Embracing Absurdity: Where I am in Role-Playing Now
In 1993, I began role-playing at my friend’s kitchen table.
The game was “The All New, Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game”. We were
escaping Zanzer Tem’s dungeon, I was a dwarf (that was my class). My friend had
a large collection of AD&D and BD&D stuff, such as the Rule’s
Cyclopedia and many of the Mystara supplements. We went through the Keep of the
Borderlands and White Plume Mountain before ending up in the Hollow World. Elsewhere,
I began my own campaign using a box set called “The Haunted Tower” set in this
place called Thunder Rift. It was a great time.
However, even then we were waking up to how limited Basic
D&D was. As we expanded our game group, we eventually discovered Advanced Dungeons
& Dragons 2nd edition, and its wealth of options. I could be a
Dwarven Cleric, or a LG Paladin! Fighters got exceptional strength! There were
these things called “kits”. Most of those characters converted to 2nd
edition, and we never looked back. Of course, it wasn’t so clear-cut; there was
a large area of optional classes we homebrewed, mish-mashed rules from the RC,
and 1e and 2e books, and a heavy dose of Final Fantasy inspired ideas. Plus,
every cliché about 13 year olds playing D&D? We did them. However, by 1995,
we were firmly using 2nd edition as the backbone for those ideas,
not Basic.
As the years moved on, I found the things that drew me to
AD&D drove me nuts. Why were demi-humans limited in class choice, and
possible level? Why did Paladins require ONLY LG? Why were Druids so hard to
play? Why were fighters the only class that got an exceptional ability? The
games we played with grow more and more house-ruled, especially as Player’s
Options introduced rule-patches and new ideas that didn’t always move smoothly.
By 1999, I was ready for a change. Several of us has tried writing our own
systems, and I was part way through my “revised” Player’s Handbook project when 3e was announced.
3e was not the Godsend it sounds like it should be. In
college it got some play, but house-ruled 2e remained stubbornly our
game-du-jour until 3.5 came out in 2003. After that, 3e became the official
ruleset of D&D, but always with some reservations from some. Too many ingrained
habits remained. We were older too, and less tolerant of finicky rules. 3.5 promised
streamlining, but it’s very rules-heavy approach created new problems.
Exceptional Strength might have been strange, but at least it was easy to
adjust; creating high level NPCs and monster s was a 3e DM’s nightmare. High
level play broke down worse than 2e’s, and that was saying something! Prestige
classes, builds, and optional class abilities made the simple act of char-gen a
“do it before you come” event. By 2008, I was again worn out; despite several
successful games played and run.
4e, like 3e before it, promised clearer rules, simpler
mechanics, and balanced encounters. After 6 months though, it was NOT what we
wanted. Little came of it, and it was universally dropped amongst the group. We
strolled back to 3.5, willing to handle its warts when another savior came;
Pathfinder: 3.5 Evolved.
Pathfinder was great, in theory. It was solid, better
balanced than 3.5 and much closer to our brand of D&D than 4e was. A couple
of games came out of it, but external conflicts not related to game drew them
to a close. In the process, I came to a stunning revelation; I couldn’t tell
you with certainty what my PC was capable of anymore without his character
sheet and the core book to cross-reference. There was too many finicky bit;
talents and spell-like abilities; plus there were 3e, 3.5 and PF variants of
rules floating in my brain. In the end, PF was not the panacea for what ailed
me.
The walk-back continued when for a few games we again went
back to 2e. I never thought I’d do it. I had reviled its absurdities for over a
decade. I would never go back to the land of Thac0 and decreasing AC and
Exceptional Strength and differing XP charts. But looking again with fresh
eyes, the absurdities look quaint; almost charming. A fighter was a collection
perfectly picked feats and prestige levels; he was a dude with a sword. Even
with Thac0 math, combat moved quickly and smoothly. PCs asked to do innovative things
rather than fall back to feat lists and power-cards. I could gen up a high
level NPC in a half-hour tops. Conflicting schedules killed my experiment, but
it opened my eyes again to the quirkly fun of 2e.
It’s worth noting here in the narrative why the quirkiness
began to appeal. I had spent a decade amongst halfling monks, half-orc barbarians,
warforged artificers, drow warlocks, goliath druids, and other strange new
characters. Each was an amazing step forward in D&D. I DMed Eberron for
many years with its eccentric quirks like lightning rails and dino-riding
halflings. However, after that I found myself craving the traditional fantasy
of my youth. Dwarves were vaguely Scottish and greedy drunks; elves were mages,
and there were no races based on planar beings, golems, plants, or such. I
spent a long time avoiding Tolkien and embracing the stranger races and
classes; I was one of the few DMs who for a long time had anthropomorphic
turtles as a PC race! Eventually though, the freakshow wore itself out. I
wanted classic tropes back. Halflings were great thieves, but not wizards.
Humanity alone sought Paladinhood. I was even willing to re-embrace the much
hated level limit restriction (with some adjustments). I wanted Tolkien back.
It is here that my journey rests at where it began. I
rediscovered on a whim the simplistic joy of Basic D&D. I didn’t believe I
could ever go back to elves being a class (and all fighter/mages) and only
seven or so classes, but there I was, re-reading each page of my Rule’s
Cyclopedia (acquired much later after Basic and 2e were distant memories) with renewed
appreciation. It’s not perfect (thieves are woefully underpowered, for example)
but its inherently good, simple, and classic. That is where I am today; simple,
good, classic. I don’t want a huge character sheet of feats, skill points, and
so on. I want rules that are clean and easy to use, with few fiddly bits to
bust on in combat. And I want the classic archetypes represented. I want
goblins and liches and chromatic dragons. I am demoned out, and I want Chthulu
to take a holiday. Give me orcs and giants.
My love of the RC is only matched by its modern cousin;
Basic Fantasy RPG; a variant/clone of Basic with some modern flourishes (like
upwards AC and race/class split) that is as close to how I’d write a custom
D&D as I’ll ever find. Honestly, if I could find players for either; I’d
run them in a heartbeat. I also have D&D Next to look forward to; with its promise
of old-school goodness. Until then, I’ll sit here and dream of questing through
Thunder Rift again, slaying kobolds and gaining XP. Hand me those 3d6, I’m
calling the Elf…
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