I’ve been quite busy at work lately, hence the lack of posting here over the past month. But thankfully, I’ve managed to keep up with my gaming (more or less).
1. It looks like the Mythras campaign I’m in, Beyond the Mountains of Madness, will soon be reaching its climactic conclusion – and my character, the palaeontologist Dr. Klaas Klassen, is running dangerously low on tenacity (only 5 out of 14 points left)!
2. The Greyhawk campaign I’ve been running for the past couple of years has concluded. I’m very happy with how this campaign went. It was a lot of fun! But that fun was due to the colourful player characters, non-player characters, adventures (mainly T1 and surrounding areas), and ‘Gygaxian’ Greyhawk setting. The system itself – 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons – is one that I plan to never use again* (despite drawing heavily upon its superior ‘old school’ variant, Into the Unknown). It’s hard for me to put into words how much I came to dislike this system while running it (although I would still take it any day over the horror that was 3e D&D). But I still had a blast with the campaign, which just goes to show how important it is to game with fun people. I plan to finish up the log posts for the campaign over the next month or so.
3. My sporadic Against the Darkmaster (VsD) campaign set in Third Age Eriador (Middle-earth) is still going. (It’s the “alternative” game for my Mythras group.) Hopefully we will have our second session tonight.
4. I’m still working on my Ukrasia setting for my forthcoming VsD campaign. I should have some additional posts about this setting in the very near future.
Game on!
* Note: Despite my dislike for the “standard” D&D 5e system, I remain quite fond of the Adventures in Middle-earth system based upon it (and ran a great campaign using it). The updated version, Lord of the Rings RPG, looks even better. I would be happy to run a campaign using the LotR system in the future. So, I will not be unloading my 5e rulebooks quite yet…
Have you ever played MERP? Is there any reason to use Against the Darkmaster instead of the original game?
ReplyDeleteYes! See: https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2021/09/merp-resurrected-against-darkmaster.html
DeleteWhat is it about 5e that makes it so dislikeable for you to run?
ReplyDeleteIn previous posts I've mentioned my dislike for the 5e magic system (https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-unmagical-magic-of-5th-edition.html) and its system of 'rests' (https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/06/rest-and-recovery-in-into-unknown.html).
DeleteTo those complaints I'd add that I'm not a fan of the 5e combat system. 5e D&D is structured in a way that presupposes frequent but (normally) non-risky combats. And the combat system itself is not that flavourful. I prefer rare but risky and colourful combats -- something you find in "Mythras" (and BRP games in general) and "Against the Darkmaster" (and RM-derived games in general). While not nearly as bad as 3e was, 5e combats can be slogs. Although the TSR/OSR versions of D&D don't have overly exciting or flavourful combat systems, at least they are fast (and usually more risky).
All that said, I think that "Into the Unknown" greatly ameliorates the problems I had with 5e, so thanks very much for creating it! And perhaps I would more enjoy running a "pure" ItU campaign with some of the "gritty" options it provides. (The campaign I ran ended up being a hybrid "standard" 5e and ItU one, as I didn't want to take away the special abilities, etc., that the characters already had acquired by the time I decided to switch).
I also very much like the version of 5e that is realized in the "Adventures in Middle-earth" and "Lord of the Rings" RPGs. Of course, they incorporate a version of the "gritty realism" option ("long rests" are possible only in safe areas, and even "short rests" require full nights) and wholly replace the D&D magic system. So AiME/LotR feel entirely different than "standard" 5e D&D. (I ran a AiME campaign a few years ago and really enjoyed it.)
I must say- being into Rolemaster derived games but worrying about combat slogging seems a bit odd to me. Further, AD&D combat is also a serious slog as you level, as bad as 5th edition. However, I think many people have forgotten over the decades how 3e actually plays out. In an actual campaign lasting at least 10 levels, starting at level 1 (and actually playing with 75% of the rules in AD&D, which nobody does)I think most people would be reminded that 3e is very fast and quite deadly. Yeah it gets weird and very finnicky as you add all of the supplements, especially the later ones, but that isn't worth doing. On a sidenote, I think something else lost to time is how influenced by Rolemaster and Runequest 3rd edition D&D was. Its like a blend of AD&D, Combat & Tactics, Rolemaster and Runequest.
ReplyDeleteCombat in Rolemaster (and related games) does take a long time but what happens during combat is vivid and dramatic (thanks primarily to the colourful critical hit descriptions). So it’s entertaining even if it takes a while. In contrast, I find D&D combat usually dull and often a grind (chipping away at blocks of hit points).
DeleteI DMed two 3e campaigns (each lasting about a year) back in the day and came up loathe the combat system. Perhaps it is different from the perspective of the players. In both groups, the players didn’t come to dislike the system the way I did.
I agree about the influence of RM on 3e D&D especially the way that classes work with skills, the “higher is always better” uniform mechanic, and the like. I remember thinking: ‘3e D&D is RM with a d20 instead of a d100, and without any cool critical hits.’ I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Monte Cook was one of the designers, as he had previously worked for ICE.
You make a good point about DM vs player perspective. I like combat in 1e-3e D&D, but I don't love it. My players really like it, especially 3e. I think we have too much in our heads as DMs as far as the vibe we want to put out there, how we want the players to feel, what we want combat to illicit, rather than just letting the players have their own interpretations of what they want and how things should be.
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