Dungeons and Dragons still going strong?

I saw this in a thread, and it took me back almost 25 years. Is D&D still on the go around the world? Would I recognise it from the days of my old AD&D players handbook?

How popular are these good old 'fantasy' worlds, and does anyone have any good memories from past victories?

How well I remember the adventures of my old Magic User - Mr Magen (say it quick... )

 

I never played D&D personally, but I spent many hours with the whole Games Workshop style game, particularly Warhammer 40,000. I had loads of models, and I still have a small collection of the ones I painted particularly well (I'm still proud of them because I can't draw or paint at all). I kind of got out of it round about the time I started doing my A-levels at college and noticed that actually, girls don't smell (that much), but I may have a look at the new PC game Dawn of War though, it'll be good for nostalgia if nothing else

 

Oh yes...D&D is still going quite strongly.
They've just recently released a new "3.5" edition of the rules, which basically clarify some of the problems in the older version 3 rules. There are still lots of people who play, myself included, though I don't take it a seriously as a lot of the more hardcore players do. Still, I think that fanatasy roleplaying games in general have a bit of a bad reputation, and the average person who plays them isn't usually quite as much of a social outcast as stereotypes would have us believe.
As far as Warhammer 40k goes, I stopped playing that when I realized how expensive it was getting. I like D&D because you really just shell out a bit of money for the rule books and then just get together with friends and play. If you want to be any good at Warhammer though you have to invest a lot more time and money into collecting and modelling your army.

 

You'd probably recognise some of the basic concepts, but things such as THAC0 are gone, and a higher AC is better nowadays rather than a lower one. If you played first edition then there are now classes as well as races, so you can play an orcish cleric for example.

 

Yeah I hear that! I started playing AD&D for much the same reason. I usually end up being DM when we get together, I find the D20 system makes my job alot easier, V3.5 is great IMO.

Once a geek, always a geek. Can you hear the geeky urges inside telling you to play AD&D? I bet you can. Join us, Join us, JOIN US...

 

*shudders* Heretic! Traitor!

 

I too did the Games Whorkshop thing, but I had the advantage of getting a job there so took FULL advantage of the staff discount. (You could order lead by weight! It used to be £20 per kg!)

Like the settings and games, but no desire to get more models and no time to play any more. Its all in boxes in my shed!

A bunch of mates meet to do some RPG. I prefer the looser style. Story over rules. We have a 'rules-monger' and he just drives people nuts. Cannot run a good story at all. I did a one off where I pretty much made it up as I went along. Much better feedback from that.

 

Your right - it never leaves the system. Oh for a weekend to simply escape into a fantasy world which is not pre-programmed, and anything could happen.

Never got into the Warhammer thing - looking through the windows at Games Workshop it seemed less individual tactics and more 'mob' culture that needed loads of models.

We used a few character models to lay out certain 'scenes', but mostly the action was in your head and the ability of the DM to relay the story. Great stuff.

We experimented with some of the other 'environments'. I remember there was a western set of characters, and a space-based one - but the more advanced weapons (guns) tended to kill the characters off too quickly to develop them. So it looks like grab your battle axe while I grind up this bat guano, and we are ready to travel.

Small diversion: At the age of 17, my D&D playing mate and I visited London for the first time. I couldn't belive how lousy he was getting around the London Underground - it made perfect sense to me, and always has Anyone else benefitted from the lifestyle? (I don't call it a game!)

 

That's why you needed to pick the people you played against carefully. That way you got an interesting game. Most were idiots though.

 

www.lorientrust.com
www.profounddecisions.co.uk

Actually Necromunda and Bloodbowl are pretty good, more gang or team tactics, but not ridiculous numbers of models at least.

Oh yes, in many many ways. Current girlfriend being one major one.

 

NO! NOOOOOO!!!!!! Never. I'm not one of you! Though I have just ordered Dawn of War and my girlfriend's bogged off back to uni so I have a lot of free time on my hands...

 

A D&D MMORPG is in the works for next year. When I find the interview with one of the designers I'll post the link.

 

I started on the old D&D sets (red-basic, blue-intermediate, etc) and we slowly added the AD&D stuff as the books came out... did a lot of the Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and later Forgotten Realms stuff. We also added the I.C.E. systems into our game, especially the whole "Arms Law/Claw Law" battle system with the cool critical hits and such. We also added a lot of stuff like critical hits and new classes/races from Dragon magazine. We did a lot of gaming and even tried out the old "Star Frontiers" and some others. I haven't played in years but still miss it... good stuff

I checked out the AD&D second edition and looked at the newer stuff... call me old fashioned but I like the older stuff better.

 

There's a story to be told there (probably in a little inn, on a stormy night, over a tankard of foaming Pepsi)

Wesker: MMORPG Got the 'Role Playing Game' part, but MMO?

Sever: Dawn of War. Seen the ads on the TV, but don't think this is my style of gaming. Started to write a D&D base game on the Tandy TRS80 in BASIC - I sorted out the character genereation, but I was young then and easily distracted. :bang: I wonder where I'd be now if I had persevered.

Thomas: You don't have your DOB, but I suspect we are a very similar era. I think it was 2nd edition we played, and we borrowed heavily from Dragon (remember the Cantrips list? ) I remember 'scenes' rather than overall titles (Dragonlance, etc), but they were good times.

Looking through my old computer files, I found the personal histories of a brother / sister pair of characters. He was a BIG fighter, and she was a 1st level illusionist - tiny, but with such attitude. I may be in trouble for this, but she reminds me of Tika.
*Casts 'invisibility' and rolls for silence as he creeps away*

 

Actually you're not too far off, which I suppose is kind of depressing.

It was actually a tavern, bottle of mead, celebrating having survived a monster attack. And she stole my hat. Spent the evening watching the firebreathers in the middle of the market.

 

MMORPG: Massive Multiplayer Online RPG

isn't google helpful!

 

An here is me hoping you had hit G instead of H and we were looking at a Multiple-Morph spell

 

I would say 'life imitating art', but I've lost track of which reality we are talking about.

 

Let's not forget BioWare - the Neverwinter Nights series!

 

Puts g33k hat on..
"Traveller" by the now defunct GDW - currently being reprinted by Mark Miller Enterprises.

Of the Joys of an FGMP 15.

Also - baught the board game "talisman" second edition on ebay a year a go - its still a hoot!