A group of friends and I just started 4th edition recently, we are all new to the hobby, and I will sum it up in one statement:

It fucking rocks!

I wish I had found it years ago! I am DM'ing, we are running Shadowfell, and I beefed up the cultist activity and am including a lot of kidnappings, blackmailings, and sacrifices.

Any other D&Ders?

Oh, PS, hail Satan!

Congratulations for finding the world of PnP!

I havent played 4th edition rules myself, but ive understood that generally 3.5ed rules are thought of as superior. Especially if you buy Pathfinder to supplement it - has some very good tweaks to rules here and there.

Personally though, ive always been more into good old 1 edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Cyberpunk 2020 and 3ed Shadowrun. Got lots of books in the corners, but frankly just dont have time to play them - maybe later when the kids grow up:

Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, Vampire the Masquerade ...but also a bit more obscure ones like Tremulus (lost collectors HC book in train, but luckily got atleast the ebook still..), Numenera and Stalker PnP (highly recommend this one).

Anyways, suppose ive grown up a bit or something, but my mind is moving from the traditional D&D rollplaying into Tremulus/Stalker like more "grown up" rpg'ing.

Have fun throwing the dice ;)

1st edition for life

I find these system wars silly. It's all essentially the same, if you like parts of 3.5 better than 4, add them! I myself have already drawn from Dungeons World in our campaign, and I plan on adding a bit of Dogs in the Vinyard in there as well.

If this was posted on the TTRPG forum I frequent, people would've assumed you were trolling and called you names. (That goes for iippo and dr.zli, too.) On GOG, I have to assume it's true. So have fun and good luck.

Inb4 Edition wars...


But I agree, play 1st or 2nd ed. 3rd and 4th have all the creativity crushed out of them.

I started with two friends a year before 4E came out. Two years later we found out another friend of ours played 4E with a group of his friends, and we invited them to play with us, even though we played 3.5. I like the balance of 4E and the skill system, but vastly prefer the variability in builds and play of 3.5, so we changed the skill system and mostly play with homebrew classes that are more balanced. It makes for some very interesting play, and the roleplay parts are especially amazing, as the players tend to go more against one another than against one specific enemy. :)

I've even brought together a lot of homebrew classes for 3.5 under a Tier system so that I can tell my players what balance point I'd like to go for for a specific campaign. It can be found here.

Even if you're not interested in 3.5 itself, that forum, Giant in the Playground, is great for any fans of DnD and PnP in general.There's also people organizing little tournaments and servers for games, but mostly just for Steam games though.

Does Baldur's Gate count?

I play two 3.5e campaigns and run one of my own. I do love it, but I am also quite annoyed at people playing their character classes rather than the characters themselves. As DM, I am and will continue trying to flesh out player characters through proxies (the environment, NPCs, skill checks, reactions to things etc.) in hopes that they will start doing so themselves at some point, and perhaps even begin interacting with each other for no other purpose than itself. Most of us have a background of wargaming, miniatures or MMORPGs where killing is pretty much the only way to get shit done, and I'm afraid that these things also hold the players' imagination back, reducing their characters to the personality and dynamics of chess pieces.

I liked AD&D 2nd Edition the best, but I also like how fluid 4th makes combat
It's like the console-ized version of D&D.
And you're right, P&P RPGs rock. It's too bad that people pre-judge so many things (anime, RPGs, 'kiddie' games, etc) without trying them.
It's a fun social thing to do with a group of friends.

I've been playing since the 70's.

big fan of AD&D 1e, partly because I got started as it was coming out, but I've played all the editions, Pathfinder, and about 40 other systems.

I've had fun with them all, it's more about the people than the system, but 4e just doesn't feel like D&D to me. It feels like an RPG, but more like one derived from an MMORPG than previous editions of D&D.

My friends and I use to play 3.5, but we stopped playing for a whole range of reasons.
I did buy the starter books for 4th, and I do intend to try playing alone at some point, but it just falls to finding the time to play, even alone.
I have looked at the Roll20 site, but I am yet to truly commit to trying it out properly.

It's a good time, isn't it. :D

I started with AD&D back in 99 or 2000. But I didn't get really into it until around 2006 or so with 3.5 rules.

I personally think that 3.5 rules adds a lot of fun variability, but 4th edition gives some classes more activity than the 3.5.

For instance, in 3.5, a mage often sits in the background and hides if he's out of spells. In 4th edition, he's never out of spells. I like that aspect of keeping everyone moving.

Anyhoots, I hope you have many good years of playing. My recommendations for keeping the game fun are:

1: Don't discuss it much outside of when you play
2: Don't play more than once or twice a week
3: Don't let in-character feuds become real-life

Reasoning:

1: DnD has the potential to put a false friendship in place of a real one because the game can be so exciting and engrossing. Keep talking about real things in real life with real people.

2: There's lots to see and do in this world. Fantasy is awesome, but reality is great, too.

3: Things can occasionally get feisty between characters -- especially with a great DM. When the game is done, the game is done. Everyone can be friends.


My experiences:

1: I knew some guys who lost all of their friends. They were all DnD guys. And they all thought they were friends. The only thing they ever talked about was DnD. I was one of the friends who left the group. Eventually, a group of 4 discovered that they had no real friends, just playmates.

2: I knew some guys (guess which 4) whose entire college experience was DnD. I'm not even entirely sure they graduated.

3: A dude pulled a knife on me because my character did something that he didn't like. Guess who didn't play with that group again? Also, I once DMed a campaign where secret dreams were vital to the plot. Everyone thought they were out to get each other, but everyone was really trying to save one another. They just couldn't reveal their information or they were all doomed. I generated a lot of suspicion and a bit of real hate with that one. Oops.


Anyhoots, have fun!

I enjoy RPG-like board games more. Like Descent for example. You have that awesome monster miniatuers and everything... There are different scenarios.

Lately I am playing Legends of Andor with friends, which is awesome as well. There's less role playing there, but it's easier to find people to play it.

Seriously not trolling. 1st ed was my first ever serious dnd experience. Only other system I played before was rolemaster and I didn't like it that much. I am looking through the rose tinted glass ofc but 1st ed is a fond memory of my childhood. Did it have flaws? Sure it did, but for me it was magical ;)