True, but Champions got the idea from Jay. (Previously, an attack power would be given a arbitrary point value. But Jay and co come up with “every die of an attack costs X points, but what you need, call it blaster or eye beams or magnum pistol or laser, doesn’t matter. You pay for the damage, not the skin.”
That being said Jay took some ideas from Villains and Vigilantes, and Superhero 44 so it’s all fair.
I game every week with friends who used to run Vampire at GenCon and Origins as part of White Wolf’s paid Black Hand demo team. I played Vampire and Werewolf with them a few times but distinctly did not enjoy the nearly inevitable descent of my characters into evil. No matter how moral you intended your character to be, a few bad rolls of the dice turns you into a true Monster evidenced by your deeds rather than a monster based on your biology. “Sorry, you failed your Willpower roll. You rip out the throat of your best friend, who you have been protecting for the last dozen game sessions.” I also did not enjoy the few players who reveled in depravity like deliberately killing infants in a hospital nursery.
That sort of thing seemed absent from their Mummy game, but I didn’t get to play it much. White Wolf’s Exalted and Adventure weren’t set in the World of Darkness, and I really liked those. Aberrant and Aeon Trinity were set as different eras within the same supers setting as Adventure, but again included the notion that having powers leads to becoming a monstrosity. Meh. Give me an avenue to stay a good guy if that is what I want.
Is it actually worth anything? I have several 2E books, but I wouldn’t imagine anyone would want to buy them.
Along those lines, back in the 90’s I got the AD&D trading card sets 2 years in a row. Still have them. A couple years ago I looked them up on Ebay, and they’re selling for 20-odd bucks. I figured they’d bring more than that, too.
You might be surprised. Looking at Noble Knight Games’ site, there certainly seems to be some demand. They’re selling 2E PHBs for $50-$75, DMGs for $30 or so, and modules and splatbooks for $30-$50 and up. All of that suggests that there are still people playing 2E.
One of the things about 2E was that TSR pumped out a bunch of settings (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Birthright, Al-Qadim, etc.), and each of those settings had support materials (modules, etc.) – a lot of those likely had small print runs, and thus might well go for even more, as there’s just not many copies out there.
I remember those cards. If they’re the cards I’m thinking of, they weren’t part of a game; they were just collectible things for D&D fans. Given that, that may explain why they didn’t appreciate much in value.
That’s my usual response when people ask me how long I’ve been playing D&D: “Since Elf was a character class.” Specifically, since 1984, when I was 10 years old.
I’ve been playing with the same two guys since 1989; the last time I played with anyone else was 1992. What can I say… I’m not good with new people. We started with the basic D&D, and moved through all of the editions and at least a dozen other game systems at one point or another (back the late 80s to mid 90s we bought everything). Right now, we’re playing 5E and are very happy with it, with a few quibbles, most of which have already been mentioned in this thread. I’ve also been DMing for the past year or so, which is a bit of a new experience for me, but that’s just how our respective work-life balances are right now - in other words, I’m the only one with free time. It’s actually been pretty fun, stretching my storytelling muscles like that.
One thing I have to say is that the pandemic and resulting lockdowns have done wonders to our gaming life. I don’t live in the same city as them, so getting together to play used to be a biweekly affair at best. Now, thanks to a combination of D&D Beyond, Roll20, the Beyond20 extension and Zoom, we play for 2 hours each week, every week, no matter what. I honestly can’t imagine playing in person again - I’ve become totally dependent on my PC, especially as a DM, and I don’t mind it at all.
This is one of the biggest reasons I moved on from D&D back in the late 80’s. It was a huge breath of fresh air to do Runequest, Stormbringer etc., where combat is actually deadly, and no-one is safe, even if odds aren’t the same between folks.
I also detested the elementary class system of D&D. Warhammer Fantasy RPG was especially good in comparison, with something like a 100 different professions a person could adopt, in a thousand different career arcs that still had requirements along the way, just like IRL.
Still, D&D introduced me to roleplaying, which transformed my pre-teen and teen years.
Just for the record, there are currently 106 different “professions” (AKA subclasses) in D&D 5E, and with multiclassing - thousands of them.
Of course, those aren’t really professions; they’re skillsets. A profession is what your character does, not what your character is. Giving rules for actual careers is restricting, IMHO, and should be left to roleplaying.
While I found online play to be an acceptable substitute, I really missed face-to-face interactions and was happy to resume in-person gaming late last year. But it’s a great option to have, especially if you’re all scattered to the four winds.
My problem with Warhammer Fantasy RPG is that I want to be the knight riding a griffin, not a tax collector or a rat catcher with a small but vicious dog.
The career rules were light, and very much not restricting. One could easily not give a rat’s ass about their career “restrictions”, if wanted so. In contrast, the multitude of careers was a boon for story development.
I’m in a couple of local groups, and we’ve gotten back to playing face-to-face, but I’m also in two groups (including my original group from 40 years ago) in which the players are scattered across several states; being able to play via Discord or Roll20 has allowed me to play with those groups every couple of weeks, as opposed to a couple of times a year (which was the norm with them, pre-COVID).
I feel like role playing is harder for me via online. No visual feedback from other people at the table and no ability to physically emote (no cameras). I wind up becoming much more mechanical in my playing and less social/RP oriented.
I’m sure some other people love it that way or no visual audience means fewer inhibitions but it’s a fair part of why I prefer in-person play.
For me, it’s more a matter of how, if it’s a regular group you know real well, verbal cues are usually enough. Although we all have cameras, and keep them on throughout just in case.
