D&D

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

It's been a long time since I posted about D&D, so I thought it might be fun to give an update.  My current campaign has been going on for a couple of years now, after the last one (which went from levels 1 right up to 20, whew!)  Currently my players are level 7, and they're now piloting giant undead beasts as they go to explore an abandoned city... had a lot of fun with my 3D printer and TinkerCAD, and made these simple little shapes to build out the city!  (I didn't bother to paint them... maybe for next time I'll give them a quick spray.  Also maybe put little magnets on the bottom so they stick where I put them.)

[Tric’hard Lenxheir]

It's been a long time since I posted about D&D, so I thought it might be fun to give an update.  My current campaign has been going on for a couple of years now, after the last one (which went from levels 1 right up to 20, whew!)  Currently my players are level 7, and they're now piloting giant undead beasts as they go to explore an abandoned city... had a lot of fun with my 3D printer and TinkerCAD, and made these simple little shapes to build out the city!  (I didn't bother to paint them... maybe for next time I'll give them a quick spray.  Also maybe put little magnets on the bottom so they stick where I put them.)

I recently started playing the paper and dice version of D&D again, I'm having fun but after not having played in about 30 years I am finding that I don't remember how a lot of things work and a lot has either changed or the DM I worked with 30 years ago sort of made up some of his own rules LOL

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Yeah, the new edition is much much different from previous ones.  I really love the 2024 version, the so-called "5.5e," though.  We've been playing with it since it came out, and there's only a few weaknesses (like the rules for hiding).  It's the most balanced edition I think I've played.  In early editions, martial characters were all better at low levels but then became completely outclasses by magic characters, and even 5e had some classes that were just bad.  Now it's pretty much only rangers that aren't balanced with others (they suck still).

I don't even have to use very many house rules.  My D&D website's "house rules" page has like three things on it.

[Tric’hard Lenxheir]

Yeah, the new edition is much much different from previous ones.  I really love the 2024 version, the so-called "5.5e," though.  We've been playing with it since it came out, and there's only a few weaknesses (like the rules for hiding).  It's the most balanced edition I think I've played.  In early editions, martial characters were all better at low levels but then became completely outclasses by magic characters, and even 5e had some classes that were just bad.  Now it's pretty much only rangers that aren't balanced with others (they suck still).

I don't even have to use very many house rules.  My D&D website's "house rules" page has like three things on it.

I think we are playing 5e, for reference the last time I played 2nd edition was brand new LOL

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Yeah, the new edition is much much different from previous ones.  I really love the 2024 version, the so-called "5.5e," though.  We've been playing with it since it came out, and there's only a few weaknesses (like the rules for hiding).  It's the most balanced edition I think I've played.  In early editions, martial characters were all better at low levels but then became completely outclasses by magic characters, and even 5e had some classes that were just bad.  Now it's pretty much only rangers that aren't balanced with others (they suck still).

I don't even have to use very many house rules.  My D&D website's "house rules" page has like three things on it.

I think we are playing 5e, for reference the last time I played 2nd edition was brand new LOL

I think I started with 2e, too.  It wasn't bad.  One of the greatest video games of all time, Baldur's Gate 2, uses that ruleset.  And it's iconic in a lot of ways with THAC0 and all of that.

One particularly nice thing these days is that it's free to get started.  The basic rules are published online: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/br-2024

Of course, that doesn't have a lot of good stuff like other subclasses or the flavor text, but it's enough to get you started... no more using ragged photocopies of your buddy's book!

[Sir Lüc]

Yeah I am much more into D&D now than I was when it was last mentioned around these boards I think. I had a pretty tepid first approach with it (for sure being too awkward to act out/rp much was a factor), but getting Baldur's Gate 3 was a terrific gateway drug. Albeit of course not all of the rules translate 1:1 - for instance, we were all recently surprised when we found out you can't actually cast a spell as an action and another BA spell like Misty Step as a BA.

My best friend DMs for us; it started off with our core group (me, his now-wife, my sister and another friend) and we did a few campaigns (all max level 7) a couple years ago, but we're too scattered around to meet regularly and nowadays we mostly do one-shots whenever @Erschéveþ da Schir is back from Germany. My friend and his wife still regularly do campaigns with another group though, and much like AD he's also gone on an absolute 3D printing binge recently, so I'm looking forwards to taking advantage of all the new pieces.

One-shots still work for me tbh, because there's more room for experimentation - in our last one, I played as a barbarian for the first time, after usually playing wizard or cleric, and it was loads of fun. It would be nice to have regular occasions to schedule a campaign though.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

BG3 is such a fantastic game, and really the best facsimile for a real game that you could find.  I'm glad that it's gotten you into it... I've been working to getting an Honour Mode resist Dark Urge game done, saving all of the gnomes and everything, but keep coming up short.

One-shots are great, but there's such a limit on developing your character.  You come in with a concept and bounce off of the plot and other characters, but they don't get to change and grow, you know?  In my current game, we're about to hit the climactic moment they've been building towards for more than a year (we're thirty-two sessions in, from level 1 to level 7) and it's been so fun to watch them evolve.

If I did another Zoom one-shot, would that interest you?  I haven't done much Zoom DMing since the pandemic, but I am sure I still have the chops and dndbeyond has a decent map tool.