Interesting articles on D&D

[FunkyJ]

Just discovered these articles on the Escapist and thought I'd share

The Escapist : The Ghosts of D&D: Past

The Escapist : The State of D&D: Present

The Escapist : The State of Dungeons & Dragons: Future

[SnorriHT]

Thanks for heads up FunkyJ, an interesting read.

I've been lucky enough to play the various incarnations of AD&D, but I stopped at 4th Edition. Why you may ask?

4th Edition is not a Roleplaying Game, it is a product to sell miniatures and a tactical miniatures system. An RPG does not require miniatures and dungeon tiles, it is the means to stimulate imagination and fun in a group environment.

I hope that 5th Edition addresses this issue...

[sschrupp]

Interesting read. I used to play a bit with some friends in 2nd edition back in the day. I remember when 3rd edition came out we were a bit mixed on whether it was welcome or not. Although I think back then as kids the biggest thing was, "Crap, I have a bajillion 2nd ed books, now I have to get all these new ones too??"

I think they need to rethink things and instead of saying they have one D&D product (4th Edition) that they have a range of D&D products that offer different styles of gaming. 4th for people that like the idea of miniatures, 3rd for... etc. I think that may have even been mentioned in that article somewhere.

Of course doing that would require them to still support/create new content for the other, older D&D products. I suppose that becomes a matter of sales numbers.

[Dread]

What is the best way for a group of people to play traditional 3.5 'online'

Surely in this day and age someone has come up with a decent system??

[FunkyJ]

I'd suggest Pathfinder.

There are books, but all material is available freely online as well.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for the physical books (or visit a game store)

And get the online resource from Pathfinder_OGC

[Mesar]

I'm not convinced on the "death"of the tabletop RPG near the end of the series.

I feel that RPGs have suffered a huge blow by independent publishers who can release products that are just as good (and frequently better) than D&D as it currently exists for a very low price or even for free. Probably Bit Torrent plays a large part of sales loss also, since the game is easily pirated and most people that play D&D are going to feel comfortable reading pdfs.

I don't play TTRPG much, but when I do it's usually some version of FUDGE/FATE, which is simple to understand, easy to resolve and rules light or heavy depending on the setting, and it's free. I did fork out top dollar for the Dresden Files RPG books, but I'm a huge fan of the series and haven't even gotten around to playing a game yet.

[SnorriHT]

Originally Posted by Dread

What is the best way for a group of people to play traditional 3.5 'online'

Surely in this day and age someone has come up with a decent system??

I play oneline, once a week and the four of us been going solid for the last four years.

The GM uses a full version version of Screen Monkey and everyone else just links in with the free version. We are lucky in that a mate has his own VOIP server, but teamspeak or mumble would do the same job.

We use our own simple homebrew system for online play, but DnD 3.5 would work fine. We treat it as social occaision and I reckon that's why we've been going for so long.

[solarbear88]

I've never known enough pple in real life to play pen and paper.

[ReaperSmurf]

Good articles. I haven't played AD&D for 20 years, but I've been working on my own game system on and off for almost as long. It's currently in its fourth (and final) rewrite - then I'll PDF it and publish it for free on the 'net.

[SnorriHT]

Originally Posted by ReaperSmurf

Good articles. I haven't played AD&D for 20 years, but I've been working on my own game system on and off for almost as long. It's currently in its fourth (and final) rewrite - then I'll PDF it and publish it for free on the 'net.

Gday mate,

Please let me know when you do publish it, as I would love to have a look at it.