NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm not a D&D fan, in fact I dislike it, but I am willing to listen to why others like it & not criticize them and perhaps learn something in the process.:)

So, tell me about yourselves and your relationship to Dungeons & Dragons. When did you start playing? What hooked you? How much do you play D&D these days?

Dungeons and Dragons specifically or pencil and paper role playing as a whole?

I started playing D&D... in 2000, I think. I love pan and paper RPGs in general, but there are others I like more. That said, I'm running a Forgotten Realms adventure tomorrow that I haven't even read yet! Yay, DM improv!

1993, maybe 1995, I was kinda young at the time.

At first it was a social game in a time when, being very young, I didn't have much a social life (it was either that or computer games five hours a day).

Later, it became an even more social game as I actually began to meet people, plus it helped to teach me english and made me good at basic algebra.

Nowadays, it's an excellent social game, where you can assume any role you like, whether it's a role you actually like or not. You can do a lot with it. An example is that you can try to enhance certain aspects of yourself that you never really use in reallife and adopt that in the roleplaying or you can even create a character that has nothing to do with you, just to see if you can. I know for a fact that being a mass murderer is not within me, but having to roleplay one is actually a bit of challenge. Sure, you could just go around and kill everyone in the game, but that's not what it's about. I have discovered that I actually like helping people, as my most successful characters are often the helpful type.

It's also important to remember that it is a game.

1989 as a paper and pencil game with friends -- some of that, and some of their computer games ever since.

I've been tabletop (paper, pencil, books and a bucket of dice) roleplaying for a good twenty years, and I feckin HATE Dungeons & Dragons. Soulless goddamn d20 mechanics system with a world setting vaguely tacked on as an afterthought. It's like the WalMart of roleplaying games.

I appreciate D&D's heritage - I owned (and enjoyed) the first edition book when I was 11 or 12. But I don't feel that the game's grown up any in the intervening two decades.

Warhammer Roleplay, Shadowrun, Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, MERP (Middle Earth RolePlay), World of Darkness (Vampire etc), Toon! These are games with a context and a point. These are games in which storytelling is more important than getting the right number on a dice roll. If I wanted to play a purely mechanistic game, I'd play Risk!

No D&D game I've ever played in has managed to be more than a monster-bash with a pretence at context. And I've played some very sophisticated games with the same group I've D&D'd with. It just lacks heart.

My single biggest problem: XP is still predominantly kill-based. Gimme Warhammer Roleplay or Shadowrun, where deeds and intentions are paramount, and the specific Level of a Monster isn't what defines the reward from an encounter.

Pfah!

I am in a just founded D&D via IRC group ... unfortunately the rest of us are 'mericans. Meh, I did not need that sleep anyways :>

I've played D&D once or twice. It reminds me of improv and story telling, only with some dice system added on that restrains your actions.

It doesn't appear to be very conducive to way I like playing it, but then our group just used to pick and choose the bits that we wanted to include, and added on our own bits. Unless you watch yourself it just all turns into grind.

I started playing D&D... in 2000, I think. I love pan and paper RPGs in general, but there are others I like more. That said, I'm running a Forgotten Realms adventure tomorrow that I haven't even read yet! Yay, DM improv!

The only proper way to run. *nod*


Again, for those who didn't see and are interested, the Marvel game I mentioned in the last thread is being set up. If you want to play, TG me or send me an IM at InflatedEgo86 on AIM and I'll get you the book and some character creation information.

I started in 2002, while living in England. A few classmates were playing, I got interested, and joined them briefly. It was a while before I actually started playing in earnest - but when I returned to the US, I discovered that my two closest friends had both picked up D&D (neither had played when I left, IIRC).

I had a regular game last year, but when I moved away to go to college, I had to leave. But my hopes are up - last night, I joined the Society for Science Fiction & Fantasy, so the prospects for some gaming action are good. I certainly came prepared - I brought all my 3.5 ed. D&D books with me. Realize that my parents restricted what books I could bring to what I could fit in two boxes 18" on a side.

I have actually found that D&D has helped me in school - specifically, in English class. I have plenty of fictional characters I can use in stories, and I am good at creating new ones. Once, in an assignment to write a story where the protagonist was 'very different' from ourselves, I actually used my human warlock. I got an A+, and the teacher noted that I was 'at home in this genre'. I think I also had the largest body count in a single story - the story is about my warlock infiltrating and then massacring an evil cult.

I started playing about a year ago, DMing for the group. the campaign ended a few months ago, and now we're in the middle of an evil campaign. We play once a week, usually on a saturday or friday.

Oh gods, I started DnD ten years ago back in 1997 with a copy of 1st ed Zanzabar's Dungeon, moved on to ADnD 2nd edition (revised) back in 2003 and earlier this year moved on to 3.5.

I prefer the old school DnD where the characters were not all super powerhouses of ultimate destructive force that they are now. Hence the reason I beef all my monsters up. In my games the players are forced to use initiative and thought to win combats rather than just d20s

Danny.

I'm not a D&D fan, in fact I dislike it, but I am willing to listen to why others like it & not criticize them and perhaps learn something in the process.:)

So, tell me about yourselves and your relationship to Dungeons & Dragons. When did you start playing? What hooked you? How much do you play D&D these days?
D&D is a fantastic hobby, I would recommend it to anyone with an imagination. I first started when I was about 10 and inherited some 1st ed books from an uncle, but not properly until I was 14 and happened upon a role-playing association. I have played it with varying degrees of frequency ever since very enthusiastically, and have been DMing since I was about 16. It is a fantastic activity which combines the benefits of readin, playing video-games, and socialising all in one. Plus, as is the case for many of the intellectually and creatively inclined, it offers both an outlet and social niche from which oft scare self esteem can be sourced.

My D&D dropped off a little when I went to uni of all places, but has recently kicked up since some of my old friends have moved in town, and since I started my online RPG forum featured in my sig (feel free to drop by and sign up).

I started in the late 70's. the original box set... three books and a set of dice with crayon.

D&D is an escape for me. as DM, I try to keep my scenarios varied enough to prevent the usual "Hack and slash" group from being generated. I look for the same thing in groups I play with.

If I can have fun with one session being nothing but a shopping expedition to re-equipt my characters, then it's a good session.

From D&D, I branched out to Gamma World, Marvel Super Heroes, DC, Call of Cuthullu, Battletech, Paranoia, Manhunter, etc...

I started when I was...13? 14, perhaps. Just a little bit of hacking away at a beholder; a one-shot dungeon thing; it's only recently I've come back to it... A couple of sessions of D&D proper, but mainly the Werewolf campaign I'm involved in at the moment, which I'm finding rather more compelling.

I've been tabletop (paper, pencil, books and a bucket of dice) roleplaying for a good twenty years, and I feckin HATE Dungeons & Dragons. Soulless goddamn d20 mechanics system with a world setting vaguely tacked on as an afterthought. It's like the WalMart of roleplaying games.

I appreciate D&D's heritage - I owned (and enjoyed) the first edition book when I was 11 or 12. But I don't feel that the game's grown up any in the intervening two decades.

Warhammer Roleplay, Shadowrun, Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, MERP (Middle Earth RolePlay), World of Darkness (Vampire etc), Toon! These are games with a context and a point. These are games in which storytelling is more important than getting the right number on a dice roll. If I wanted to play a purely mechanistic game, I'd play Risk!

No D&D game I've ever played in has managed to be more than a monster-bash with a pretence at context. And I've played some very sophisticated games with the same group I've D&D'd with. It just lacks heart.

My single biggest problem: XP is still predominantly kill-based. Gimme Warhammer Roleplay or Shadowrun, where deeds and intentions are paramount, and the specific Level of a Monster isn't what defines the reward from an encounter.

I hate it when people rollplay instead of roleplay D&D!
Hmm, I don't think that the DM is being very good - go too much by the books, and yeah, that's what you get. >.<

I think they should have kept Comeliness from the first edition. The Comeliness/Charisma interaction was cool, and I think more accurate than having it just be lumped into charisma.

Dungeons and Dragons specifically or pencil and paper role playing as a whole?

<3
And hi, CTOAN!

Let's see, I started playing in 5th grade, I think... (and I'm now a sophomore in college). I liked the roleplaying aspect, but it was probably reading the Book of Elves (2nd ed, AD&D) that got me REALLY hooked onto it. ^_^ Some people have asked me to DM for them this year. I'm still deciding what sort of campaign and world I want to create for them. I'll probably wait until I've met with them and asked a few questions before I actually make anything.

No D&D game I've ever played in has managed to be more than a monster-bash with a pretence at context. And I've played some very sophisticated games with the same group I've D&D'd with. It just lacks heart.depends on the DM and the group dinamics. I had adventures where hack and slash were not the order of the day.

My single biggest problem: XP is still predominantly kill-based. Gimme Warhammer Roleplay or Shadowrun, where deeds and intentions are paramount, and the specific Level of a Monster isn't what defines the reward from an encounter.

Pfah!agreed. 2ed AD&D allowed for other areas of growth. 3rd, favored the theives too heavily. but the DM can call up situations where Diplomacy can earn XP, as well as fast talk or any other skills.

I started playing about a year ago, DMing for the group. the campaign ended a few months ago, and now we're in the middle of an evil campaign. We play once a week, usually on a saturday or friday.

Yeah, that's pretty much how it started for me, too. i played with a group in MI, then we moved to Denver and found another groups. I ran for awhile, and I'm starting again in... three hours. And I still haven't read the adventure. And I'm tired. Caffeinated improv D&D!

depends on the DM and the group dinamics. I had adventures where hack and slash were not the order of the day.

QFT. One Shadowrun game, we managed to get our objective and survive without firing a single shot. We made up for that the next adventure, though. Redwulf turned a security guard into a giant tortise and wrote, "This is George. He was curious," on it's shell.

agreed. 2ed AD&D allowed for other areas of growth. 3rd, favored the theives too heavily. but the DM can call up situations where Diplomacy can earn XP, as well as fast talk or any other skills.

Part of the joy of DMing is that you can give out XP for any damn thing you want. I once gained two levels for bringing the DM Thin Mints.

Started playing back about '81 or '82. I find it a creative and entertaining game. It's a good way to socialize.

QFT. One Shadowrun game, we managed to get our objective and survive without firing a single shot. We made up for that the next adventure, though. Redwulf turned a security guard into a giant tortise and wrote, "This is George. He was curious," on it's shell. many a session we had was nothing more than shopping trips and re-equipting characters for the next adventure.

one adventure, we had to find out who stole the doors off of every aristocrats home. every door was taken... no money, just the doors.

(Turned out to be the local Theives guild protesting the latest laws that would've run them out of town.)

Part of the joy of DMing is that you can give out XP for any damn thing you want. I once gained two levels for bringing the DM Thin Mints.I gained a level helping the DM solve a Cross Word Puzzle. :p

I never played D&D

Never really had a chance to play it much. Hard to find people to play the pencil version so I play it on the computer. My first experience was Baldur's Gate II back in 2002, and my favourite DnD game of all time is probably Neverwinter Nights.

Started playing D&D back in the mid 80's. Haven't been playing much lately, haven't found a suitable gaming group at my new address. By suitable I mean not composed entirely of 14 yo males devoted to hack and slash and worshipping the god of min/maxing.

I love players who create complex characters with a lot of details. I'l give more XP for that than singlehandedly slaying an ancient red dragon.

Started playing D&D back in the mid 80's. Haven't been playing much lately, haven't found a suitable gaming group at my new address. By suitable I mean not composed entirely of 14 yo males devoted to hack and slash and worshipping the god of min/maxing.

I love players who create complex characters with a lot of details. I'l give more XP for that than singlehandedly slaying an ancient red dragon.

ohhh... I wanna be your player then. I create whole histories for my character.

and I like giving the DM alot of rope (things to use for my character... old friends, enemies, lost heirlooms, etc...)

ohhh... I wanna be your player then. I create whole histories for my character.

and I like giving the DM alot of rope (things to use for my character... old friends, enemies, lost heirlooms, etc...)I must kidnap you and get you to play with us. I rarely kill characters (usually only in cases of gross player stupidity) but I love tormenting them. Old friends you have to rescue, old enemies who've gained power- those present rich fodder for screwing with PC's.

I must kidnap you and get you to play with us. I rarely kill characters (usually only in cases of gross player stupidity) but I love tormenting them. Old friends you have to rescue, old enemies who've gained power- those present rich fodder for screwing with PC's.

*Thinks: free trip to OK... *

ok, you can kidnap me... let me give you my schedule and address... :p

*Thinks: free trip to OK... *

ok, you can kidnap me... let me give you my schedule and address... :pWait- you're in Hawaii. You kidnap me! Why the fuck make us all suffer Oklahoma.

Wait- you're in Hawaii. You kidnap me! Why the fuck make us all suffer Oklahoma.

sur... wait... how many in your gruop?

Anybody ever hear of Chainmail? *coughs*

I have the original stuff and a lead army packed away somewhere....

Anybody ever hear of Chainmail? *coughs*

I have the original stuff and a lead army packed away somewhere....

heard of it? yeah, played it...







yeah...

D&D only becomes a meat-grinder for experience when the DM lacks imagination. XP can be granted for anything the DM desires. Trap-solving, heroism, leaving well-enough alone, and so on. I've been fortunate enough in my games (player since 1981) to have a DM creative enough to link novels or other fiction sources to the game, and to even run a game that was based on all of us -- he made character sheets based on our own strengths and weaknesses and declared that anything on us that was made of or contained plastic were magic items (most decidedly trivial, but a few interesting, such as driver's licenses being transportation such as teleport or dimension door or summon steed spells). All d20 did was get rid of the annoying "negative numerals are sometimes POSITIVE things!" crap and make the math a bit easier.

I've played other games in the genre: Champions, Marvel Super Heroes, Toon!, Traveller, Top Secret, Gamma World and some others, and I like them all. D&D just has a place in my heart for being the oldest in my experience.

I've been playing for 2 years for so, and I'm very excited for 4e.

Been playing for 2 years... don't like the sound of 4e... =(

Anyway, I find that simple hack and slash only works up to level 9 or so. beyond that, your party wizard (or toolbox/batman/whatever you call him) tends to end up doing things like walking through the walls of your nice castle...

My first game went from lvl 1 to 15. My group took turns GMing and I made sure never to put another simple dungeon crawl after level 3. Some of my friends took longer to catch on though and we had a pretty good laugh when my character (the wiz.) bypassed the trap blocking us from entering an area we weren't supposed to go in by walking through the wall next to it.

And for the record, hack and slash does get boring. I'm trying to get them to play an open game now... but to no avail... =(

And for the record, hack and slash does get boring. I'm trying to get them to play an open game now... but to no avail... =(
wanna hint? take away their weapons and spell books. kinda like "In the Dungeon of the Slave Lords". Make it easy for them to sneak around the monsters and weaken the traps also make some races/critters that would be friendly to them if they make their diplomacy rolls. Of course, if they wanna fight bare handed...

One Mage game we played, we students ran upon a Salamader while traversing to another city while it was raining... it was pissed...

while some of us... ok, one person, wanted to attack, the rest of us knew that would be suicide... so we talked to it.

after finding out that it hated the rain (I did mention we were students...) we built a small shelter for it and it happily sat there waiting for the rain to stop. so we ended up befriending an elemental that later pulled our collective butts outta some pretty hot fire.

so reward kind acts and punnish undesired ones.

I find this D&D bashing attitude so insufferable. In a game which is defined by player-DM interaction, criticising a common interaction pattern is inane. If you don't like hack and slash, don't play hack and slash. If you want rewards for RP, then reward RP. What kind of fool needs a system specially fashioned to their preference when you can simply bend an already flexible system to your preference as is. Why then criticise the flexible system citing that it is not rigidly locked into your personal preference.

Anyhow, that aside, I don't believe in rewarding RP with XP. It doesn't make sense to me, and I believe it encourages the wrong attitude. RP is something the players should be doing anyway, they should not be rewarded for it. Playing well construed 3 dimensional characters is a gift in itself, and needs no systemic supplication. Plus, how does one progress in one's profession and skill by having 'well thought out' motives behind mundane character decisions? No, to me, you get XP rewards when you literally 'gain experience' by overcoming challenges through the use of your skills. What specifically the XP rewards depends on the area of expertise of the relevant character, and the challenges he approaches with said expertise. So yes, a fighter gets experience for hacking and slashing. Obviously. Just like a wizard gets experience for using his magical capacities. Or the Way a rogue gets experience for fast talking the party from the gallows to the grand feasting hall of the sultan's palace.

And for the record, hack and slash does get boring. I'm trying to get them to play an open game now... but to no avail... =(

I filmed a documentary in college about gaming conventions and I was taping someone's game where every character was a thief (it was a specific thing he had written up for the con) and the players had stashed weapons in the really circuitous way at a dinner party. They kept trying to go out of their way to get to their weapons to do what they wanted, I kept wanting to put the camera down and go, "You're fucking thieves at a DINNER PARTY, steal a knife you unimaginative motherfuckers."

Anyway, role playing more than just about any kind of gaming is what you make it. Early on I got bored with combat in role playing, it always seemed to me to be two people standing in front of each other taking turns hitting each other in the head like that fish slapping sketch from Monty Python.

But you don't have to do that. We got bored with it so our games didn't really focus on fighting that much and when it did we were almost always out matched so we either had to find a way to bail or get an edge, so it was never "I attack, what do I have to roll?" Sometimes we would move furniture to show what we were doing.

That works for some, not for others. (I think that the ones that like the 'bonk' style migrated to computer role playing games, more power to them-I find it silly, they find pretending to be someone else silly, nary the two need meet). It really is what you make it. If you play with people who are not on the same page as you (the one convention where we walked in the room and a 60someodd year old man in a home made wizard outfit, like a kids style bright blue with stars and moons and shit and then told us that he was a born again Christian and that informed his playing. The game involved a whole lot of list reading. I actually have to be told that by my friend because I tuned the fuck out...)

Everyone likes to play differently. I like games where the system doesn't get in the way and the setting is the focus. Occasionally the system really brings out the setting, I like that the best since it's organic feeling.

To be into gaming I think you have to be into being part of a story. If you don't have that, then I don't know that there is anything there for you. In fact it will seem silly. It's hard for people to understand that make believe ("Why don't you go actually do something instead of pretend?" Well, many of them do, but none of them can fight a dragon or storm a castle (I never did either in a game, but play along) in real life so you have to do it in abstract.

Am I the only one who finds the layout of 3.5 adventures annoying as fuck? I'm running A Tear in the Weave, a Forgotten Realms adventure, and I keep having to flip around, because the time line is in one section, the combat is in another, and details of the town are in another! What happened to keeping things in a linear, flowing style?

Am I the only one who finds the layout of 3.5 adventures annoying as fuck? I'm running A Tear in the Weave, a Forgotten Realms adventure, and I keep having to flip around, because the time line is in one section, the combat is in another, and details of the town are in another! What happened to keeping things in a linear, flowing style?

That's why I don't use pre-made modules when I DM.

That's why I don't use pre-made modules when I DM.

I've got a billion and a half other things going on, and my group asked for D&D. Redwulf wanted to play for once, so I got stuck with the shot straw.

I've been tabletop (paper, pencil, books and a bucket of dice) roleplaying for a good twenty years, and I feckin HATE Dungeons & Dragons. Soulless goddamn d20 mechanics system with a world setting vaguely tacked on as an afterthought. It's like the WalMart of roleplaying games.

I appreciate D&D's heritage - I owned (and enjoyed) the first edition book when I was 11 or 12. But I don't feel that the game's grown up any in the intervening two decades.

Warhammer Roleplay, Shadowrun, Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, MERP (Middle Earth RolePlay), World of Darkness (Vampire etc), Toon! These are games with a context and a point. These are games in which storytelling is more important than getting the right number on a dice roll. If I wanted to play a purely mechanistic game, I'd play Risk!

No D&D game I've ever played in has managed to be more than a monster-bash with a pretence at context. And I've played some very sophisticated games with the same group I've D&D'd with. It just lacks heart.

My single biggest problem: XP is still predominantly kill-based. Gimme Warhammer Roleplay or Shadowrun, where deeds and intentions are paramount, and the specific Level of a Monster isn't what defines the reward from an encounter.

Pfah!

Sounds like a DM problem to me. When I played last, my DM gave experience for problem solving as well as combat. Many times, it was worth more for us to avoid combat to deal with a situation, instead of racking up a body count.

I've got a billion and a half other things going on, and my group asked for D&D. Redwulf wanted to play for once, so I got stuck with the shot straw.

oh, ok. I have more free time.

oh, ok. I have more free time.

You'd think since I'm unemployed (thanks, hip sprain!) I'd have more free time, but nooooo. Probably doesn't help that I've finally decided to do something about my anxiety and panic attacks, am taking tax prep courses, helping my parents with their accounting, and running our Canton's web page.

EDIT: Almost forgot, I also have to get Redwulf to and from work.

I'm not a D&D fan, in fact I dislike it, but I am willing to listen to why others like it & not criticize them and perhaps learn something in the process.:)

So, tell me about yourselves and your relationship to Dungeons & Dragons. When did you start playing? What hooked you? How much do you play D&D these days?

I started roleplaying with a homemade system my friend came up with. Eventually my roommate and some more friends got involved, and we ended up graduating to Rifts. I never played D&D until 3rd edition, but I really like the system. I think a lot of it has to do with the DM and the group I was with. It's too bad that we don't get together anymore (one player moved to another state, one had a new kid, and the rest of us couldn't find a time suitable for all of us).

As far as what hooked me (into roleplaying in general), it's got to be the creative freedom I've experienced. I really enjoyed creating a backstory for my characters, the creativity of the adventures, and watching the DM/GM's face as one of the party would do something COMPLETELY unexpected (and in our group's case, something that would have an unexpected benefit to the party).

Old school D&D and 1st ed. AD&D have great nostaligic value, but I moved onto better (IMHO) games.

And just to toss in my 2 cents on flexability and imagination - good GMs often use highly pimped out rules, in my experience.

As for rewarding good role play with XP, I tend not to like that. I prefer a skills based system like BRP wherin skills are advanced when used, but with some sort of karma/luck/fate/whatever system to reward RP that's above and beyond.

I cut my teeth on D&D waay back in the seventies, but soon abandoned it for other games-while D&D is a good starter system, especially now with the d20 system from Talislanta grafted over it's ancient carcass, I find the Runequest system still holds a charm D&D lacks-much easier to customize a character, and it scares off power-gamers.("What do you mean my hit points never go up? Aaaargh!")
As far as the game's popularity and endurance-it IS the Grand Old Man of rpgs, still going stronger than it's competitors, I think it's the game's simplicity and the difficulty in killing off characters that allow it it's vaunted position. The variety of it's settings also helps-Greyhawk is a tad stodgy as a fantasy setting, though a proper GM allows it to evolve as the campaign progresses; The Forgotten Realms is a beautiful and exotic world with it's own inner workings that is my personal favorite of settings; the Dragonlance setting is wonderful for children and beginners; Darksun is grim and gritty slaughter fun; and Ravenloft is mature horror that can match Vampire:the Masquerade in competant hands; plus almost everyone has a private world open only to a handful at the table. Although Gygax wanted to expand his rules to allow SF play, and the new system includes rules for firearms and advanced weaponry, I can't say I've ever played a game that really left the fantasy setting-Expedition to the Barrier Peaks aside.
D&D's influence is such that almost every designer now includes d20 conversions or writes the adventure with the d20 system in mind-other than White Wolf, who's new World of Darkness seems intent on destroying their player base, almostr all current systems are D&D compatible. So like it as not, D&D is king of tabletop gaming and "Long Live the King!"

I started in the late 70's. the original box set... three books and a set of dice with crayon.

D&D is an escape for me. as DM, I try to keep my scenarios varied enough to prevent the usual "Hack and slash" group from being generated. I look for the same thing in groups I play with.

If I can have fun with one session being nothing but a shopping expedition to re-equipt my characters, then it's a good session.

From D&D, I branched out to Gamma World, Marvel Super Heroes, DC, Call of Cuthullu, Battletech, Paranoia, Manhunter, etc...

Good to know there are other old gamers like me. I too started playing D & D in the late 70s (1978 to be exact) and my gaming group played regularly for almost 12 years. We played a lot of other games, like Traveller, Call of Cuthullu, Paronia, Champions, Fantasy Hero, but always went back to it.

I got out of gaming for about 5 years, but having been playing D & D 3.0 and 3.5 since then fairly regularly. I also play other games (Call of Cuthullu again, and Mutants and Monsters) as well as D20 Modern.

Main thing though, remember the rules are just guidelines, you can adjust experience, encounters etc for the needs of your campaign, and there are plenty of settings and adventures to use, and for that matter plenty of internally consistant rules you can use to create your own.

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons about twenty years ago. I started of course as just a player but quickly decided that I prefered DMing. I play DND because I enjoy creating world setting and storyline to make my games more than the normal hack and slash. I started with the 2.0 series and now play the 3.5 series which I like better. The newer corebooks are much better then the older ones in my opinion.

Good to know there are other old gamers like me. I too started playing D & D in the late 70s (1978 to be exact) and my gaming group played regularly for almost 12 years. We played a lot of other games, like Traveller, Call of Cuthullu, Paronia, Champions, Fantasy Hero, but always went back to it.

There're heaps of us old schoolers here. :D

Main thing though, remember the rules are just guidelines, you can adjust experience, encounters etc for the needs of your campaign, and there are plenty of settings and adventures to use, and for that matter plenty of internally consistant rules you can use to create your own.

Exactly so. To expand on what I mentioned above, most of the good GMs I played with used systems that were highly pimped out.

My longest campaign run was all through high school and a couple of years beyond off and on, with an Empire of the Petal Throne group. The GM had been running it for 10 years when I got in on it, and ran it for a good 10 more years. The system she used bore little resemblance to any published system.

We did engage in the occassional "underworld" (read dungeon crawl) adventure, but these were usually escapes from the nasty politics of the real world.

There're heaps of us old schoolers here. :D

Exactly so. To expand on what I mentioned above, most of the good GMs I played with used systems that were highly pimped out.

My longest campaign run was all through high school and a couple of years beyond off and on, with an Empire of the Petal Throne group. The GM had been running it for 10 years when I got in on it, and ran it for a good 10 more years. The system she used bore little resemblance to any published system.

We did engage in the occassional "underworld" (read dungeon crawl) adventure, but these were usually escapes from the nasty politics of the real world.

I had something similar with the story of the rise and fall of an Elvish King. Had a whole world designed. History, etc. You could dungeon crawl or find yourself on the battle field.

I think I still have the maps somewhere......

I had something similar with the story of the rise and fall of an Elvish King. Had a whole world designed. History, etc. You could dungeon crawl or find yourself on the battle field.

I think I still have the maps somewhere......

The first underworld crawl in that campaign was an eye opener, and helped set my regular persona in that group.

I was a low level fighter in a rather high level party. We ran into a group of about 100 Ssú (while not quite the same, you can think of it as running into a group of several hundred Drow). Still being quite new to the whole world, and not being overly familiar with the races, I didn't quite understand the gavity of the situation. However, I had the highest Dex of everyone and got first move.

My first action was to draw my sword. The rest of the party procceded to teleport out.

I was awarded the "Han Solo 'Nerver tell me the odds!'" pin badge for that. :p

My longest running character in that game, Master Waldorf, was a magician who exhibited the fun and usefullness of creative manipulation of limited resources.

The magic system was very different from D&D. Magicians powers were divided into skills and spells. Skills were akin to, but not excactly in sync with, psionics. Spells were very specific in effect. In addition, player created spells were quite common, and the GM generally managed to skillfully balanced them out with strong negative effects. Most non-cannon player spells were either useless, harmful, dangerous, or all three.

Master Waldorf was, for most intents and purposes, a research magician. Everytime I learned a new spell, I made one up. So I ended up with a bunch of spells that were fun and creative but not of much use*. To make up for the lack of "good" spells, Waldorf honed two of his magician skills - teleport and telekenisis - to nasty proportions**. It was not at all unheard of for one of Waldorfs enemies to drop dead from a TK crushed heart or have their head explode from having a pebble teleported into their brain. :) Simple skills with wide ranging applications.

*A lot of these were metaspell types. Some of the memorable spells Waldorf came up with included the Infinite Improbability Spell, Probability Reversal, Anti-Inirtia, and the infamous Enhanced Murphy's Law. Enhanced Murphy's Law made everything go wrong. Unfortunately, the spell itself was always the first thing to go wrong. (>_<)

** One might call the means evil, but EPT has no good and evil. It has a much grittier feel, with only two "alignments" - essentially conservative and liberal. Killing and maiming several hundred slaves in order to hone the ability to perfectly crush a heart is acceptable in that world. (Although some may view it as simply wasteful...)

Sounds like a DM problem to me. When I played last, my DM gave experience for problem solving as well as combat. Many times, it was worth more for us to avoid combat to deal with a situation, instead of racking up a body count.

It all comes down to the DM. Well, mostly. Some players can't be pleased. Especially if that player has had a free reign with a poor DM for too long.

A DM is a storyteller and his players' characters are the heroes of the story. The DM's job is not to inundate the players with baubles or bathe them in the blood of defeated monsters with chunks of xp mixed in. A DM's job is to weave a story his players will remember and encourage to forward the story and not the little numbers on their paper.

Here's a tip: Don't assign XP to the players. DOn't even tell your players how much Experience their characters have. As DM, keep track of it yourself and inform your players when they advance in level. *nod*

Edit: Let me also add that while the DM controls the villains and should play them as realistically as possible, the DM must not fall into the competition mentality. It's not DM vs. Players. Character death is a far too common occurrence with some DMs.

I'm not a D&D fan, in fact I dislike it, but I am willing to listen to why others like it & not criticize them and perhaps learn something in the process.:)

So, tell me about yourselves and your relationship to Dungeons & Dragons. When did you start playing? What hooked you? How much do you play D&D these days?

Everything ... i mean EVERYTHING ... devolved into homoeroticism, saves, and brutalizing victories.

I can't say that i was hooked, but it definitely brought up some of my better perversions. As well, it sorta readjusted my circle of friends.