I like to challenge my own preferences and desires, which led to the internal exercise of “what would it take for me to run D&D again?” I don’t know if I could actually find a group willing to do this — and maybe that’s my unconscious safety net (“I’ll never have to do this”) — but here are the results.
First, it’s all about the basics. Having fun. What’s fun about D&D? Killing things, taking their stuff, and getting kool powerz! So, to that end, here are the changes that I’d make:
- The three core books, and no others. This right here solves a number of my problems with D&D: bloat. No sifting through fifteen books for that broken feat, no struggling with hundreds of prestige classes (and power twinking your character to get there), and no more “what book was that spell in?” The three core books and nothing else.
- No multiclassing. Purely a personal preference and a way to look at niche protection. Consider it “old skool” gaming. We didn’t need to multiclass in the old versions to have fun, then why must every 3rd edition character start out with a level of Rogue or Ranger? Pick your niche and love it, baby! (Potential exceptions for prestige classes.)
- Stick to the formula. No character dramas. No massive political intrigue. No multi-layered plots within plots. Oh no. It starts in an Inn with a bar fight and ends in a dungeon killing off some lich, rescuing the princess, and rolling in his piles of gold.
- A hero above any other. The characters are the heroes. The lone heroes. They are head and shoulders above everyone else. The dungeons exist because no one else is brave enough to enter them. Villains tremble at the sound of the character’s names and the common man worships them like gods.
- Phat loot. The PCs will glow when someone casts detect magic in their presence. When then pick up a sword and take a few swings, they know it’s +1; no need for identify or hours of resource management unless they want to find out more about that holy avenger.
- Keep the pace. Minimal looking up of rules. I might reinstate my “no books on the table” rule that’s worked so well in the past. Nothing to slow the pace of the game down and turn it from a fun, action-packed game to an exercise of looking up material.
Those are just a few of my ideas. As I indicated earlier, not much chance of finding a group that would play this, but it could prove to be an interesting experiment or one-shot.
Category: Gaming
I’d be all hot and bothered to play in that game — sounds like fun!
(And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that this could almost be a post for my Blogging for GMs project — have you thought about writing some material for it?)
Hi Martin, welcome to Abulia Savant!
Martin said: (And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that this could almost be a post for my Blogging for GMs project — have you thought about writing some material for it?)
Sure! My rate is $.04 cents a word or one gaming t-shirt per article.
I’d play in it. Hell, I’d play in almost any gaem you ran if we could get the schedules synchronized…
Looks good. I’d definitely play in a campaign with that configurationn.
My one concern is for the elves. Limiting yourself to one class and the 3 core prohibits anyone from playing the classic elven fighter/magic-user.
Jeff wrote: “My one concern is for the elves. Limiting yourself to one class and the 3 core prohibits anyone from playing the classic elven fighter/magic-user.”
Good point, and while these are my basic rules, there is certainly room for negotiation with the players.
Sounds like a commerical: Think of the elves! For only 1 gp per day, YOU can make a difference! =)
Oh, and welcome to Abulia Savant, Jeff!
(Don) Sure! My rate is $.04 cents a word or one gaming t-shirt per article.
Aww, honey, you know I can’t afford you.
I’ve had this same idea but I went back a revision to AD&D 2nd edition but with using the Players:Options and Skills books. I may revert further and pull out the Rules Cyclopedia with a great article from OD&Dities Mag ( link here because the original site seems to be defunct – http://www.naturaltwenty.com/downloads/odditiesissue7.pdf )
After my 101 days experiment with Iron Gauntlets I’ll be rebooting some form of D&D game online.
Later,
Greg V.
Hi Don,
As a remark to Greg Volz’s comment, the OD&Dities site is down and so is the theOD&DGuild Yahoo! Group mentioned in Issue 7. Heving been a member of that group I was able to launch a new group, ODDGguild, to replace it on the date Yahoo! deleted it (long story). OD&Dities issues are at a former Y!Club Odditiesonline holds all the issues as does Alderon’s Tower.
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/ODDguild/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/odditiesonline/
http://tower.newcenturycomputers.net/oddities.html
And don’t forget the Wayback Machine of the OD&Dities site:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://tongue.fsnet.co.uk