What I miss about 3rd Ed: Part III

So today I would like to talk about an area that will no doubt be some what touchy. There will no doubt be those that think I'm wrong, or will say that I'm making an issue of nothing. But I have to say that this issue, or at least issue from my point of view, is important. So, you ask, what is this said issue?: it's roleplaying. Not roleplaying in general, but roleplaying, or the lack there of, in 4th ED. 

Now, before anyone says, 'Hey, you! Roleplaying is all up to the DM, and I'd you find it hard in the new rules that's your problem', I want to say that, in part, that is true. It is true that I could implant roleplaying into my campaign wherever I wanted. Yet, in doing so, given the way the new rules work, it makes it very hard to hand out experience.

Now truly a DM could just had out XP at will. Run the roleplaying just as in 3rd ED, but then a problem comes up. Now that I've plugged my roleplaying in, were does it fall in the ten encounter average per level? And do I give out a parcel? Because if I don't they characters will miss one as part of their level advancement. Okay maybe that's not a huge problem, but it seems to me to still be one. Maybe you could treat a gold parcel as reward for completion of a quest, but that's not always a reasonable option. 

3rd ED didn't ask the DM to work this problem out. All a DM had to do was make an interesting NPC, a story or situation, and play it out to the willing players around the table. That was it, simple and clean cut. The only limitation was the DM's imagination. 

Now, though, the DM has a mountain of information to plow through. If a  wishes to make a roleplaying event it has be turned into a skill challenge. When that happens the whole feel of the encounter changes. No longer is it about taking on a character and trying to convince Prince Al'adon to pay for the parties adventure.  Now to do that the player just has to get three successes before five failures and the prince is convinced. 

Assuredly there are players, and DM's,  that will try to add roleplaying into the die rolls, but more often then not the players end up just rolling their dice until they get the required successes. For some players, the ones that never got into the roleplaying part even in 3rd ED, this way of doing things is great. For the players that enjoyed roleplaying, it is not. It's a mystery killer, a story killer. It makes D&D no different them playing WoW; and that is a very sad thing indeed. 

4th ED has taken away the fun and challenge for the roleplaying encounter. It has replaced it with a system, a mechanism that requires no thought. It has taken the feeling out of roleplaying a character and turned it into something bland and boring. 3rd ED allowed all players to play roleplaying encounters how they felt most comfortable. It allowed the thespians to act out with detail and quiet types to roll their dice. 4th ED has taken away that flexibility at the cost of the players. 

So what do I miss about 3rd ED?: True roleplaying and the flexibility to make all players happy in roleplaying encounters. 

Bard

Okay... ha

So... haha

This is just to damn funny! hahahaha

Enjoy! 

Bard!! hehe

What I miss about 3rd Ed: Part II

So I just got done reading an article by Monte Cook on the D&D website (links below). He recently picked up writing this article, and the question he poses is a good one, as well as bring up some issues that I’ve had with 4th ED of D&D. With that in mind maybe this should be part of my “What I miss about 3rd ED” articles?

Anyway, Mr. Cook writes about the state of magic items in 4th ED. He makes the statement that “Magic in the game doesn’t seem, well, magical.”, and I think that he’s right, and the players that have said the same thing.  Magic doesn’t seem magical anymore. It just seems to be something that is a through away, a need of the system, with nothing special about it. At the end of combat the DM hands out a parcel with a magic item attached. And if the players don’t get said item, soon they will be getting their butts handed to them.

There used to be a time when the DM could develop  magic items that meet the needs of each character, while at the same time keeping the mystery of magic in the world, Mr. Cook touches on this as well. A DM could spend a few minutes making up a fun, powerful, yet simple, weapon or magic item that the characters would find very useful. It was a simple process and added a lot to the adventure. 4th ED just doesn’t allow for this kind of originality. This system is so complex that if you change one thing the wrong way the whole thing comes down. 

When it comes to making magic items its even worse. Gone is the simplicity of a +3 weapon with the ability to make a fire ball on a critical hit. No, no. The DM has to work out how it will play with the other abilities that the characters have. Then there’s having to work out if it’s going to be an ‘at will’, ‘encounter’, or daily, and how that will balance, it’s a tiny nightmare. The DM resorts to just telling the players that their characters have found a level 3 magic item of... some... kind...!? What’s the mystery in that? Oh yeah, there is none. Magic items have become as Mr. Cook says in so many words, a mere function of character advancement, and this is said.

I could go on for much long, but there is always plenty of time later. So what do I miss about 3rd ED, the mystery, personal nature, and ease of magic items. 

Mr. Cooks Article here

Campaign "The Green Tide"

So after a short break, well, okay, not so short a break, the game is on again. After AT it took some time to get back into the grove of things, and with everyone else having plans, it took a while to get back to it. But on Monday the dice will be rolling. 

With that in mind I thought I would give a brief overview of what has happened in the last session. I’ll fill in the rest later on.

“After crossing through the deep of forest between Ra’dar, the heroes have reached the Village of Cyjar. 

There the heroes meet with the Mayor, Mr. Pel, of Cyjar and finds out that a farm house about a day way had been attacked and burned down by goblins. Mr. Pel sees this as being a dangerous change in the behavior of the goblins. In the past they would raid, steal goods, kill some live stock, but little more. 

Given that they have been sent to Cyjar to investigate the goblin attacks, they agree to go check out the location of the attack. That night the Mayor puts the heroes up for the night in the local inn, The Shepherds Inn. 

Prior to resting for the night, members of the party go to the local Temple to Greania and see if there is anyway of helping the people that had been reported as being sick.”

“That night, as dawn is nearing, the heroes are awoken to the sounds of cries, and the light of fire issuing forth from their room windows. As they quickly headed down to the inn’s common room they were confronted by a group of goblins.

A battle quickly ensued and much effort was given to beat back the goblins in the inn. Once defeated the heroes took little time to check the bodies, rather they rushed outside to see what aid they could give. 

Once outside they were beset, from the surrounding trees, by a stronger force of goblins. From the trees a goblin mage attacked with effect while three others charged forward and engaged the heroes with bow and blade. The battle was fierce and pressed the heroes to their limits. For a short time hope began to wane. Then when hope was near to breaking the goblin champion fell to a mighty blow and the battle soon swung in the heros favor.

It is here that we now find our heroes, after the battle, and helping the town pick up the pieces.”

What I miss about 3rd ED: Part I

Most of us have within our roleplaying lives have played the 3rd edition of D&D. Most of us loved it, some of us didn’t, but either way we played it. It was, for me, the system that I first DM’ed in and I loved it. The system, regardless of the comments of others, I thought was a simple one that lent itself to the wild imagination of a DM. The rules were firm enough to be a excellent base for any new DM, yet loose enough that they could be molded to any need at hand. Something that I feel 4th Ed is lacking. 

But that is not what I’m  about right now. I could go on for hours about the many rules changes that I think have done more to hamper the game the help. But... as this is part one of what I hope will be a long series, there is plenty of time for that later. 

The point here is to say, that what I miss about 3rd Ed were the monster descriptions. Now I have a pretty damn good imagination, and I can come up with some really amazing descriptions for things even on an off day; thats my job, I’m a DM. I spend quite a bit of time filling all the landscapes of the world with all the detail that I can so my players feel as if though there are right there in the world, not in a basement for a few hours. It takes up a lot of time coming up with all that detail. I love doing it so I’m not complaining, in fact its one of my favorite parts of being a DM. That said, it was so amazing being able to pick the monsters and have colorful entries right there for me to read to my players.

But that’s not so with 4th. Every so often you will get a brief overview of what the critter looks like if it is part of an over arching type, but thats about it. Most of the time you don’t even get that, so the DM is left trying to come up with his/her own description based off of a picture, which are also not as common as I would like, or off of the paragraph that covers the monsters tactics. In both cases I feel a little bit, nay, a whole lot, cheated. 

I have no doubt that the reason for the lack of description is due to the fact that Wizards thinks that everyone has all the D&D mini’s, and with them in hand you no longer have to give a colorful explanation of what the monster looks like. All you have to do is set the mini on the table and say: “There, thats what it looks like.” I same, LAME!!, to that. It totally takes me out of the story. Completely takes me, and I dare say most people, out of the detailed world that I have been building. 

And to Wizards I same “Shame On You!” One reason we play D&D is to be taken to another place. By taking away the little details, like monster descriptions, you take away the depth of the world, as well as make a DM’s job harder. 

So what do I miss about 3rd Ed?: Monster description entries. A little thing, yes, but its the little things that matter. 

New Site

Welcome to my new blog, Thought and Thesis (The Roleplaying Edition). For anyone who has read my other blog, you will have seen that from time to time, between my political and philosophical rants, I post a bit about that part of my life that is Rolyplaying. 

There have been times that I felt the urge to post more about such things, but didn't want to clutter things up. Which may sound funny given the general Spartan like posting that I do. Anyway, with that in mind I've decided that it was about time to start a blog devoted just to the the topic of roleplaying. So here it is. 

I'll be posting updates to by D&D game that I'm running now, as well as just some of my general thoughts on the roleplaying world. So till my next post, happy dice rolling!