+-----------+--------+--------+--------------------------------+ | Player | Monday | Sunday | Notes | +-----------+--------+--------+--------------------------------+ | Alex (me) | M20 | M20 | Dislikes lots of rules | | Marcel | D&D | – | Likes tactical combat | | Moni | D&D | D&D | Likes character creation but | | | | | dislikes the looking up of | | | | | rules at the table | | Marco | D&D | D&D | Likes character | | | | | differentiation on a | | | | | mechanical level | | Dani | either | – | Likes how M20 allows you to | | | | | play more because there are no | | | | | rules to look up | | Zeno | ? | – | Dislikes lots of rules | | Claudia | – | M20 | Dislikes character creation | | | | | and dislikes lots of rules | | Adrian | – | D&D | Likes rules | | James | D&D | – | Sceptical about M20 | | Florian | – | ? | Appears to like rules | | Thiago | – | ? | Doesn’t show up often enough | | | | | to make a difference | +-----------+--------+--------+--------------------------------+
(Yeah, I *think* that those players that didn’t speak out yet like M20 because haven’t complained yet. But I want to make sure. 😄)
It reminds me of Robin’s The evolution of D&D – where he says:
3e D&D: Designed to be fun for the player (but a planning and preparation headache for the GM)
#RPG #thoughts #M20
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Indeed.
My problem is that my players adore Mutants & Masterminds, and can’t understand why I’ve even been willing to consider 4e D&D - which they like too, but more as a Minis game rather than a full rpg. I don’t want to go back to 3e because 4e is *SO* much better for the GM. They like M20 too, but favour it for one-shot sessions rather than campaigns; overall they prefer a meatier rule set.
Based on what you’ve written about your player’s preferences, perhaps 4e would be the way to go as that’s got a good balance between tactical combat, simple in-play rules and great character generation. If you don’t mind using battlemats, of course.......... Alternatively, crack open that D&D Rules Cyclopedia 😄
I’m thinking of starting an all fantasy M&M campaign soon (perhaps online) in the meantime, and continuing our 4e sessions as a straightforward D&D Fight Club. We’ll see.
– greywulf 2008-10-14 13:30 UTC
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Hehe, D&D Rules Cyclopedia for the win!
I wonder what I’ll do now. I guess I was in some sort of denial phase. To me, the end of the last campaign around level 15 seemed to be a clear indication that we needed to move away from D&D. Too many dice were being rolled, too many buffs were being cast, too many magic items were being used, too many bonus types and spell effects had to be tracked. But apparently I was the only one to draw that conclusion. Maybe I just need a DM break. Good thing I’m going to spend three weeks in Costa Rica, soon! 😄
The coolest thing to happen would be somebody else volunteering as a DM. Then I could just play.
– Alex Schroeder 2008-10-14 15:09 UTC
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I think this was just a problem of the high level, and that we were not used to that. If I think about the Grenzmarken session I played (level 2 character), then we don’t have many dices to roll, not too many buffes to worry about, etc. Don’t you think this (beeing level 1 again) will make your life easy again, for at least one year?
– Marcel 2008-10-14 15:39 UTC
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Hehe, I like rules. I think that does sum up my gaming nature nicely 😄
– Adrian 2008-10-15 12:49 UTC
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Hehe. What would be the shortest possible sentence to characters my gaming nature? Hm... This morning I read the following on Zachary Houghton’s blog:
I don’t want hours spent on hair-splitting character builds. I don’t want reams of special powers for each player. I don’t want skills and rigid, mutiple modifiers to get in the way of player initiative and creativity. I want me as a GM (CK) and my players to remember when we made rulings, not remained bogged down in rules. This ties into time constraints, but I want a fast-play, unified mechanic. I want the standard tropes and hallmarks of our shared hobby heritage there, unwarped. I want strong character archetypes. I want player backgrounds to matter in the course of play. I want so much of what has made the Old School Renaissance of gaming so inspiring to me and others. Of course, many of these lie at the feet of each Game Master/Castle Keeper, and can happen in any game. But its still good to have an RPG that’s on your side about it. ¹
Unfortunately it’s a bit silly to define your gaming nature in terms of the things you **don’t** want. Hm... “Likes quick and simple rules.” It just doesn’t have a good ring to it.
– Alex Schroeder 2008-10-15 16:17 UTC