There’s just one point of clarification I’d like to make about people who are interested but unfamiliar with the 3rd edition of D&D. While the rulebook, which is called the System Reference Document (SRD), is available online - DeadlyAccurate pointed out the excellent unofficially maintained hypertext version - it isn’t a rulebook in the sense that it’s what you should read to learn the game.
Generally the better approach by far is to sit down with someone friendly who knows the rules well and have them walk you through a few things; some light character generation, interaction with non-player characters (NPCs), skill use, and a sample combat, for example. The system’s broad strokes are pretty easy to grasp; what the rulebook is primarily for is for dealing with all those little problems that show up all too often when you’re dealing with complicated situations (“Okay, while steadying my horse with my knees, I kick off, spring through the obscuring bushes, and try to knock the knight off of his warhorse.”) so if you try to read it as a primer, it’ll be tough going. Especially since the public domain version strips out all of the examples and illustrations (they have to sell books somehow!)
There was another online game run through here a year or so ago. Wasn’t strictly D&D, though it was based off of it. Was a lot of fun. Unforunately several of the players had RL issues pop up, and we couldn’t continue.
That said, I’m interested if we can find another GM. I don’t have the time to do it myself, or I’d volunteer. I’ve played D&D old school box set, first ED AD&D, 2nd ed, and a tiny smattering of 3rd. I like a good mix of interaction, combat, and puzzles. Like Mind gamer, I like to develop a concept for a character first, then work everything around that. I’m definately not a power-gamer, min-maxer type. I’ve played all sorts of things in the past, a honorable, but not very bright, samurai. A kender vampire(Don’t ask, it was kinda fun but not good long term). A human wizard with a nasty past(turns out he was half demon…the GMs idea more than mine), etc etc. I can adapt to pretty much anything thrown at me.
On the topic of how/where to play…I’ve done IRC, and 2 programs designed for online gaming. One was web based(that I can’t remember the name of), so nothing was required of the players other than logging into a website. The other was Fantasy Grounds(http://www.fantasygrounds.com/). That one seemed pretty good, though you had to pay for it and it was kinda buggy at the time. From what I understand, its since been patched, but haven’t had a chance to try it out. But I’m flexible when it comes to how we play really, though message board based doesn’t sound all THAT appealing to me.
Me. I’m a longtime and current 3rd edition player and am comfortable DMing. I don’t have any of the 3.5 books, however, and can’t see shelling out $100+ to get into them at this point. That wouldn’t hurt me from a player’s standpoint probably, but it would hamper me as a DM if everyone else was a hardcore 3.5 rules junky.
For info, ronin’s campaign is full and glee is not on board. (A shame, I’d’ve liked to see what a pro played like! ) Couple of other dudes got there first.
It’s very sweet of you to mention it, but I can only claim to be a professional chess teacher. My job does include running D+D games for pupils , but I’m sure that many SDMB posters have great roleplaying expertise.
Of course I did once criticise Gary Gygax’s refereeing in the UK roleplaying final :eek: - but we were all young once!
While I’m still interested, I’m in the process of one of those annoying life transitions right now, and I don’t yet know how long it’s going to last. This is a huge problem with scheduling, I’m well aware. If you’re still willing to have me despite scheduling uncertainties (and the player bio I posted earlier), I’ll give it a go.
Anyone whose job includes getting paid to run or play D&D you git counts as a pro in my book, and Gygax, inventor of the hideously underpowered 1st Edition monk, hideously overpowered 1st Edition bard, and the Unearthed Arcana cavalier, barbarian, drow, and too much else to count - all the while insisting that he and he alone best understood his game and what would work within its parameters - is ripe for criticism from all and sundry.
I agree about the bard (one player chose one in an early campaign, and spent years regularly depowering it).
Ah the Cavalier! This was the only class ever rejected after just a single reading by every single player + DM in our group.
I managed to pull off a fine trick at that time by introducing a friend of mine to the group as an experienced player. He’d never actually played, but produced a typically overblown Cavalier. (“They’re all the rage in Bishops’ Storford” was his ‘script’ )There was a long silence as the lads tried to think of a polite way to reject the character without hurting the player’s feelings!
We rewrote both the Barbarian and the Drow and managed to get a playable class eventually.
I told Gary in front of the 250 people in the audience that he was faking a die roll (and proved it!). Strangely I came last in the final…
You know, he could have just written “A lot of Kung Fu and Enter the Dragon fans have asked if it’s possible to play a monk in AD&D. The answer is: no” and it would have come to much the same. I mean, a character class in which just about everything is a giant steaming turd…
Mind you, I had a high-level bard who got into a spot of bother with some fire giants. They were in an anti-magic chamber… and when none of your magic items are working, it doesn’t take long even for 1st Edition fire giants to munch through 140 hit points.
Yes. “Here’s an assortment of game-busting special abilities bordering on the god-like. Oh, but to get to play this class, you have to adhere to a code of behaviour that means you must show off a lot.” :rolleyes:
Say it ain’t so!
Then there were the truly awesome punching, grappling and overbearing rules. :smack: Still, at least the “Random Prostitute Encounter Table” was quite funny.
Btw, we seem to have had a few players fall by the wayside in the campaign. Try asking ronin if there’s still room for joiners - we’re not much past the pre-title sequence as yet.
I played AD&D 2nd Ed for about 5 years, and then switched over to Shadowrun (which had more of an emphasis on gunplay) , and ran several games via E-mail and Yahoo Groups (never via messageboard or chat, though).
It was a lot of fun, and I thought about getting involved in more Shadowrun stuff, but ultimately… the spark wasn’t there anymore, I guess.
Still, I hope the AD&D Quest works out! They can be very rewarding when done online, as long as everyone behaves themselves…
I’m not a power gamer nor a rules mechanic. At times, I will ask for a ruling or clarification because I like to try different things with characters and such, not that I try to break up a campaign.
I was in a hero (?) campaign where we started at level 10 with all multiclases and species open. The DM had us make the characters separately so there was no picking races for the combination in the group. The characters were a half-angel, half-human sorceror, some freakish wizard, both of who had some very cool magic items (some stones rotating around the half-angel’s head that could be used as saves or something, it was a long time ago), and my character. A gnome subclass, the svirfneblin (you know I spelled that wrong), that was a fighter/foresaker. The fighter got me some nice feats while the foresaker sees all magic as evil and gains great power from destroying magic items and hunting down magic users. The look on the other players’ faces when my character was introduced was priceless
Come to think of it, the last few characters I have played have all be anti-magic, though the foresaker was the only one to turn it into his own subquest. I had a young monk who believed that magic was a shortcut to powers that he could achieve through discipline and meditation, but it was okay if others used it.
) Couple of other dudes got there first.
)There was a long silence as the lads tried to think of a polite way to reject the character without hurting the player’s feelings!