So how many D&D players out there?

b0redgamer

Just curious as to how many people play or have played D&D and what editions?

kc7777777

Played with my friends up till 3.5 and out latest campaign is a Pathfinder one.

b0redgamer

Awesome! I have played a few games of Pathfinder via Roll20. The only people who I know in my area that do pen and paper still play AD&D 2nd Edition.

russiansambo

Played the original and 2.0 which, in my opinion, were the only two worthwhile and good versions ever made.. Stopped playing when 3.0 and further came out. Used to play every weekend though, with a really good group of about 5-6 people.

Largest group I've ever played with around a table was 20.. THAT was interesting.. Heh.

b0redgamer

Awesome, my largest group was about 15 and I DM'd the game. Many drinks were had lol. I also agree that D&D, AD&D and AD&D 2nd edition are still superior. If you are ever interested in playing again roll20.net has a lot of groups dedicated to AD&D and 2nd Ed.

russiansambo

Nice! Never heard of the site. I'll definitely check it out!
Yeah.. Big group games were always entertaining.. One round of combat took almost an hour.. Good times... Good times.... LOL

b0redgamer

LOL indeed. Some of my favorite times where when someone in the party would drink unidentified potions lol. One of my friends got a rather nasty shock when he drank one, it made him levitate without control then decided to try another . "Just in case it reverses the effect." It gave him greater invisibility. It was hilarious having the party find one of his limbs and tie it to rope to drag him around in the dungeon they were in. Everyone was laughing. Good times indeed my friend.

russiansambo

LOL. Sounds amazing! A lot of our campaigns ended up degenerating (if you can call it that) into quoting a bunch of Monty Python Quest for the Holy Grail moments..

I even threw in the "Bridge of Death" into a campaign once (if you've ever seen the movie, it's one of the more 'out of nowhere' random parts of it). If you haven't seen in, I suggest looking that part up on YouTube or somewhere to leave you shaking your head.

One of the best parts of Table ADND were always the random occurences that make you go "WTH?!" How I miss those days!

b0redgamer

I grew up on Monty Python and the Holy Grail lol. "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?", "African or European?" , "What? I don't know that.. ahhhhhh......" The black knight lmao. When Arthur knelt down to pray and he kicked him in the head. That movie still makes me laugh to this day.

And I agree the best part of table top is you have no clue what is going to happen. I miss those days as well, very much.

russiansambo

That and the fact that the campaigns always went on far later than planned.. We'd usually start around 7-8 pm and not stop until around 3-4 am.. The good ol' days indeed!

b0redgamer

Very true. We would start in the evening, maybe earlier on weekends and then would look around to notice it was daylight again lol.

russiansambo

Best place we've ever gamed it up was in a hotel conference/ballroom. One of our regulars was the manager at a local hotel, so we'd game it up at the actual hotel every weekend. We started off in a meeting room, but we were too loud at times for some of the guests, so he moved us to the actual ballroom. It was amazing.

Another one of our guys also had a massive miniture figurine collection, which we sometimes used to illustrate what each battle looked like. Took a while to set up, but still more than not proved worth it.

b0redgamer

Sounds amazing! We gamed in houses, basements, garages etc. The best place was a shop we use to have that sold the books and everything for D&D, Battletech/Mechwarrior etc. They had a back room just for people to game in, it was awesome till it closed many years ago.

russiansambo

We still have a place kind of like that here, but it's mostly really strange, awkward young people who play nothing but Magic The Gathering in it. Or, if they are playing DND, it's Version 3.5 or whatever version they're up to now. Heh...

Again, 2.0 is the highest I'll ever be willing to play again.

b0redgamer

I agree 100%. Several places here offer gaming but it is all MTG or 3.5 or higher. We should get together on Roll20 and either join a new game or make our own. I am an avid 2nd edition or lower fan. I also have 1000's of dollars of books for it. Including Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance(my personal favorite), Ravenloft and Spelljammer.

russiansambo

I'm totally game for that.
I'll take a more in-depth look around that site tonight after work and see how it works/laid-out.

I'm limited in knowlege on Ravenloft, but I'm familiar with the other three to various degrees.

b0redgamer

Well let me know what you think about the site and I am open to any campaign setting to be honest.

zebular

I started in AD&D (Hollow World) and since have played 1st, 2nd, 3rd and have now been learning 5th. I skipped 4th entirely, having went back to 2nd after experiencing 3rd. I had been DMing a 20+ year Campaign (FR) up until recently, as I just moved away from all my friends to the other side of the Country (USA).

Almost all of my characters are based upon NPCs I have created in my Campaign. You can read about some of them on my NW Site (http://nwo.zebular.com/), as I have converted some of their biographies to fit in better with Neverwinter.

b0redgamer

Very interesting!! I myself am an almost 30 year veteran having started with the red and blue D&D boxed sets, I played a bit of 3rd and went back to 1st/2nd as well. Have not really looked into 5th much, what are your thoughts on it? Also, with Roll20(virtual table top) you might be able to get your campaign with your friends on the other side of the country going again.

ambisinisterr

What's D&D? I have never heard of it.

And hopefully that joke was obvious. Been a D&D, particularly Forgotten Realms, addict for over 15 years which is actually over half my life time. Started with PnP Second Edition but when playing in person became impractical I started playing everything from the epic Baldur's Gate to working on my own content in NWN.

How I miss pen and paper though. Video games are great but nothing compares to the infinite interactions and imagination of pen and paper.

zebular

b0redgamer wrote: »

Have not really looked into 5th much, what are your thoughts on it?

I really love every aspect of 5th I have learned so far. It reminds me of "2nd edition with all the tweaks and bonus things our group adopted from 3rd" in aspect. As well, on the lore side of 5th, I am elated because WotC has put the lore of D&D back into the hands of the Notable Authors that devised them, allowing them to repair the atrocities brought in with 3rd and 4th edition.

b0redgamer wrote: »

Also, with Roll20(virtual table top) you might be able to get your campaign with your friends on the other side of the country going again.

Alas, not all my former group have computers and such to do so and some it would be more difficult to do. I have been looking into VT Gaming though for our Community Team here in Neverwinter. Hopefully once I find a house and get settled in, we'll all have the time to start such.

b0redgamer

ambisinisterr wrote: »

What's D&D? I have never heard of it.

And hopefully that joke was obvious. Been a D&D, particularly Forgotten Realms, addict for over 15 years which is actually over half my life time. Started with PnP Second Edition but when playing in person became impractical I started playing everything from the epic Baldur's Gate to working on my own content in NWN.

How I miss pen and paper though. Video games are great but nothing compares to the infinite interactions and imagination of pen and paper.

Ahh Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torement and NWN. All great games!! I am rather excited for Sword Coast Legends it looks to be a suped up NWN.

I also agree that nothing beats pen and paper. Even in a VT environment it is awesome and more interactive imo.

ambisinisterr

b0redgamer wrote: »

Have not really looked into 5th much, what are your thoughts on it?

Fifth Edition seems to be the best edition yet in my opinion. It's actually much more akin to Second Edition than it is to third or fourth.

Third Edition was great for video game rules as it applied rulings for everything but was insanely out of balance at later levels (monks and clerics at level 20 for example) and the rules in a pen and paper environment were beyond daunting. As much as people knock THAC0 it is a hell of a lot easier to do the math than anything in third edition. I mean just look at the combat log in NW and all the calculations per second and it just makes you cry even considering doing that math manually.

In short as cool as third edition was you ended up spending more time dealing with the rules than playing the game which is why we stuck with AD&D in my PnP group.

On the other hand Fourth Edition was just....weird. IDK if it was over-simplified or if it just deviated too much but I just didn't care for it.


Fifth Edition takes what little I did like from fourth and applies it to a ruleset which combines the expansiveness of third edition with the simplicity of second edition. Take a look. I really don't think you'll dislike it.

I think the best way to describe Fifth Edition is: they went back to the roots. And I like it.

b0redgamer

zebular wrote: »

I really love every aspect of 5th I have learned so far. It reminds me of "2nd edition with all the tweaks and bonus things our group adopted from 3rd" in aspect. As well, on the lore side of 5th, I am elated because WotC has put the lore of D&D back into the hands of the Notable Authors that devised them, allowing them to repair the atrocities brought in with 3rd and 4th edition.

Sounds good, I guess I will have to grab the PHB and DM's Guide and give it a good look over. Thank you for the input!

zebular wrote: »

Alas, not all my former group have computers and such to do so and some it would be more difficult to do. I have been looking into VT Gaming though for our Community Team here in Neverwinter. Hopefully once I find a house and get settled in, we'll all have the time to start such.

Well it was a thought! It is horrible when you lose you group, I know. I have gone through it a few times. Well once you get everything settled and have the time to get a VT game going let me know, I would be happy to join in!

b0redgamer

ambisinisterr wrote: »

b0redgamer wrote: »

Have not really looked into 5th much, what are your thoughts on it?

Fifth Edition seems to be the best edition yet in my opinion. It's actually much more akin to Second Edition than it is to third or fourth.

Third Edition was great for video game rules as it applied rulings for everything but was insanely out of balance at later levels (monks and clerics at level 20 for example) and the rules in a pen and paper environment were beyond daunting. As much as people knock THAC0 it is a hell of a lot easier to do the math than anything in third edition. I mean just look at the combat log in NW and all the calculations per second and it just makes you cry even considering doing that math manually.

In short as cool as third edition was you ended up spending more time dealing with the rules than playing the game which is why we stuck with AD&D in my PnP group.

On the other hand Fourth Edition was just....weird. IDK if it was over-simplified or if it just deviated too much but I just didn't care for it.


Fifth Edition takes what little I did like from fourth and applies it to a ruleset which combines the expansiveness of third edition with the simplicity of second edition. Take a look. I really don't think you'll dislike it.

I think the best way to describe Fifth Edition is: they went back to the roots. And I like it.

I definitely will be looking into it. It is very reassuring to hear that they "went back to the roots". You stated the very reason why I went back to 2nd, it felt like more dealing with the rules rather than enjoying the game. I liked some of the aspects of 3rd edition but just could not get past what seemed to be an over complicated way to go about things.

I have some free time this week so I will probably go to my local comic/gaming store and pick up some 5th edition source books. Thanks for the advice and input!

russiansambo

b0redgamer wrote: »

Well let me know what you think about the site and I am open to any campaign setting to be honest.

I've talked to a couple people at work who are/were very familiar with the site and even took a look at it a bit up at work. (It was a slow day! LOL.)

I've created an account on it and it definitely seems interesting. Definitely worth a shot, at least!

Good to see this thread garnering a few more posts as well. I've been out of the loop for a while and didn't realize they were up to 5th edition. Wow... Don't fix something if it aint broke! Heh...

b0redgamer

Awesome, I am still getting use to it myself. Also, I glad more people are responding it appears the Community Team play pen and paper. I know Strumslinger(Andy) does, we have talked about it on Twitter and Reddit.

russiansambo

Anything is worth a shot at least once or twice. Taking a longer look in depth on the site seems like this thing has potential to be fairly interesting with a decent group for sure.

ambisinisterr

b0redgamer wrote: »

Awesome, I am still getting use to it myself. Also, I glad more people are responding it appears the Community Team play pen and paper. I know Strumslinger(Andy) does, we have talked about it on Twitter and Reddit.

Nothing new
Zeb and I have been around since before the game went into Alpha due to our love of D&D and Forgotten Realms.

russiansambo wrote: »

b0redgamer wrote: »

I've been out of the loop for a while and didn't realize they were up to 5th edition. Wow... Don't fix something if it aint broke! Heh...

Well that was kind of the issue with Fourth Edition.

Third Edition was good, just far too complicated. Fourth Edition on the other hand seemed to try to grab a completely different audience and actually resulted in a large backlash. They "went back tot heir roots" because fourth edition was such a huge deviation.

On top of that, when the version of the game changes events occur to reflect these changes. In Fourth Edition Wizards of the Coast was high and mighty deciding they knew what to do and...well...they ticked everybody off.

The first thing they did was move the timeline 100 years in the future and with that simple decision they removed countless famous heroes from the genre. For instance, of the famous Companions of the Hall were made up of 3 short-lived races, a dwarf who was at the end of his expected lifespan before the jump in time and a drow elf. Who wants to follow a plot for nearly two decades and then suddenly have most of the characters either directly killed in a grand battle or killed by old age?

More importantly than that, though, imagine how the authors must have felt being told 'We are going to move ahead 100 years. You can either follow us ahead 100 years or you can stop writing novels because we want all the novels to be written in the same time period.'

Couple that decision with the decision to kill Mystra (AGAIN!?!?!?) thus killing or maiming almost all wizards since Mystra was not replaced this time...

And then to make extra sure players don't like what is done let's add a new faction called Shadovar into the mix and have them cause such havoc in the northern lands that several of the great northern kingdoms fall apart or are in such a wretched state of unrest and war that they acted more like drow civilizations than the kingdoms which promoted order, security and justice.

For a little extra sugar sprinkled over everything they decided to kill off half of the pantheon for reasons which only made sense in their minds...

And as a final cherry on top they decided to wave a magic wand and change the past and pretend nobody noticed. For instance Tieflings are no longer half-demons but humans with a cursed bloodline which went from being a diverse appearance race to all resembling Asmodeus.


All in all they didn't just throw a wrench into the lore, they threw a white hot wrench, twisted it around and then beat it with a hammer until they could pretend it fit.


They screwed up fourth edition so bad they said, "Help us Obi-Ed Greenwood (the original creator of the forgotten realms) you're our only hope" and the authors were given creative authority on the lore changes with Fifth Edition. The Sundering series not only were some great reads but overall each book was spitting in the face of Fourth Edition one chunk at a time until everything other than the time jump was thrown into the trash can and burned with a torch.

zebular

ambisinisterr wrote: »

Zeb and I have been around since before the game went into Alpha due to our love of D&D and Forgotten Realms.

Aye. I've also been playing Cryptic Games since STO was in beta, and even before that with City of Heroes. Many of Neverwinters Developers (if not all of them) are also D&D players.

ambisinisterr wrote: »

The Sundering series not only were some great reads but overall each book was spitting in the face of Fourth Edition one chunk at a time until everything other than the time jump was thrown into the trash can and burned with a torch.

Indeed, I couldn't have asked for more. I love how this series fixed everything, one book at a time and the final book is the emptying of the recycle bin. When ya finish it, you'll see what I mean.

**bows to his Goddess**

b0redgamer

I have read much of Ed Greenwood and R.A. Salvatore's work and other authors as well. Not all mind you but a lot. I am a fan of the Forgotten Realms. The first campaign boxed set I got was the grey box Forgotten Realms set first edition it had just came out. I also fondly remember playing the old SSI "gold box" games, oh and Hillsfar too lol. I did not know WotC had messed up things so badly with 4th edition. No wonder it was a flop, I have not heard one person say they enjoy it. Most either play 1/2nd edition or 3.5.

However, I am more of a Dragonlance fan to be honest. I have read almost every single novel in the series(and have read every single book written by Weis and Hickman) and played numerous campaigns in the setting. I fell into it after reading the first 3 chronicles in like 1985-86 lol. I did not get my first FR novel until a couple of years later. If 5th edition incorporates more Dragonlance I will be a happy camper.

I also enjoyed the Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Mystara and Planescape settings as well. All fun stuff!! So when it comes to table top play I am open to any setting including home brewed. I was not too crazy about Council of Wyrms, having a dragon as a pc was weird lol. I still play DDO quite often and Eberron is interesting there. I know DDO is dated but it was the closest thing I could get to table top play at the time. Anyhow, I can not wait to play a good VT game. It will be exciting I think!