3 ms·

Personally, I find D&D's gotten more and more simplified over the years i've played it. I started with ad&d first edition rules. The DM guide is jam packed full

Personally, I find D&D's gotten more and more simplified over the years i've played it. I started with ad&d first edition rules. The DM guide is jam packed full of tables of info for literally every insignificant detail of your world. It's still my favourite edition. Every edition after streamlined things and took away detail. The biggest changes came when wizards of the coast bought up tsr and the 3rd edition came out. It barely felt like playing the same game. I haven't played the newest editions, but i've read through the player and DM's guide for them, much of the original complexity of ad&d is gone, in its place are systems that seem.complex, but are far more simple to grasp and play using. Not just the systems, but the general feel and flow of the game seems to be simplified. It was more about being a fantasy adventure simulator before, where as now the purpose seems to be a fantasy hero story game. Much of the darker grittier aspects of the game were toned down and generally gone through that sanitizing process most niche things go through when they become popular.

ng12 6y ago
I think it's a side effect of the cultural impact. D&D inspired role playing videogames, those inspired MMOs, and MMOs now inspire D&D. Playing 5e feels very much like playing World of Warcraft or something similar. It's still fun of course -- when I was young we would play D&D with no character sheets and just a few dice -- but I agree some of the spirit is lost. I'm sure there are some custom settings out there with the depth of detail you're looking for.
- grawprog 6y ago
  I usually just designed my own settings and worlds. We tended to play fairly loose with some rules and had a bunch of custom tables and rules and stuff. Honestly, I almost prefer that part of it to the actual playing. An old friend of mine and I years ago actually started working on our own roleplaying system, but we ended up moving away and getting busy with life and stuff so we never really finished it. I think most of it's still sitting in my boxes full of random d&d stuff.
egypturnash 6y ago
I feel like 5e did a really good job of feeling like it was D&D while streamlining out a lot of the “recreational accounting” that 1e was. Though I still had to resort to automated character sheets to roll my character because there was shit I just could not figure out how to do from the PHB... 1e was kind of a mess though, remember how Bard was a weird expansion class you could only play after like 20 levels of three other classes instead of “you are a person who has about as much training in music, social engineering, and magic related to those things as anyone else at your level has in whatever they do”? My 1e/2e groups sure did tinker with the rules to work around shit like that, my GURPS groups mostly went by whatever set of books the campaign was using, and my recent 5e experience after a long time away from RPGs felt like I remember 1/2e being without all the bullshit and confusion that nostalgia elides.

ng12 6y ago

I think it's a side effect of the cultural impact. D&D inspired role playing videogames, those inspired MMOs, and MMOs now inspire D&D. Playing 5e feels very much like playing World of Warcraft or something similar. It's still fun of course -- when I was young we would play D&D with no character sheets and just a few dice -- but I agree some of the spirit is lost. I'm sure there are some custom settings out there with the depth of detail you're looking for.

grawprog 6y ago
I usually just designed my own settings and worlds. We tended to play fairly loose with some rules and had a bunch of custom tables and rules and stuff. Honestly, I almost prefer that part of it to the actual playing. An old friend of mine and I years ago actually started working on our own roleplaying system, but we ended up moving away and getting busy with life and stuff so we never really finished it. I think most of it's still sitting in my boxes full of random d&d stuff.

egypturnash 6y ago

I feel like 5e did a really good job of feeling like it was D&D while streamlining out a lot of the “recreational accounting” that 1e was. Though I still had to resort to automated character sheets to roll my character because there was shit I just could not figure out how to do from the PHB... 1e was kind of a mess though, remember how Bard was a weird expansion class you could only play after like 20 levels of three other classes instead of “you are a person who has about as much training in music, social engineering, and magic related to those things as anyone else at your level has in whatever they do”? My 1e/2e groups sure did tinker with the rules to work around shit like that, my GURPS groups mostly went by whatever set of books the campaign was using, and my recent 5e experience after a long time away from RPGs felt like I remember 1/2e being without all the bullshit and confusion that nostalgia elides.