DIE, TWENTY!

[athelind]

It has come to my attention that many D&D players spend a great deal of time, energy and effort complaining about core concepts in the system: Alignment, Class, Level, the Magic System, incompatibility between optional rules sets, and even things that exist at the setting level rather than the mechanical level, such as the perponderance of monsters

Comments

Hear hear!

[breimh]

Personally, I'm more inclined to play with the IronClaw RPG system that Sanguine Games has come out with, rather than d20 (or more specifically, D&D); because it's more streamlined for setting up the basics of the character you want, without hammering your character into a set mold of "this is what your capable of, and this is what you'll be capable of, as you advance in level". You streamline your character as to what you want the character to focus on, rounding them out as an individual who can both mesh with the group dynamics, and grate against the rest of the adventuring/RP party, too.

At least we have a large group of players in the region where I live, now, who do enjoy games other than D&D and the d20 system in general... otherwise, I would definately be in misery. However, I do feel it's only fair to state that the big reason a lot of players only whine about d20, and not change to something else, is that for many areas/retailers, d20 is all you can find in the stores. Unfortunately, this means that if you play something else, you have to buy it from online, which many are still unwilling to do because it requires a credit card... which they a. don't have, b. have maxed out their line of credit and therefore can't purchase anything with said credit card, or c. are too young to aquire or establish a line of credit anyway.

I'd also like to note that my own problem with 3E isn't the issue of taking out what I don't like, it's that they've revamped so much of what I did enjoy in the older versions of the game, to make it less threatening for even more seasoned adventurers and experienced players, that there's now nowhere near the challenge that there used to be in the RPGs that I'd play and/or run. Sure, beefing up the monsters and villains a bit isn't necissarily fair to the players, but when all they're doing is waltzing through a dungeon with no real interacting, hacking and slashing away at dozens of different creatures for a four hour session, and coming away with loads of horde but no battle-scars or real tales to tell except "We cleared the Tomb's of Gargantua in under 4 hours!" then it's just as well everyone go play video games instead. It's about the same entertainment level for a lesser price, considering one game is often less than one RPG book, these days.

I miss the days I could find players who were willing and able to go bargain hunting for that elusive Dr. Who boxed set, or the rare Call of Cthulhu RPG books; rather than they do today. I'm tired of players of coming to a game with only D&D3E books, when you've already said that the game would be BESM. And then they whip out the BESM d20 book, instead of the standard game books you and (maybe) a couple of others bothered to locate and purchase, still expecting to be able to play the game with those.

There ARE other game systems out there than the d20 system, and they ARE played!

*steps down from the soapbox*