Comments on: Geeks Next Door – The Endless Debate

By: Gavin

Gavin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:09:57 +0000

As a ‘young’ player (23), I’ve been lucky enough to have a fairly wide experience of various editions of D&D. I remember being confused by THaC0 (“What the hell is THIS thing? That’s not a word!” “Gav, we’ve explained it to you six times…”), snowed under with feats (“How the hell can I choose my first two feats if they’re spread across sixty books? I just want to be a Fighter!” “Gav, you really should do some research…”) and offended by what appears to be deliberate profiteering (“I’m here to play D&D not Warhammer, what the hell do I need a miniature for? I’ve never used one before!” “Gav, the rules don’t work if I don’t know exactly where everyone is…”)

Overall, I have to say that 3.5 does it best for me. Yes, there are tons of options and complicated bits, and about a million books to trawl through to find exactly what you want, but I feel that if it slows play up we can just dump some of them (which we do). I like the ‘anything goes, within reason’ ethos, and goddammit, I like the characters and games I’ve had playing 3.5 more than any other edition.

2e was fun, while it lasted, but 3-3.5 was just so much more fun to play (for me, at least), and 4 was released, in my opinion, years ahead of schedule. I felt like I’d only just got my 3.5 collection together and was happy with it before Wizards showed up with a big bag with a $ sign on it saying “Time to update! By the way, miniatures are mandatory now, unless you really don’t want the game to work.” On top of that, it felt… like a board game, I’m sorry, but that’s the only way I can put it. When I finally got around to playing it (with my cousin’s books, I’m not stupid) it reminded me of the dinosaur of a GW product Space Hulk with extra bells and whistles.

Damn, I have gone on, haven’t I?

So yeah, 2, good, 3, better, 3.5, great, 4 cash cow. And not even one I liked. Sorry 4-ed fans!

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:02:00 +0000

I am old. :-)

I started with a boxed basic D&D with chits instead of dice. I grew up playing some D&D, some first edition AD&D, quite a bit of edition “1.5″, (first ed with Unearthed Arcana and some other sourcebooks, Dragon Mag mods, house rules, etc.), and a bunch of 2nd edition. I have stacks of old 1st and 2nd edition books, modules, and magazines, a big bag of dice, enough miniatures to lay out a medium sized battle, and TONS of good memories of time spent as a player and GM. Many of my old players call the stuff I GM’d “2.Rob”

Year later (but still several years ago) I started to playing again after 3.0 had been out awhile… but just as I was getting comfortable with it they put out 3.5. I am getting too old to keep track of constant rule changes, and while I liked 3.0 well enough, I did not appreciate having to buy the books again. When they announced that they were doing 4.0 I drew the line. It’s not that I can’t afford it, I just don’t believe in ‘edition extorsion’ If the game works, leave it alone and put out a bunch of supplementary material.

My kids are almost ready to start playing. Their introduction will be “2.Rob” :-)

By: Geeks Next Door – Smackdown | Dungeon Mastering

Geeks Next Door – Smackdown | Dungeon Mastering — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:33:09 +0000

[...] The Endless Debate [...]

By: Geeks Next Door – Spot Check | Dungeon Mastering

Geeks Next Door – Spot Check | Dungeon Mastering — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:24:37 +0000

[...] The Endless Debate [...]

By: Dungeon Mastering » Blog Archive » Geeks Next Door - Evasive Maneuvers!

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:34:31 +0000

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By: Dylan Danger

Dylan Danger — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:13:46 +0000

Hahaha, I can’t believe I haven’t known of this comic before, hilarious! Sad to know that awesome people live so far apart from one another… Anywho, as the DM of our little D&D gang I stick with MAtt on this one. 3.5 is a pretty solid set for general occurances, but allows changes for the specifics. *sad face* When I had a character, our DM kinda was…. anyway I had a lvl 8 sorcerer like Barry’s, basically just owned all with metamagic XD It’s so strange reading the comic though, Resemble’s our lives over here lol. *is a graphic artist as well* Don’t know if you ever do this, but go ahead and look at the web link there, I have some of my art on there :D *bookmarked* Keep it comin!

By: Nedark

Nedark — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:05:04 +0000

For me, 3.5 is the best. I have seen 4th addition, and own a copy of 1st (thank you, Dad) and read them both through. I have however only played with 3.5. I find that this system allows both the DM and Players to get creative the most. With my group, we pretty much go by the motto “if you can justify it, you can do it.” And 3.5 I find is the best for this. For example: I have a blind-ranger who uses a flint-lock rifle. The justification is that he has a disease that is slowly rotting his brain away and trained for a while to use some minor echo-location. In 3.5, the rules are relaxed enough that I can do this pretty well.
Also, in my campaign I needed a race that was kind of a swarm type army, but still had organization. They also had to be tougher than goblins and hobgoblins. I went into the SRD for 3.5 and found the Formians (I think that is how its spelled). I looked in a 4e monster manual, and they weren’t listed. I looked for somthing else that fit, but I was hard-pressed to find one.

By: Megan

Megan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:39:46 +0000

4th edition was the first edition I ever played (and is my favorite edition, especially to DM). By now I’ve played 3.5 and have heard a little about 2nd edition. Though 3.5 has its good points (more skill options, more non-combat spells, better multi-classing (Vancian magic can be a + or a -)), I still prefer 4th (easier to play, much easier to DM, the CB exists, and it’s fun).

I’ve found that it always seems rather odd to me when people say that 4th doesn’t feel like D&D (Though I do understand why; I agree that it is very different from any other edition).I found 4e to be more similar to what I assumed D&D was like before I started playing than any of the other editions. I think that’s is part of the reason why 4th is so much easier to learn how to play as a beginner.

By: Drax40K

Drax40K — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:35:33 +0000

For me it’s no contest. 4th Edition is the best. It’s fun and easy to run as a DM. I love the monsters, and I love the character classes. To me, having played every edition of D&D, it’s the culmination and natural evolution of the system. They have done away with all the heavy and fun leeching aspects of the previous editions of the system. Encumberance? Gone. 5 Minute Wizards? Gone. Combat Medic Clerics? Gone. Monster class levels? Gone. One dimensional rogues? Gone.

It’s not perfect, skill challenges are very awkward, and keeping the player classes balanced is going to be a real challenge as the game moves forward. However, on the other hand, the combat system has never been more fun as a player or DM. I love making new monsters and I also love trying the different race/class combinations. Game preparation is a breeze and I find myself able to concentrate on the fun of crafting a good story driven campaign rather then spending countless hours tweaking encounters that never end up being the correct ‘CR’.

I actually find it a bit of a culture shock to go back to other systems where the mechanics feel a tad clunky compared to the extensively play tested and smoothly working mechanics of 4th Edition. I am playing in a Shadowrun campaign that starts tonight, and I felt this overwhelming ‘meh’ as I began to page through the character creation rules, though I am still looking forward to play it. I am anxiously anticipating a time when they will take the 4th Edition rules set and apply it to different genres! :)

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:27:02 +0000

I play mostly 2nd. I love the 2E specialty priest class, especially when used in conjunction with Legends and Lore and priest spell compendiums. I feel there was so much material written in this edition that anything was possible with the right literature. many of the complaints people have about this edition are part of the reason that i like it, such as Thac0 (of course) and and the loose leaf monstrous compendiums.
Im also a fan of Spelljammer, Dark Sun and Planescape. Having said that I must admit that I prefer the 1E manual of the planes interpretation of the planes and I also prefer the conciseness of the 1E adventure modules to some of the lengthier campaign settings of 2E. The artwork of 1E also somehow captures my imagination and puts me in more of a gaming mode.

I enjoy the white set for the history (remember when bugbears had pumpkins for heads!?) and for the Gods, Demigods and heroes supplement.

Hollow World and the creature catalog are major bonuses to basic rules, but stay away from those immortal rules. they are just plain weird!