How D&D 3rd Edition revolutionized the game (New School vs. Old School)
Added 2024-02-05 23:42:02 +0000 UTC(Part 2 of 2) D&D 3rd edition revolutionized the game. Let's now compare the New School vs. the Old School!
0:00 Higher power level
1:57 Permanent, customizable characters
5:15 "Rules, Not Rulings"
9:43 Combat As Sport
13:53 GM as entertainer/co-player
15:37 Final Thoughts
Comments
P.S. One more clarification...I do like the crunchiness that 3e (and later Pathfinder) ushered in. Like you said, neither one, old or new, is inherently worse that the other. Just enjoyably different.
Malfal
2024-02-13 03:43:40 +0000 UTCI agree that modern D&D players seem to expect a serialized story with relatively high survivability. I'm not saying that there is anything necessarily wrong with that. In fact, even though I wouldn't play 5e if you paid me, I still thoroughly enjoy watching the VLDL team play through their 5e game on YouTube. Their game is extremely entertaining, but considering some of their antics, it's a wonder any of them are still alive. But just so you know, back when I first played B/X and first edition AD&D in the 80s, we DID serialize our games (by crudely stitching together one module after another, for example). We simply did not expect to survive forever! In the most memorable games I ever played as a character, I either died or expected to die in the next round or two (at least that's the way I remember it :-) We had just finished playing a 0-level adventure in AD&D called Treasure Hunt, and as soon as we dropped off the rescued NPC back home, we were scooped up by some Rocs and deposited in the nest at the beginning of The Eye Of The Serpent. Miraculously, all of the characters had survived until the last room in the adventure, but most of the party was beat down pretty bad, all but me. I was playing a monk with high DEX that made it really hard to hit me. I was the healthiest of the party heading into that last room, so I decided to tank the final monster so the rest of the party could heal up and/or attack from range. After a couple rounds, I was injured and could probably have survived maybe one more hit. I only needed to hold out for one more round or so, and we should win. The DM rolled his attack against me, it hit, and he rolled max damage. He looked at me painfully saying, "Dude, I'm so sorry!" I was like, "Dude, it's fine. I'm protecting the party. It's what the character would do." (Yes, we said "dude" a lot.) So I died, the rest of the party destroyed the last monster, and everyone had the gall to be sad! I was like, "Seriously, this was epic!" Shortly after that game, we got into Unearthed Arcana and we all rolled up some new characters to play Destiny Of Kings. I played a full-on Full Plate Knight in Shining Armor Paladin (complete with lance and war horse). (Spoilers follow, so PLEASE skip to the next paragraph if you want to play this adventure for yourself.) When we started the adventure, I did not know that there was going to be a jousting opportunity in the game, but it turned out to be a jousting competition for all the marbles. We faced off on either side of a bridge and charged each other across the bridge. I shattered my lance on the first pass. Honor was at stake, so I did what any respectable paladin would do in this circumstance...I drew my sword and charged for a second pass...and was unhorsed. So there I stood, injured, sword in hand, in the middle of a bridge as my enemy charged for a third pass. We were all expecting my character to die that round, but he missed and I got a lucky shot that dropped my enemy's horse and threw the rider. After a couple more rounds of one-on-one sword fighting, I got lucky and won, but I was down to just a few HP. Then my enemy's friends charged across the bridge to finish me off (just like evil NPCs are wont to do). My friends charged across from the other side to try to defend me. And I, kneeling on the bridge with no hope to survive any further combat...rolled off the bridge into the water below so my friends could finish off the bad guys. In the end, "rulings, not rules" made that last encounter so epic. There were not specific rules to deal with that third pass, but the way I described my intent to the DM, he gave me a chance to succeed on a d20 and I got lucky. And to this day, it was the most exciting encounter I ever played BECAUSE of the high chance of death. Finally, Ronald, if you do decide to try out some old-school D&D, I have to recommend Old-School Essentials. It distills the original B/X rules and the best of the first edition AD&D rules into a more digestible ruleset. For those who don't know what to buy (because the OSE website is a rather confusing), the OSE "CLASSIC FANTASY" rules are basically just B/X. On the other hand, the two OSE books "ADVANCED FANTASY" and "REFEREE'S TOME" provide literally everything contained in the "CLASSIC FANTASY" book, PLUS the best of AD&D rules presented as optional rules. AND, using either CLASSIC or ADVANCED OSE rules makes just about any BX or AD&D adventure module interchangeably compatible with little or no adjustment at all. (And for a slight variation to OSE, Dungeon Crawl Classics and the new ShadowDark RPG are also highly recommended for checking out). EDIT: I do not receive any compensation for any of the three rulesets mentioned above.
Malfal
2024-02-13 03:21:31 +0000 UTC
