Companion.
If you’re counting the “Player’s Option” books as “2.5E”, then wouldn’t the “Essentials” books count as “4.5E”?
I guess. I wasn’t trying to be stringent about it; just to indicate that 4E wasn’t the fourth, and 5E won’t be the fifth. The exact figure (7,8,9,10) doesn’t really matter.
I also think of an edition “1.5” in the early 80s with Unearthed Arcana and the Guides (e.g. MotPlanes, Wilderness SG, Dungeoneer’s SG, etc.)
My old server on everquest (veeshan) had a lot of GMs who ran all sorts of newbie events and end game random encounters and events was pretty fun.
I imagine that in the not too distant future, MMOs will offer instances of static worlds that can be manipulated by a GM. Right now it would be too expensive but I bet in a few years you could rent an instance for a reasonable enough price that small groups of players could afford it.
3.5 Edition Barbarian and Warblade are good newbie classes, but the Fighter is both weak and too dependant on uninformed choices. Play a Barbarian and you get some good class features. Play a Warblade and you can pick some maneuvers, all of which are good. Play a Fighter and you might screw yourself by accidentally picking bad bonus feats.
Though, the one slightly misleading thing about that list is that, in the late 70s and 80s, D&D (represented in that list by the Basic and BECMI entries) and AD&D were two separate and distinct game systems (I don’t think I knew anyone who played both), and AD&D got the lion’s share of TSR’s support.
This is what did it for us. When 3.0 came out we were unsure about it,having so much earlier edition stuff. Then one of us got a copy of the new PHB and as soon as we saw the new attack and save rolls we were all
“OK, yes, this makes sense and is clearly a better idea.”
I just came across a bag of dice and one of my old characters while moving…AD&D Baby!!!
Yeah, but you’d still be limited by the toolbox provided to you by the developer, unless you’ve got some animation and scripting skills under your belt. In my last Pathfinder campaign, one climactic battle took place in a magically constructed tower that slipped off its foundations and began rolling down a steep hill, with the PCs (and a pack of monsters) still fighting it out inside. I don’t see any MMO ever offering enough flexibility to do that as part of an out-of-the-box experience.
Probably not.
Me, I’m planning a set-piece that involves an octopus hacker and his friends chasing a mad scientist through an episode of a My Little Pony parody. In space.
Definitely not. 
Wasn’t that the plot of one of the Final Fantasy games?
It actually came out quite some time ago, in the form of Neverwinter Nights. However, from third hand accounts, it seems that running a game using the dungeon toolset in NVN took a really really long time, for the DM to setup and during the game itself.
If it hasn’t been yet, it probably will be eventually. Full disclosure: I expect one or more of the PCs will, at some point, wield a sword bigger than they are.
You d do something like this in City if Heroes using the Mission Architect. A “GM” could createa campaign for a group of players one mission (quest) at a time. In fact there is enough sword and sorcery in the game that you could event keep it strictly fantasy.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m unaware of any infinite loops in the game, and there’s no system for creating your own (non-epic) spells - there are guidelines for the GM to figure out what level a new spell should be, is that what you mean?
There are a handful of infinite loops in the game (simplest example: Gating in a powerful outsider which has a Gate ability, and having it use its ability to bring in another one, etc.), but they’re rare enough to not really have any impact on balance.
I have a prepared solution for Gate loop scenarios (which have come up in other games, especially with certain house rules).
DM: Sure, you can do that. Demon 1 gates in Demon 2, which is now under Demon 1’s control.
Would-be clever PC: Uhhhh…
DM: It doesn’t attack you, since you control Demon 1.
PC: <whew> Okay, I tell Demon 2 to gate in Demon 3.
DM: Demon 2 gives you a contemptuous “You’re not the boss of me” look.
PC: Talking is a free action. I can still do this. Okay, I tell Demon 1 to tell Demon 2 to gate in Demon 3.
<lots of iterations later>
PC: I order Demon 1 to attack the castle, pass the attack order to his subordinate, and order his subordinate to pass all of these orders on to his subordinate.
DM: Okay, the first three demons attack the castle. The fourth faces away from the castle and starts backing toward it. The fifth attacks one of your noble patron’s vassals…the twentieth disappears for a moment, then reappears with a greasy white paper bag redolent with the smell of meat and onions, which he hands to the nineteenth…the thirtieth begins piling up pinecones…
PC: WTF?
DM: Ever played “Telephone”?
A clever player can short-circuit it, but it’s fun, nonetheless.
Just moved into a new place - I have my 5 file boxes of Runequest II materiel about to be put back in duty with the old gang. The campaign I have run off & on (off for the last decade or so) has characters that people have had for 30 years…
It’s not an infinite loop. Gating in a creature for a non-contractual service has a maximum duration of one round per caster level, so it’s only an infinite loop if your caster level is infinity. Assuming a twentieth level caster, at round 21, your gated demon goes away, and you’ve suddenly lost your chain of command and have 19 demons that don’t answer to you.
It’s not an infinite loop if the DM says it isn’t.