I have a problem with D&D.

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Nox
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I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Nox »

Hi all. This may look like a complain post but I actually need help. Sorry if I write a lot since i'm a little pissed off.
Maybe i'm just bourning out, i dont know.
Lately i'm switching to a new RPG game, Symbaroum. For now i just read the core rulebook and so far I like it very much.
Well I thought a lot about the reason i'm starting to prefer symbaroum to D&D.
I'm not here to convince you to play this system, but I want your opinion on my problems with D&D.
Let me start off by saying I LOVE D&D. I truly love it. But lately i'm thinking that it is a mess.

Well actually there are a lot of problems with D&D (for what concerns me).
I'll make a short list here:
1) the ruleset is quite complex. I play (and played) D&D 3.0, 3.5 and 4e. Lately i'm taking a look at 5e. The problem with those system is that they are really rule heavy (4e and 5e tried to take a step back from rules, but still heavy imho, maybe with 5e we are going in the right direction). Even if I play D&D since I was 10 (now i'm 24) I still do not remember all the rules (I admit that when i used to play only one version of the system for a long time i almost knew all the rules in the book, but now i'm playing various system and edition so my brain started to mess things up).
2) Too much material. I mean, look at ravenloft. There are plenty of books that say the same thing over and over, and often I find my self looking for a single rule and i have to go through various book before i find answers. Me and my player are not english, and most of my player mostly use classic D&D material rather than material from ravenloft books. I struggle to use all the rules and the variations from ravenloft material. I try my best but i find that things like "Horror, fear and madness check" doesnt make the game cooler, for my group they are just a debuff for the players who are forced to act like crazy/scary/horrified. Maybe it's also my player's fault since I often have to state that their PC act in a certain way, expecially with failed horror check, where they tend to act normally even if they should act shocked.
3) D&D is so big and dispersive. I like the variety of monster, classes etc. But this maybe is too much. I also dont like at all the power playing component that come after that.
4) I love ravenloft, but it needs a lot of adjustment. A lot of Ravenloft interesting material are from 2e, and they have never been converted. This means a lot of work for the DM. I personally spend something like 4-8 hour on preparing each session, gathering information for monster, and expecially build spell casting enemies. In particular when I have to convert/reinvent some pre-generated spell caster enemy from a previous version (the most recent i've done is Isu from Touch of Death, she took me about 2 hours of searching to be converted in 3.5e).

I really like and apreciate the QtR zine, I also used- and took ispiration from- some of the ideas and concept in them, but that adds up to the bunch of material i'd like to work on.
I wish that ravenloft had his own system with all the material converted for the same unique system.

I'd really like to be able to merge all this stuff toghether and make it work, but from my perspective often it look like a mess. Maybe it's just my problem, but i dont know what to do.

As I said in the beginning i'm reading this system named symbaroum. It is simple. One single book for player, DM and setting, all in one. It's not a gigantic world. the map actually is quite small (the game states you can play outside this map and add your own content to the game ofc) but it is well detailed and it has some(really a few) expansion book which get more into detail for specific areas.
Now that i almost finished reading the system I realized that it is really a simple system, nothing new Tbh, just simple. That will allow me to focus on the story, on the events in game (DM doesnt even have to roll dice, and just to let you know I will miss rolling dices).
In D&D I spend a lot of time to build encounters, and I found myself without time to work on the plot, on the adventure itself. Also the symbaroum's system looks much more "balanced". Powerplaying is really low, if there is any. The game let players to play the way they want (there are no classes, and you chose the ability of your hero as you prefer to build your own concepts - Even if there are classic archetypes to give your character a standard route - warrior, duelist, rogue, etc- you are not forced to follow those standards.), but they are all quite balanced, there is no OP mages/clerics. In d&D everybody knows the Tier list and the power of spellcasters.

Another problem i'm facing is that I'm following canon adventure for Hexad (with revised timeline). So far I find the adventures boring. My player told me they are liking it, but I do not, and honestly I dont get how they like it, Maybe it's the flavour stuff i'm putting in every single session. The plot is quite simple without any kind of twist (at least for now). I understand that for the player it's interesting since they dont know what is going to happen, but it should be interesting for me aswell, even if I know what is going to happen. I'm playing touch of death at the moment and I find it boring as hell. I do not like the way it is, I do not like the enemies, nor I do like Npcs or encounters in general. The only NPC i actually like is ABU RATEP, that I hope my players will keep with them as esquire. Also the fact that Hexad force the players to travel this much doesnt allow them to get any contact, make any friend or foes at all. I'm seriously thinking about forcing all the event from the hexad in Darkon and play the rest of the adventure in it.
So far I noticed that the adventures are quite repetitive. There is always (for now at least) those vistani in troubles, PC must help them, the vistani read cards or do some gipsy stuff and get the players to a place where something strange (always involving murders or missing people) is happening. Wao. What a coincidence. Sorry, i'm a little pissed at the moment since the more I think about this and the more it annoys me :azalin: . Fun fact is my player actually enjoy the adventure even though it is almost the copy-paste of NOTWD with different enemies and different NPC, but the base of the adventure is almost the same. Someone is kidnapping people to make them zombie to rule the region (even though i flavored Notwd in a different way since i already knew that those two adventure were identical.
VIEW CONTENT:
I just made so that marais was in contact with people from muhar - to link the two adventures - and something happened that stopped this contact so marcel wanted to open a portal to muhar and he needed sacrifices.
. I dont know what is going to happen in the next few adventures, but I think i'm gonna cut short with this one and try to end by the next session as fast as I can. For now player did not face any moral dilemma, nor any though decision. they just had to make some investigation (really poorly written, so i had to make it up myself to make it interesting) and fight some random bad guy. They did not even hate the boss, they just killed it cause it was causing troubles. To me this is disgusting, :cry: .
Also i'd like to re-write all the hexad to fit my taste but the fact that I need to convert the enemies, traps and encounter in general from 2e to 3.5 usually steal me so much time that I do not have any time to adjust the plot in any way.

Probably one of my biggest problem is that player cannot feel at home anywhere in my campaign cause they know they will travel a lot and they will not have the chance to make friends and ally.
I cannot give them lands or title, nor I can build a politic intrigue of some sort because they will not have any time to discover it since after they defeat the big bad guy they will most likely left the domain.
I'd like to settle the adventures in Darkon, with very few travel here and there in the core during the campaign, but i'd like that they make Darkon their home. I know that next adventures will be feast of goblyns, Ship of horror, from the shadow and roots of evil, and only the latter are from darkon and barovia.


I'll keep my ravenloft campaign while i start this new with symbaroum for now, and we will play them in parallel. I hope I can find a solution for my problems. If you have any suggestiong i will gladly take note of them.

I'm really not for dropping ravenloft because i 've put so much effort in my campaign it would hurt me a lot if I drop it forever, but as it is right now is just a mess.

thanks in advance and sorry if I complained to much in this post ^^

Edit: I know that this post has no real direct question in it, and it looks more like an outburst, but i'm a little confused on my campaign at the moment and I hope any of you will be capable of landing some magic words to calm my mind and allow me to reorder my thoughts. I'd like to know if any of you ever felt like this and if any of you see those problems aswell.
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by ewancummins »

Have you looked at running 1981 Basic, Holmes Basic, or a retroclone?
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Five »

ewancummins wrote:Have you looked at running 1981 Basic, Holmes Basic, or a retroclone?
Any major differences between Holmes' version and Mentzer's?

I pretty much cut my RPG teeth on Mentzer's. Had some influence from my older brother's stash but still. Red Box-bred. Good memories from that box and the Expert Rules (Blue)...:)
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by ewancummins »

Five wrote:
ewancummins wrote:Have you looked at running 1981 Basic, Holmes Basic, or a retroclone?
Any major differences between Holmes' version and Mentzer's?

I pretty much cut my RPG teeth on Mentzer's. Had some influence from my older brother's stash but still. Red Box-bred. Good memories from that box and the Expert Rules (Blue)...:)
Holmes is closer to the original 1974 edition, but clarified and simplified. It has some things that may look odd to those of us who started with Mentzer or Moldvay (I did), like elves (the class) that alternate between functioning as fighters and magic-users instead of advancing as what are effectively armored mages with swords.
There are various other differences. Some spells work differently. I think it has five alignments, instead of three. 4E would later do something similar.

I've flipped through a copy, but I have never run it.
It only goes to 3rd and it had no 'expert set'--that was supposed to be AD&D, but the two are really different editions of D&D, and don't fit so smoothly together.


I prefer Moldvay to Menzter Basic, though the two are so similar they are basically the same game (at Basic levels, 1-3). Thieves in Moldvay/Cook/Marsh Basic and Expert sets advance more rapidly in their skills than thieves in Mentzer, because Menzter's complete series of boxed sets spans levels 1-36, instead of 1-14 for humans and a bit lower for demihumans.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by ewancummins »

So, yup:

Basic/Expert solves the complex rules issue.

Mistipedia plus free online maps solves the overload of materials issue (Though I say the Black Box is worth purchase as a PDF).

B/X also tones down the powergaming and options overload.

Treating darklords as boss monsters/major villains allows a victorious party to remain in an area after defeating the darklord. Destroy the vampire, clear his castle, take over rulership of the nearby villages.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Five »

ewancummins wrote:
Treating darklords as boss monsters/major villains allows a victorious party to remain in an area after defeating the darklord. Destroy the vampire, clear his castle, take over rulership of the nearby villages.
And for rulership/stronghold rules refer to the Companion Rules. ;)

Thanks ewancummins for the quick compare. I think I'm going to see if I can't find a pdf version of the other two and give em the once-over.
"A very piteous thing it was to see such a quantity of dead bodies, and such an outpouring of blood - that is, if they had not been enemies of the Christian faith."

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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

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Nox wrote:Hi all. This may look like a complain post but I actually need help. Sorry if I write a lot since i'm a little pissed off.
Maybe i'm just bourning out, i dont know.
Lately i'm switching to a new RPG game, Symbaroum. For now i just read the core rulebook and so far I like it very much.
Well I thought a lot about the reason i'm starting to prefer symbaroum to D&D.
I'm not here to convince you to play this system, but I want your opinion on my problems with D&D.
Let me start off by saying I LOVE D&D. I truly love it. But lately i'm thinking that it is a mess.

Well actually there are a lot of problems with D&D (for what concerns me).
It sounds like you're finding yourself being buried alive by the staggering amount of material both D&D and Ravenloft have around. That it saps your time and your energy sifting through it all to find the stuff your need and even then you're still struggling. Given what you're experiencing, it'd be natural for you to feel some anger and dissatisfaction.
As I said in the beginning i'm reading this system named symbaroum. It is simple. One single book for player, DM and setting, all in one. It's not a gigantic world. the map actually is quite small (the game states you can play outside this map and add your own content to the game ofc) but it is well detailed and it has some(really a few) expansion book which get more into detail for specific areas.
Now that i almost finished reading the system I realized that it is really a simple system, nothing new Tbh, just simple. That will allow me to focus on the story, on the events in game (DM doesnt even have to roll dice, and just to let you know I will miss rolling dices).
In D&D I spend a lot of time to build encounters, and I found myself without time to work on the plot, on the adventure itself. Also the symbaroum's system looks much more "balanced". Powerplaying is really low, if there is any. The game let players to play the way they want (there are no classes, and you chose the ability of your hero as you prefer to build your own concepts - Even if there are classic archetypes to give your character a standard route - warrior, duelist, rogue, etc- you are not forced to follow those standards.), but they are all quite balanced, there is no OP mages/clerics. In d&D everybody knows the Tier list and the power of spellcasters.
It sounds like you're finding this new system to be much more grounded and user friendly, and that its simplicity gives you some room for your imagination to flourish.
Another problem i'm facing is that I'm following canon adventure for Hexad (with revised timeline). So far I find the adventures boring. My player told me they are liking it, but I do not, and honestly I dont get how they like it, Maybe it's the flavour stuff i'm putting in every single session. The plot is quite simple without any kind of twist (at least for now). I understand that for the player it's interesting since they dont know what is going to happen, but it should be interesting for me aswell, even if I know what is going to happen. I'm playing touch of death at the moment and I find it boring as hell...

Probably one of my biggest problem is that player cannot feel at home anywhere in my campaign cause they know they will travel a lot and they will not have the chance to make friends and ally.
I cannot give them lands or title, nor I can build a politic intrigue of some sort because they will not have any time to discover it since after they defeat the big bad guy they will most likely left the domain.
I'd like to settle the adventures in Darkon, with very few travel here and there in the core during the campaign, but i'd like that they make Darkon their home. I know that next adventures will be feast of goblyns, Ship of horror, from the shadow and roots of evil, and only the latter are from darkon and barovia.
It's true, the Hexad series of adventures can wander around a lot with not the most coherence or focus to them. It sounds like you're looking for a game/setting that has more of a defined and stable base that allows you to focus upon a single, more limited but more focused base of operations. That's something you've mentioned both with having a power base with Darkon and also with the new game.
I'll keep my ravenloft campaign while i start this new with symbaroum for now, and we will play them in parallel. I hope I can find a solution for my problems. If you have any suggestiong i will gladly take note of them.

I'm really not for dropping ravenloft because i 've put so much effort in my campaign it would hurt me a lot if I drop it forever, but as it is right now is just a mess.
Juggling both games at once might be hard if you're having trouble with one already. Perhaps you could alternate for a few sessions at a time?
thanks in advance and sorry if I complained to much in this post ^^
Although I want to validate the anxiousness you might be feeling here as genuine, at the same time I hope to assure you have not infringed upon anyone. You haven't condemned anything or anybody; you've just talked about your own experience. Your experiences are as valid as those of anybody else.
Edit: I know that this post has no real direct question in it, and it looks more like an outburst, but i'm a little confused on my campaign at the moment and I hope any of you will be capable of landing some magic words to calm my mind and allow me to reorder my thoughts. I'd like to know if any of you ever felt like this and if any of you see those problems aswell.
When one is overcome with options and material, sometimes the overload can render it just as bad as having none, because you cannot make any decision effectively. I think that's an experience common to us all at some degree or another. Your response to your situation makes sense. In the midst of a chaotic mix you're struggling to find your way, your taking some steps to parse it down to something a little bit more limited but also more focused. There's nothing inherently wrong with that.

Even in your Hexad game, there's no reason why you have to keep wandering around like it's written in the plot sequence. The Hexad could always be wrong if you wanted to switch gears and focus on Darkon, if that'd work better for you and your players. How are your players relating to your situation?
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Hamiclar »

I feel you sometimes you have to step back and take a break. I play weekly with my group and sometimes the rules can be a little overwhelming but you can wing or apply a rule you may not know rolling and applying what you believe works my group really never notices when I do this which is very infrequently. The GC adventures are real slow but you can modify them, I have made other NPC a bar keeper the store owner which warms up the PC wanting their gear. TOD was ok to run I had to modify the town encounters with more people which were split into two groups that either helped or avoided them. The only complaint from my group is the little XP given. I usually rewrite them. I am looking at Feast of Goblyns now with a new beginning and I am totally rewriting the adventure Ship of Horror which will be taking place in Gundarak with the ghost theme carrying over into my nobility campaign before From the Shadows. My group still has no idea of the Ravenloft world with fill ins by cut scene and talking to the players individually about their lands or tidbits related to them.
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

I understand that the GC is the BIG EVENT in Ravenloft history, and everyone wants to run their players through it.

But let's be honest: Most of the Hexad adventures aren't that great. They were made early in the setting's run, when it was still finding its feet. They were never intended to be part of a series, so the are all over the map, and don't lead from one to the other easily without invoking the Mists, and there's no common thread to them until it's shoe-horned in at the very end. NotWD is awesome as a stand-alone. FoG has great moments, but needs structural work to make sense. Act 2 (the wedding time-travel) of FtS is like nothing I've ever seen in an RPG. Other than that, I'd throw the whole lot of them out.

If you want your PCs to set up a base of operations and adventure around it, the Hexad is not the right batch of adventures to do it, without major alterations.
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Nox »

ewancummins wrote:Have you looked at running 1981 Basic, Holmes Basic, or a retroclone?
I have no idea what those are, can you explain me a little of those... systems(?) ? Are they able to run with ravenloft setting (i know, in theory anything can potentially run with any setting, but you know, sometime things get complicated with certain combinations :) )
ewancummins wrote:So, yup:

Basic/Expert solves the complex rules issue.

Mistipedia plus free online maps solves the overload of materials issue (Though I say the Black Box is worth purchase as a PDF).

B/X also tones down the powergaming and options overload.

Treating darklords as boss monsters/major villains allows a victorious party to remain in an area after defeating the darklord. Destroy the vampire, clear his castle, take over rulership of the nearby villages.
I'll get what you mean once i'll have an idea about what those systems are i suppose, :lol:
Just a question, what is B/X ?
The Lesser Evil wrote: Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2017 7:42 am

Thank you for the time you've taken to answer me, I see You understood what I meant. I like to have many options, but sometimes the D&D and Ravenloft material are overwhelming.
I think that with "a more limited map" it would be easier for me to work on the plot and let my imagination flow.
I'm not against traveling. I like it, it's useful to change the setting and show player new places, but I feel like my player should have a place they call home, some kind of Head quarter where they go to get equipment, meet friends, build relationships with local ruler, things like that.
For what concerns hexad, I dont want to drop the campaign, expecially since I know the last few modules have some very interesting moments, and I'd like to let my players experience some of the most important events in ravenloft (furthermore the time travel is a concept i love and i cant wait to see how did they included it in the adventure, hoping it makes sense).
I'm sure that if my group would play once a week I would feel this factors a lot less, but we play once a month and thus it takes forever to make some progress. In my head after all those months we should've reached at least Roots of evil. I have 4 players but we are all 21+ Years old and everyone has his own business to take care IRL. I wish i had a group that could play once a week, but that's quite hard to find.
About symbaroum and D&D at the same time I dont think it will be a problem. Symbaroum is a lot easier to prepare (we will play on modules at beginning since I want to play test the system for a while). Symbaroum's system is all the same edition, so no adjustments are needed. More over all the adventure and almost all the rulebook are translated into my language (Italian), and those that are not translated will be translated by october (for what concerns D&D, even though i understand english quite well, my player do not, so most of the time i need to take me time and translate modules before running them, and that eats time aswell. I need to translate mostly for my personal reference during session, but in sometimes i need to give them something to read, and i cannot give them in english). The system as i stated before is quite simple and monsters need little to no adjustment (no need to fix HP, AC, or anything). Ofc you can adjust them, but they are already deadly (as the book says). Heroes do not get any hp bonus with leveling, some of them just get thougher (higher damage reduction) but in general characters has the same amount of Hp for all their life, they just learn more manuveurs, ability and magic (if i'm not missing anything, and maybe i am).

So far the player say they like the adventures and they see nothing wrong (also i did not mention my thought with them, i prefer to talk with you on this forum and hear what you thinkf before i make any repentine actions that I could regret :lol: ).

I thought about forcing the rest of the hexad to happen into the core (or directly in Darkon) but I have no idea where to start from and how to do it in a way that not mess up the plot too much.
Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:I understand that the GC is the BIG EVENT in Ravenloft history, and everyone wants to run their players through it.

But let's be honest: Most of the Hexad adventures aren't that great. They were made early in the setting's run, when it was still finding its feet. They were never intended to be part of a series, so the are all over the map, and don't lead from one to the other easily without invoking the Mists, and there's no common thread to them until it's shoe-horned in at the very end. NotWD is awesome as a stand-alone. FoG has great moments, but needs structural work to make sense. Act 2 (the wedding time-travel) of FtS is like nothing I've ever seen in an RPG. Other than that, I'd throw the whole lot of them out.

If you want your PCs to set up a base of operations and adventure around it, the Hexad is not the right batch of adventures to do it, without major alterations.
I totally agree with you. I would like not to put major alteration in the plot, but i'm wondering how could I have the player establish a base of operation during the hexad. I could make a short break after we finish Touch of death and let them stay for a while in darkon, or any other domain, to establish this HQ, but since we play so little (as I said, once a month usually, Expecially during summer), I would feel like i'm slowing down things even more. :lol:
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by ewancummins »

POST ONE OF TWO

''Basic'' or Classic D&D


B/X is shorthand for Basic and Expert D&D. It refers to the easy to play version of the game published in the early 80s It's a simpler sort of D&D. It was marketed toward younger gamers and toward guys who wanted a less complicated system (less complicated than AD&D). Ages 12 and up. :)


Classes:

Fighter
Cleric
Thief
Magic-User

Elf (basically an armored fighting wizard type)
Dwarf (tough, good at fighting, underground abilities)
Halfling (good at hiding, missile combat, tougher than they look)


There are three alignments:
Lawful, which is often but not always the ''good guy'' alignment
Neutral
Chaotic, which is usually but not always a ''bad guy'' alignment

The same six abilities as D&D in pretty much all versions uses. And 18 gives you a +3 adjustment. High scores are helpful, but p[probably not as important as in some later editions.

Combat is similar to 3E, but much, much simpler. Stripped down. Battlemats are not as important as in 3E, as there aren't a lot of finicky rules about angles, facing, threatened squares, etc.

Levels cap at 14 for the four human classes. Lower for demihumans, but in the 8-12 range, so the level limits are not harsh.

No skill system unless you add one from later sources or make your own. Rolling against ability scores works just fine, IME.

Characters are distinguished from other characters of the same class mainly by roleplaying personality, goals, description, items, and so on, rather than a host of mechanical options like feats and subclasses.

Character generation is easy and quickly done.

One can run entire campaigns just from the Basic book. One book with classes, monsters, rules.
Add the Expert book for higher levels and wilderness adventuring.

That's B/X. Holmes Basic is its immediate precursor. That one is a little further from the norms developed in the 80s, and is closer to the original 1974 game, but simplified and presented in a clearer, more user-friendly format. It came out in 1977. I haven't actually run it, so don't regard my comments on it as anything special.

From 1983 onward, TSR published a revised Basic set, followed by Expert (up to 14th level), Companion (up to about 23, IIRC) , and Masters (up to 36th!). This version is compatible with B/X, but thieves get nerfed (IMO) at lower and midlevels. It adds mechanical complexity, but mostly as optional rules and at high levels. It contains rules for running domains, leading armies, and other stuff like that.
This is the version, in several iterations, many guys call ''Classic."

Immortals was a super high powered add-on, really a new game, that allowed godlike characters.

All of this stuff, except maybe Holmes, can be purchased cheaply in PDF form.

The Rules Cyclopedia came out around 1990 or so. It is essentially a digest and compilation of the 1983 Basic, Expert, Companion, and Masters boxed sets. Also ''Classic'' for many grognards.

There were a couple of further editions, but they don't change anything noteable and are fully backwards compatible with B/X and the RC.

From 1981 to the early 90s, it's all very much variations on the same system, and parts fit together pretty easily.

Please bear in mind I am describing the history of the D&D game line--not ADVANCED Dungeons and Dragons.
That splits in 79, developing in its own way.

Yeah, TSR published two parallel ''D&D" systems that needed some conversion between them, and did so from 1979 to the early 90s.
Weird, huh?


The Open Gaming License allowed, as it turned out, the creation of ''retroclones." Swords and Wizardry is one of the better known ones. Chris Gonnerman publishes a ''Basic Fantasy RPG.' Retroclones tend to be free, derivative works, with print versions sold but the rules available for free.
I have loads of out of print D&D stuff, so I don't bother with retroclones, but retroclones may be a nice option for a guy who is on a limited budget or who wants a slightly different take on the old rules.


I think B/X is a good pick for running Ravenloft, so long as you don't expect to do detailed conversions of every character and all the whacky monster powers. If you think multiclass characters, feats, and all that are vital, this may not be the edition for you.
Demihumans with race-as-class may fit Ravenloft well, as it meshes well with a humanocentric world.
Last edited by ewancummins on Fri Jul 07, 2017 7:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by ewancummins »

Post Two, wherein I ask the questions:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/163 ... e-Rulebook

So, this? Looks nifty!

How does it run, Nox?
Are you enjoying the rules set?
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

For an easy, quick-to-use system, you could also take a look at Jackson & Livingstone's Advanced Fighting Fantasy. In spite of the name, it's fairly straightforward and not too heavy on the rules, and it can be used in any kind of setting.
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Nox wrote:I'm sure that if my group would play once a week I would feel this factors a lot less, but we play once a month and thus it takes forever to make some progress. In my head after all those months we should've reached at least Roots of evil. I have 4 players but we are all 21+ Years old and everyone has his own business to take care IRL. I wish i had a group that could play once a week, but that's quite hard to find.


<grumpy old man voice on>
Once a month! Luxury! My group has played our Ravenloft campaign 27 times in 15 years! I've been planting seeds to eventually run Bleak House since 2002!
<grumpy old man voice off>
:azalin: :azalin: :azalin:

If you don't already, just wait until you and your players have kids... You'll look back on these days of monthly games fondly. :wink:
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Re: I have a problem with D&D.

Post by Nox »

ewancummins wrote:Post Two, wherein I ask the questions:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/163 ... e-Rulebook

So, this? Looks nifty!

How does it run, Nox?
Are you enjoying the rules set?
Thank for your explanation!
For what concerns symbaroum we just played a couple of session, but so far so good.
It is smooth, quick and deadly combat. I don't know, maybe it is the system I was looking for.
Character does not get tougher with levels, they have an attribute (vigor) and the maximum value is 15 . that's their hp. Vigor is used for other thing as well like moving heavy objects and such things.
The damage inflicted by enemies is a fixed value (gm never roll dice for anything in this system, only players roll dice. In this way the gm can focus on descriptions and story) , most powerful enemies do something like 8 and very dangerous do 10.
There is also armor value that gives a player a chance to resist part of the damage (or if the roll goes well and the armor is good can prevent all damage. But that's rare occasion).
Magics (spells and magic items) are powerful but corrupt players and if pc uses too much they become aberrations (npc).
The setting is pretty nice but not very big. Even it is just a region, the setting is deep and alive. Moreover gm can expand it as he pleases.

Edit: I just took a look over a more advanced monster and i saw one of them (arch-troll) does somthing like 16 or 18 damage. Even considering armor and reduction probably it will one shot almost anything if you let him hit you.
Last edited by Nox on Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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