Either start with the new rules or buy all the left over 3.5 rule books and guides that are no longer worth the paper they are printed on...

This is why there are still a shit ton of people that play 2. So many people got pissed that they bought countless numbers of books to be told they were useless when 3 came out. 

when i stayed with seven and eO
i had a blanket with +3 frost resistance
it was majickal 

sebums and eO play?! Weird. 

This is why there are still a shit ton of people that play 2. So many people got pissed that they bought countless numbers of books to be told they were useless when 3 came out.

Heh. It isn't that hard to convert it, people just don't want to go through the effort. I'm still using my Tandy1000HX because I don't want to admit that I spent all of that money on something that is now 'worthless' 

I haven't played for over two years but I love RIFTS®
I have an autographed hardcover core book :) 

The autographing gives all characters made with that book and extra couple of starting skills, doesn't it? 

so can we get a yea or nay on playing online? 

Yay, as long as we aren't forced to play 2nd Ed D&D... Sas did you ever mess around with the Skills & Powers 2nd ed? Where they divided the stats into 2 and did all kinds of weird shit? 

Nah I didnt RB, I can adjust to 3.5 if need be
I just dont have the books for it but I can find what I need online more than likely. 

How the hell can people play this online?
Honor system with the rolls? 

There are dicing programs for IRC. 

Sas: I rolled a natural 20 again!!
DM : How the hell did you do that you were supposed to roll a d8
sas: Umm it was an 8 then, yeah that's the ticket! 

There are dicing programs for IRC.

Now if I could only find slicing programs for IRC, I could virtually prep dinner with my Ginsu. 

Guys - the core rules for 3.5 are available on an online free document at http:// www.d20srd.org It is basically all of the crunchy rules-based stuff. It won't go so far as to really telling someone how to play, but it is a great guide for anyone wanting to return to the game from an older edition. This is everything from the 3 core books all at your fingertips. The great thing about 3.5 is it allows you a lot more customization - Just keep in mind as a player and as a GM to not let that bog you down - Play the game, not the numbers. 

weird. that link shoulda worked. Anyway, type in "www.d20srd.org" and you will see what I am talking about. 

Honor system with the rolls?

I'd give anything for Spun1 to add a D-20 button that displayed a roll in the thread (not in preview).

we could play here so easily 

true Puffikins 

I used to play. Still have all my old books and character sheets but nobody I know plays anymore or I'd be down for some more questing. 

ok so so Far Puffy, SE and RB might be down for some online questing...
anyone else? 

I might.
I'd just have to see how it's set up,
and when you would do it. 

I will have to see what is out there.
Someone else would have to DM, the only modules I have are early AD&D
I am sure there is a free/shareware program somewhere that would let us do what we need. 

I've got all 3.5 books 

On recommendation of Fazer 'muppet', I bought a roleplaying game called "Betrayal at House on the Hill" this summer. As yet, I've taken it to friends' places about 4 times now and have yet to actually play it. My pool of interested parties for this sort of gaming is much smaller than I expected. My brother in law is down with it, but he works evenings a lot. 

I'm DMing a 3.5 campaign now for a few of my friends. The problem is that we're all newbies. So far we've made it through one adventure (one that I purchased, the Sunless Citadel -- which is a 3.0 campaign but was trivial to adapt for 3.5), now we're doing one of my own making.

So far it has been mostly hack and slash. The players seem to get bored with the story elements I've tried to introduce and are still struggling with the rules, so they don't try to do anything too sophisticated. Though they did seem to enjoy the role-play element of the Sunless Citadel where there is a faction of humanoids that you can ally yourself with and I acted out the NPCs.

It's sort of tough as I'm not really the creative sort, nor am I very good with improvisation, but I don't want to keep going with just canned adventures. 

arothman said:

On recommendation of Fazer 'muppet', I bought a roleplaying game called "Betrayal at House on the Hill" this summer. As yet, I've taken it to friends' places about 4 times now and have yet to actually play it. My pool of interested parties for this sort of gaming is much smaller than I expected. My brother in law is down with it, but he works evenings a lot.

I've played the shit out of that game. Fun as hell. That is the one where the players play until you get the Haunt Card, and one of the characters becomes the "bad guy," right? 

Yeah, that's the one. You wanna drive a few hours east to play with me? :) 

So far it has been mostly hack and slash. The players seem to get bored with the story elements I've tried to introduce and are still struggling with the rules, so they don't try to do anything too sophisticated. Though they did seem to enjoy the role-play element of the Sunless Citadel where there is a faction of humanoids that you can ally yourself with and I acted out the NPCs.

Awesome. Don't worry so much about the rules if you're having fun! You might be able to find some good mini adventures and then using them as examples, write you own. Also ask the players if they want to DM an adventure, one of them might find a knack for it. 

Yeah, that's the one. You wanna drive a few hours east to play with me? :)

I could come west too... We could have FazerCon 

I'm down with having a dorkfest in Cleveland, although I don't really have any room to put people up at my house. :) 

arothman said:

Yeah, that's the one. You wanna drive a few hours east to play with me? :)

It's not that great. :)
I was always the little smart Asian kid. Heh. 

would a webcam for the dM (for maps etc or minatures for battles) and using yahoo chat work for playing online. I am not sure if yahoo chat would allow multipart calls... 

Yahoo IM supports conference mode 

Awesome. Don't worry so much about the rules if you're having fun! You might be able to find some good mini adventures and then using them as examples, write you own. Also ask the players if they want to DM an adventure, one of them might find a knack for it.

Nobody else really has the time to learn the rules and run an adventure like I do. I lent my DM material to two of the players who thought about taking a crack at it, but both ended up backing out.

We have an OK time, a couple of the players seem to really dig it (there are five in our group), but to me it is all kind of pointless unless we do something more than hack-and-slash. Otherwise I'd rather just play Oblivion or WoW. This is partly my fault due to the lack of creativity/improv skills, but it is difficult to not get bogged down a bit with the rules/adjudication when the players don't really understand the rules or their characters as well as they probably should, and are sort of timid about experimenting.

I just wish one or two of the players were a little more experienced. 

For online D&D, I know there is at least one free/open source d20 game session manager out there that I believe has a built in battle grid and such. Might be worth looking into. 

I think it's horrible that there isnt an online forum for players to find each other in areas.

I went to the local gaming shop and he told me to drop by on certain weekends as they play in-house and there are players looking to form groups...then told me that the people who show up are usually campaign rejects, and rule-whores and i didn't "look" their type and probably wouldnt have fun.

I tried other meetup websites and such and there is no one! But i think i found a source today at work! maybe.... 

We have an OK time, a couple of the players seem to really dig it (there are five in our group), but to me it is all kind of pointless unless we do something more than hack-and-slash. Otherwise I'd rather just play Oblivion or WoW. This is partly my fault due to the lack of creativity/improv skills, but it is difficult to not get bogged down a bit with the rules/adjudication when the players don't really understand the rules or their characters as well as they probably should, and are sort of timid about experimenting.

I agree with you about the whole hacknslash thing. If you need to experiment with rules and such do that. If something seems broken don't be afraid to stop the game and test-play the rules. To become more comfortable with it, this is a great excuse to let the PCs have a battle royale! This should help them become more comfortable with such things in a non-character threatening way. Sometimes you'll just have to make a snap call that works best for the game to keep it moving and explore it later, but it also sounds like the players themselves need to be holding up their end and learning the game they're playing.

A game I was playing for a while is called Burning Wheel, it is a very player-centric game, but have some really interesting tools that could help your gamers get to know their characters. And those are 'beliefs' and 'instincts.' Beliefs are driving the force behind the characters, these are best when they are immediate drives (even if towards a long term goal), that spur the character into action. And instincts, are just that more base reactions and actions that drive the character in a way that defines a character in their actions. In BW these are almost free actions for the characters, and are normally used to get the PCs into trouble, and thusly drive the story.
Here are some examples of d&d characters with BW B/Is.

Beliefs will change over time as the character grows and completes them. Sometimes they roll into another belief, other times they can change into an instinct and some just outlive their usefulness. 

My playgroup and I - (my boss & co-player in the publishing industry) and I are working on an RPG that may have free distribution in some capacity. We are focusing our game to have a lot of character depth but much more simplicity than your current ruleset for D&D - a better situation for both young and old.

As someone who has played off and on for 20 years, pretty much the only thing from D&D that our game changes is how complicated the rules are to take in and use. We playtested the game for months and we have sat it down right now until after xmas to look at the rules with fresh eyes and make further revisions.

BTW, 4th edition D&D looks like it will have a utility to let groups to play together over the net. 

How do you have only 4 posts?! Have you ever read Burning Wheel? 

Rich Burlew (the order of the stick) about gaming is what got me interested in DMing. 

I <3 DnD. If we get a Fazed campaign running (I only know 3.5 rules, don't really want to learn a new old system) then give me a callPM! 

Have played:

D&D 2nd Ed.
Vampire/Werewolf/Mage
Talislanta
Chivalry & Sorcery
Palladium System Games (TMNT & Other Strangeness, Heroes Unlimited, Rifts)

I usually was the DM/Storyteller though I got to be a player every now and then. I think being a story teller in Vampire helped me make more exciting campaigns in D&D because of how much more it got me (and players) to focus on the story of their character.

PC driven storylines will help keep people interested better than hack and slash, they pose more of a challenge on a DM but ultimately is a more rewarding gaming experience.

I suggest that before starting a new campaign you sit down with each player individually for a short session for character creation and forming a back ground.

If this got skipped over you can always do it later in the campaign as kinda a flashback thing and fill in the details.

The character's family, region where they grew up, religion, who trained them, etc. etc. can all provide multiple avenues to generate stories that your players can be involved in. 

TMNT & Other Strangeness

Woah I forgot all about this one. 

heiders said:

I <3 DnD. If we get a Fazed campaign running (I only know 3.5 rules, don't really want to learn a new old system) then give me a callPM!

Woah. A girl in our adventuring party?
Does not compute. 

Woah. A girl in our adventuring party?

Girls are great additions to a group. But it means that your friend who ALWAYS plays a chick, probably won't. Though if I were to stereotype they're usually more into the RP aspect than the H&S thing. 

And they get to be superbitches when they're ragging. 

i just found a group to play with
i was supposed to start saturday but the dm was "sick"

i'm gonna be videoconferenced in every week now Yay!
(they live upstate) 

RR, my love for you grows stronger. 

Hahah. I was going to say that most of the girls I've gamed with reminded me of RR... 

I played D&D 2nd Ed. when I was in the Navy...haven't played since I got out....used to play Cyberpunk and Star Wars RPG too...I wish I had the time and didn't live in the middle of nowhere. 

..used to play Cyberpunk and Star Wars RPG too..

Hi, me.