D&D 5th Edition

[Luddite]

I'm currently greatly enjoying the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and came across this inspired character sheet!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/map-based-5e-6889754

[DanJ]

Thanks for this, I played the original D&D and then AD&D at least once a week for about 10 years then stopped, nearly 30 years later I'm back playing 5th Edition and it's great fun. 

[toxicpixie]

If I was in the market for a "new" RPG to start fresh, I'd go for 5e. I was in the playtest stuff and it seemed like a nice blend of old school and new school. Traditional without being crap

As one of my groups is deeply wedded to 3.5 still (despite not having read any of the rules ), and my other are delving far afield in to all sorts (and we have two ongoing 4e campaigns anyway!), it's a bit pointless for me. Shame, as it looks very decent. And nice character sheet, VERY atmospheric

[Ithoriel]

Was never really happy with D&D, I found it's character classes and alignments, it's insistence on tying character advancement to exterminating the local wildlife and it's one-shot wizards (at least at low level) irksome.

My favourite system remains SPI's Dragonquest which allowed characters to mix and match abilities (I specialised in erudite psychopaths!) and rewarded active participation in the evening's session.

[toxicpixie]

I actively loathed AD&D/2nd Ed, for much the same reasons. 3rd was a welcome change (especially after a decade of thumping Rolemaster into a workable system), but it's long in the tooth now. It is what it is, and these days it's no longer my cup of meat. 5e has a charm similar to "Basic D&D", IMO and I'd be tempted by it if I started afresh

I do fancy 13th Age mind, which on a similar engine but looks very cool - sort of "on the fly", co-op world building as you go which involves the players every session from the ground up.

[Zippee]

Yep, 5ed has re-invigorated our group. Streamlined and fast paced beats the drudgery of 3ed or Mathfinder into a cocked hat.

IMO 5ed is essentially what 3ed (and possibly 2ed) should have been; and the world would be a better place if it had been. 

But we have a couple more sessions of SW to finish before we return to complete one D&D campaign - then maybe  a break before completing mine.

[toxicpixie]

Cracking, Zippeee! Also well done to your first time GM in Star Wars - sounds like it's belting along

[Zippee]

Cracking, Zippeee! Also well done to your first time GM in Star Wars - sounds like it's belting along

Yeah, he's doing really well and we're a pretty mixed bag as a group - covering most of the style axis from a roll-play fights only player through to a pure storytelling only one. It makes GMing a middle course quite the challenge.

SW is an odd system though, at once sleek and narrative driven and yet powered by an intrusive dice mechanic. Still he's our resident super-SW nerd so that holds it all together, the rets of us can't tell a bothan from a wookie so it's just cool space opera.

[petercooman]

I love D&D 5th!! Really nice adventure in the starter box too!

[Zippee]

The starter box is probably the best value RPG product, ever. It's considerably better than the SW ones - which are pretty good.

But Phandelver, despite a slightly ordinary start is a really good sand box region with a load of stuff going on, any of which can be expanded in any number of directions.

Rules, Campaign, PC portfolios, Stats, and dice all in one box sufficient for at least 12 good sessions and expandable. Extremely good value. The only thing missing would be miniatures.

[Ithoriel]

I invested heavily in the "Harn" background books. As to scenarios I had way too many of my own to ever bother with commercial ones.

[toxicpixie]

Ahhhh, Harn - cracking background, dangerously dangerous system. Promoted a lot of not fighting on the grounds fightin was a dangerous game

I'd be tempted by the stater set of 5e to plunder if I didn't have so much stuff to plunder I could never get through it. Let alone home brew stuff

Star Wars system - my group likes the d20 version. It's quite bad, but an Ewok with a cut down heavy blaster pistol makes mincemeat of the opposition!

[Ithoriel]

Ahhhh, Harn - cracking background, dangerously dangerous system. Promoted a lot of not fighting on the grounds fightin was a dangerous game

I'd be tempted by the stater set of 5e to plunder if I didn't have so much stuff to plunder I could never get through it. Let alone home brew stuff

Star Wars system - my group likes the d20 version. It's quite bad, but an Ewok with a cut down heavy blaster pistol makes mincemeat of the opposition!

Yeah tried a couple of sessions of "Harnmaster" and went back to Headdenquest (my home grown version of SPI's Dragonquest), when characters die from infected wounds more often than fatal sword thrusts or deadly arrow fire the pendulum has swung way too far to the "realism" side for my tastes.

My brief foray into the Star Wars RPG, as a character, saw a group of characters so amoral that the GM eventually caved and let us be Imperials rather than Rebels.

[petercooman]

The starter box is probably the best value RPG product, ever. It's considerably better than the SW ones - which are pretty good.

But Phandelver, despite a slightly ordinary start is a really good sand box region with a load of stuff going on, any of which can be expanded in any number of directions.

Rules, Campaign, PC portfolios, Stats, and dice all in one box sufficient for at least 12 good sessions and expandable. Extremely good value. The only thing missing would be miniatures.

Indeed, quality product there! I don't mind they didn't include the minis though. Makes it a super cheap entry point! Cost me only 17€ !!

[Luddite]

Yes 5th ed is very good.  The Tyranny of Dragons campaign is well worth it and just for sheer content and options, i recommend Storm Kings Thunder.

[DanJ]

I missed everything from AD&D to 5th so don't know how bad they were.  As so much in RPGs it depends on the DM & Players; we're very lucky in having a set of long standing friends non of whom are power gamers.

After 18 months of play we've got to 5th level; personally I think D&D is best between 5th and 9th level, lower than that party members can be killed by relatively low level incidents or unlikely dice combinations, higher than that the party becomes too powerful.

Also the DM is keeping magic in very short supply which helps prevent it dominating the campaign.

[FierceKitty]

No voices raised for RuneQuest? I always thought that looked pretty good.

[Fenton]

Runequest was excellent though it did fall apart a bit when Runelord were fighting runelords as everyones attack and defence were so high it was almost impossible to kill anyone

One of my favourites was MERP/Rolemaster ..Excellent system that could be used for anything...Nice set of modules and campaign settings released as well covering all of middle earth

I havent played Harn in about 30 years but remembering it being good

[toxicpixie]

Yeah tried a couple of sessions of "Harnmaster" and went back to Headdenquest (my home grown version of SPI's Dragonquest), when characters die from infected wounds more often than fatal sword thrusts or deadly arrow fire the pendulum has swung way too far to the "realism" side for my tastes.

My brief foray into the Star Wars RPG, as a character, saw a group of characters so amoral that the GM eventually caved and let us be Imperials rather than Rebels.

Yeah, Harn was a really nice idea but not great fun to play long term. "I am the heroic hero of heroicness, and, nope, wait, put the pen knife down, aaahhhhh a splinter! Get it away!" And this is coming from a man who played Rolemaster. Ahhh the heady days of stumbling over imaginary unseen deceased invisible turtles and breaking your hip. So many decapitations or bleed outs. Happy times.

"Amoral" - I once ran a mini-campaign in Basic D&D where the characters turned out to be... well, not only did they get the authorities after them, but they murdered the Thieves Guild agent who was carrying them out the city in a wagon. One of them just popped up AS THEY LEFT THE GATES and sliced his throat open, then beheaded him, then tossed it to the stunned militia on the gates before they rode off. They then managed to pillage and murder all the local humanoids and brigands, so were on the run from literally EVERYONE I could think off. This all occurred in about three sessions. I called it quits after that and juts described gruesome deaths for each of them

I missed everything from AD&D to 5th so don't know how bad they were.  As so much in RPGs it depends on the DM & Players; we're very lucky in having a set of long standing friends non of whom are power gamers.

After 18 months of play we've got to 5th level; personally I think D&D is best between 5th and 9th level, lower than that party members can be killed by relatively low level incidents or unlikely dice combinations, higher than that the party becomes too powerful.

Also the DM is keeping magic in very short supply which helps prevent it dominating the campaign.

AD&D is the worst of them, IMO

3rd ed (and all the 3.XX off shoots) was good - real breath of fresh air, quite innovative and relatively open system but had glaringly horrible assumptions at the roots which eventually killed it (and was also buried under a ton of power creep in attempts to "balance" things. and sell more books.). 4th suffered from terrible marketing angles initially and never quite recovered, which is a shame as the actual system is very robust (especially as you can effectively ignore the "tactical wargame" aspect if you want and run a very open and fluid game), and there's some superb campaign support for it - WotC really hit their stride with Gardemoore and the revamped Keep on the Borderlands/Chaos Scar series.

But Fifth is a nice step sideways - it's got more of the "charm" of old school early RPGs whilst (thus far) appearing to have decent mechanics that don't tempt to fiddling about or inconsistency I do like a good low magic game as well, but that's VERY hard to do in AD&D/3.XX, as characters are essentially their equipment list for the most part

FK - Runequest was awesome, but it's twenty five years since I really played it, as no one I knew wanted to! So I missed all the Heroquest stuff etc. We might be starting a full on Orlanthi under the Lunars game soon though. Sadly by soon, that's likely a year away... if you enjoyed it, have you seen Prince of Sartar?

http://www.princeofsartar.com/comic/introduction-chapter-1/

[Zippee]

I ran Rolemaster for several years - a mega campaign that finally saw the heroes slay their nemesis (it was all about an heirloom sword he'd nicked of a PC back in their early days) in front of his orc horde, deep under the Misty Mountains, as he was summoning a balrog - all very dramatic, unfortunately the dramatic, long leap and roll of 346 to kill the nemesis happened just that fraction of a round too late. The balrog had been summoned but not yet bound, oops major upset But really one of the most memorable scenes was the party larking around after a bit too much pipe weed, playing with casting light on moonlit lakes to see what happened as the water molecules drifted apart - or playing invisible snowball fights in the camp. It was an odd campaign

Loved Harn for the background - best stuff available in the 80s but the system was a non-starter, just too realistic, heroic fantasy needs a little bit of heroics. The background wasn't as gritty as the rules.

Never really fell for Runequest, probably because the local advocates were a little too vocal. And MERP/RM filled that D100 niche anyway without the bl**dy ducks!

I'm running Tyranny of Dragons now - well once we finish the SW and what not we'll get back to it. I ran it as a direct follow on to Phandelver, the green dragon and cult provide a nice link. One of the nice things we've found about 5ed is that mixing PC levels in the party isn't a game breaker. Two 5th level PCs connected the Phandelver group to the TOD group and by chapter 4 everyone's pretty much the same level without anything getting out of kilter. it's a very robust, sleek system.

Too many RPGs over too many years, and we haven't even touched on most of the systems, we had a great Traveller campaign with rotating GMs - the goal was really to leave the party on some kind of crisis cliff-hanger at the end of your session, the wackier the better. So the next GM had to come up with an explanation and a way out, great stuff