the rest of the group does. And just because *I* might have the money for it doesn't mean the rest of the group does. And, finally, just because *I'm* willing to drive over fifty miles out of my way to go and *get* these books doesn't mean the rest of the group can or will be either.

I'm picky about my books. I don't really mind if someone wants to borrow my 3rd edition books to roll up a character. I can either replace them myself or get the person who damaged them to replace them without too much trouble at all, because the things are *everywhere*.  But there's *no way* I'm going to let them *touch* my 2nd or 1st edition books simply because I might not be *capable* of replacing them if they're damaged.  

Thus, the group I'm playing with runs 3rd edition.

And, btw, the high and mighty stuff? It's really pointless.

Siobhan L.R. Ward
The Cybernetic Ninja

PS: I'm hoping this doesn't post twice. >_<

[Alucard]

Ohh, a fiesty one.

I know what ya mean about the books. But there are the ways of the internet that now allow us to (perhaps slightly illegally) to download files containing the necessary information to play these older games.

I'm not saying playing 3rd is bad, I've played some myself for similar reasons. I'm saying you aren't a real D&D player unless you have played earlier edition because third is just plain not in the spirit of D&D as a game. I wasn't insulting you as a gamer and I did read earlier posts and the DM comments were not directed at you.

The "high and mighty stuff." You really do sound like my Mom though, hee hee hee... Is there any chance your last name or someone in your family is Haycox or McIntyre (uh, I don't even know how to spell my own grandmother's last name but its Irish and it sounds like I spell it but is actually spelled totally differently)?

[Priss]

Oooohkay, bucky.

The mom comments are getting REALLY surreal.

As for my background, my clan is the Stewart clan, Scots Highland on my mother's side and Dutch/French Canadian on my fathers's. We've neah a drop o' Irish blood in us! ;p  Bit o' Indian we do, Cherokee and Lakota Souix, but not Irish.

^_^

Siobhan L.R. Ward
The Cybernetic Ninja

[Carthrat]

2nd Ed only works even semi-realistically if you invoke many house rules.

I, for one, refuse to believe a Mage cannot use a crossbow.

[Alucard]

Houes rules are great as long as the rules are agreed upon at the start of the game. I almost always end up playing with some. I know what ya mean about the crossbow thing especially when you run out of useful spells.

Scottish, eh? Me too but not very much. Mostly Polish and Irish. Oh well I guess you're not my long lost relative. I'll stop making mom comments since it seems to bother you sooo much.

[Dracos]

The one thing I've found runs consistant throughout all the versions of D&D is, while they are good models perhaps, and have a fairly good system in there, they generally are broken.  2nd ed I found had some stupid stuff designed into it's math setup to make it more complex than need be, but it didn't really break until you looked at the additions.  3rd ed is broken off the bat easily, IMO.  And 1st ed is well, 1st ed.  'nuff said regarding realism there.  Having house rules are a major part of the game.  I do also believe this is intentional.  Once a GM has some experience, they modify the rules to fit what their players see as the game they want to play.  The strength of D&D tends to be not the perfection of it's core system but the ease with which it is modifiable and adjustable for other circumstances or beliefs.

Fearless Leader

[nemesis_zero]

heh... dumb-ass GM (and no, i don't care if you want to say DM) saga continues!

We go to this temple sort of place, all high-and-mighty tomb of dead gods or some shit like that, and almost every monster in the place has an AC and Damage reduction so high that half the party is useless.  Then we run into this demon thing, I swear he made it up, that has 30 points of D.R. and a freakin anti-magic field!  Well shit, guess we won't be going down that hallway...  so we go a different way and run into this unpronaouncible trap that breaks nearly all of our magical shit (especially pissy because we just got back to town and unloaded almost all our loot to upgrade equipment across the board)!

yes, this is where the GM wanted us to go in his campaign, direct from his own mouth.

needless to say, I will not be retruning to this game.


...on a lighter note, all the players (and quite a few people who aren't even vaguely conected to the game, including his boss) got together on a pool to bet on how many times this chump scratches himself durring the course of a game session, a rather disturbing habit of his.  Nobody was even remotely close... 262 times in 5 1/2 hours.  This guy's getting some medicated gold bond for his next birthday!

[Dracos]

Only place a monster like that might have come from is Manual of the Planes or Epic Level Campaign Handbook.

Fairly sure it doesn't exist anywhere else.  Regardless, a DR of thirty is effectively unbeatable without magic.  Hell, a DR of 25 is all but effectively unbeatable without magic.

Fearless Leader