Dungeons & Dragons

[Men are from Slars]

because that joke has never happened before

[Death Knight]

The one thing i never did play and understand about d and d was when they added the psychic warrior and psionicist to one of the later editions. They have those classes in Knights of the Chalice 2 from indie game-maker HeroicFantasyGames. I never actually did play them though they looked like an interesting new change to the class rules. Ill have to give them a try when they release the next game.

[Men are from Slars]

Actually, they added psionics in 1976.

[Death Knight]

Huh, really? I thought that since none of the crpgs ive played had those classes it wasnt in. It must have just been on d and d the game.

[Sarachim]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

oh my god i leave this thread alone for two hours and you guys manage to find something even more embarrassing to argue about than D&D

I'm not arguing. I'm explaining the definition of "fiat" so Dantius doesn't embarrass himself again.

Originally Posted By: Lilith

money you use to buy a sports car isn't fiat money, it's Fiat money

True story: I thought of this joke, almost made it, then thought, "nah, I'll leave it for Lilith."

[Sudanna]

I've only played 4th edition, and that only a tiny bit, though I've wanted to play long enough to be at least mildly familiar with 3rd edition.

[VCH]

Most North Americans will not get the Fiat joke.

[Men are from Slars]

What makes you say that?

[Tyranicus]

This North American watches Top Gear and thus got the joke. I'm not implying it was a good joke by any stretch of the imagination, but I did understand it.

[Randomizer]

Since Fiat bought Chrysler to sell Fiats here it shouldn't be that hard. *sigh*

[Harehunter]

I don't even watch Top Gear, or much anything else to do with cars, and I got it.

[Sudanna]

Same.

[Celtic Minstrel]

My knowledge of D&D is limited to the Open Game Content, which I'm pretty sure is 3.5. I've never played a D&D game, though.

[Alorael at Large]

3.0 and 3.5 both had open content. 4th edition, alas, does not, which means there's no absurd abundance of products of dubious quality and unnecessary niche specificity.

 

—Alorael, who can at least count on a lesser amount of Pathfinder third (fourth?) party content. The Open Game License (OGL) allows third parties to use the third edition rules, designated as open game content (OGC) in their own products. That part of the rules is termed the system reference document (SRD). Those third parties could themselves make their derivative works open content, either partially or fully. Thanks to that, Pathfinder, which is a professional but unsanctioned "3.75" continuation of third edition, has its own SRD.

[VCH]

Fine, most Canadians will not get the fiat joke. I've never seen a Fiat vehicle nor has anyone I know. I became aware of Fiat the auto maker when I traveled through Egypt and pretty much every vehicle was a Fiat.

 

Of course, because of my Dairy farm background, I had always know that Fiat makes agricultural equipment under the name NewHolland.

[Necris Omega]

I've never sat down to a 4th ed. game, but all the hardcore gamers I know treat it like it was a poisonous snake they found in their underwear drawer that had replaced their underwear with exploding tarantulas.

 

From what I've read, not experienced mind you, I... can see and understand why they're upset. What they did to the Faerun setting is... disturbing, and while I do like the idea that Lolth would use reshaping her minions in her image as a blessing as opposed to a curse more, everything else...

 

I'm sure some people will still like it. For everyone else, there's Pathfinder.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Necris Omega

From what I've read, not experienced mind you, I... can see and understand why they're upset. What they did to the Faerun setting is... disturbing, and while I do like the idea that Lolth would use reshaping her minions in her image as a blessing as opposed to a curse more, everything else...

if 4th edition manages to scare away Forgotten Realms fans i can't help but see that as a point in its favour

seriously it has always been the most bloated, generic, kitchen-sink setting and there's nothing it does that you can't do better by starting from scratch

[DewdropsOTG]

Although I love the idea of playing tabletop RPGs, I almost never have a chance to do so, being as I live in a very isolated area, with no friends around and very little opportunity to get out and socialize, which is the biggest draw for me of tabletop stuff.

 

Which is one reason why I dislike the idea behind 4th Edition. If I want to play a CRPG, I'll just play one, like any of the fine games of Spiderweb Software. I do tabletop for roleplaying and for socializing, not so I can munchkin and min/max.

[Frozen Feet]

I got introduced to D&D by the Red Box basic edition, whatever its numeral designation might be. Out of the various RPG systems I grew to the hobby with (fun fact: first RPG I played was Cyberpunk), it came to be my favorite. AD&D I didn't get acquianted with beyond few computer games. I got back to D&D with 3rd edition and the SRD, played some, but now I don't really use it due to how clunky it is. Really, it's the most bloated mockery of a rules system I've taken time to, eh, "learn".

 

These days, I fill my D&D needs by playing a roguelike called Incursion (based on 3rd ed. rules), and Lamentations of the Flame Princess, which is a shameless retroclone of early D&D - just streamlined considerably, and doing away with magic item arms race completely.

[macdude22]

Originally Posted By: Frozen Feet

I got introduced to D&D by the Red Box basic edition, whatever its numeral designation might be. Out of the various RPG systems I grew to the hobby with (fun fact: first RPG I played was Cyberpunk), it came to be my favorite. AD&D I didn't get acquianted with beyond few computer games. I got back to D&D with 3rd edition and the SRD, played some, but now I don't really use it due to how clunky it is. Really, it's the most bloated mockery of a rules system I've taken time to, eh, "learn".

These days, I fill my D&D needs by playing a roguelike called Incursion (based on 3rd ed. rules), and Lamentations of the Flame Princess, which is a shameless retroclone of early D&D - just streamlined considerably, and doing away with magic item arms race completely.

I was only recently introduced to D&D (Though I've played CRPGs for decades now) when a small comic shop opened up in our little town. Wizards is running a quaint setup called Encounters where you go in, play an encounter for an hour or two a week. This certainly helped ease me into the sort of overwhelming world of TableTop RPGs (I have been a TT board gamer for a long time however). I'me certainly enjoying the experience, I'm sure other systems have more opportunity for roll playing perhaps but we have a good time beating down monsters and tipping over bookshelves.

I've since bought several books and am piecing together a campaign of my own (I still go play encounters).

I've talked to a couple 3.5 players that play encounters as well and they do tend to go on about 4e being like "WoW". Since I like CRPGs this is ok with me, in fact I think the more distinct combat rules drew me in. There's opportunity for "role playing" but the combat fits more in line with my Board Gaming brain. Sort of a gateway product.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally Posted By: Kyronea

I do tabletop for roleplaying and for socializing, not so I can munchkin and min/max.

Fourth edition is actually much better about this than 3rd edition. It's harder to make a completely useless character, easier to make a good one, and generally harder to make horribly overpowered monstrosities. It helps that you also don't have to juggle the requirements and benefits of a half-dozen classes at once to wring the most benefit out of everything.

—Alorael, who thinks that the best approaches he's seen for minimizing min-maxing are to simply make it fruitless. Rules-light games often take away things that you can min-max and rewards for doing so. Others try to simply make balance less of a concern by having something other than stats drive the game.