Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I wish the table tops would have been bigger for me but I really could find NOBODY that would play hell it is/was hard to find anyone that would read a book let alone fantasy.

Forgive me for not jumping in on this. I've been gaming for close to eight years now. I had a mother that was wary of such things, so it wasn't until high school that I was really able to give it a try. Lori's been intrigued by the idea after I subjected her to watching The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, so I'm writing a low-level campaign that she and I will run through at some point to get her feet wet.

I was sorely disappointed with 4th Ed., as it took away along of the minutia and detailed abilities and such that 3.4 had, which I learned on. It made it a newbie game, and made myself and my gaming group feel rather...cheated. I hope they make it worth the investment in the books this time around...they aren't cheap. I've looked through a first-edition rulebook owned by my high school band director, and that was some seriously good stuff. They had it right from the start. I just hope they go back.

When I do play now (which is not often) I still use the old system with a heaping helping og MERP thrown in for good measure, I mean, it still works! They didn't disband it or remove the technology, my books still read just fine! hee hee! So again I choose anacronism. I am starting to see a pattern here...

Greg... don't buy hardcopy books... get pdf's first which are alot cheaper and you won't be out alot of money if you decide you don't like it.

RPG NOW and Paizo have pdf's you can buy/download as well as hardcopy books. We always go pdf first before we go hardcopy.

I must admit that I have never played any tabletop RPG ever. I have always wanted to try D&D but I never could find anybody that wanted to play it with me. Nor do I play video games that much. I guess I'm just not a gaming sort of guy.

I'm in the same boat as Haradir in that I've never played D&D, either. Got the 4E PHB when it launched, as a large group of my friends were starting a campaign and wanted me to join, but I couldn't find the time with work. Asking for a Saturday off would have been tantamount to saying "I no longer wish to be employed here."

I wouldn't mind watching some games in person first, the idea definitely intrigues me.

Just to throw the numbers off a little, I didn't start playing D&D until I 2003. I've been in 3.5 the entire time, and I really enjoy it. I looked at 4E, and I hated it. It robs a lot of the party dynamics, and the need for different classes. I do like the Pathfinder stuff, but I haven't switched over since I don't feel like buying new books!

By the way, how many people here have a character sheet for themselves, or am I the biggest dork here?

Brian

I started with 3rd edition and now play a mix of 3RD, 3.5, and house rules.Not surprisingly I tend to play Rangers. D&D is actually more the reason I ended up here than LOTR at least at first, I had read the Hobbit and watched the animated version when I was little but hadn't read LOTR until a year or so before the movies came out. While Aragorn truly intrigued me in the books PJ's version didn't click for me (in D&D terms PJ's Aragorn is more a fighter who took a lvl of Ranger as an after thought, To me at least.) I started playing 3rd shortly after it came out and was drawn to the Ranger class because I had always Loved the idea of Robin Hood and medieval foresters and to a somewhat lesser degree Aragorn.

BrianGrubbs wrote:Just to throw the numbers off a little, I didn't start playing D&D until I 2003. I've been in 3.5 the entire time, and I really enjoy it. I looked at 4E, and I hated it. It robs a lot of the party dynamics, and the need for different classes. I do like the Pathfinder stuff, but I haven't switched over since I don't feel like buying new books!

By the way, how many people here have a character sheet for themselves, or am I the biggest dork here?

Brian

I actually did using an online stats calculator that took your answers to some questions and calculated your stats. That was a long time ago and the calculator is no longer available, but kinda fun to see how it came out.

Well if you like character generators that you can do on your computer.. there is a free download that works with most basic d20 rpgs

http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/01_overview.php

And Erich found the updated vs of the stats calculator here

http://www.kevinhaw.com/add_quiz.php

That was a fun quiz! Some of my stats are a little different from how I calculated them...some higher, some lower. Good times

Brian

Hmmm now I realize I am no longer the Romantic Leading Man type, I passed the mantle to my son on that years ago, Now I am HIS sidekick!

But by the end of the quize I realized I would make a slightly better Bard than a Warior!

.......Why does no one take me seriously?

I'm interested in what they'll do for 5E. Hopefully they'll move away from the "let's make it ridiculously easy/"streamlined" for new players to get into D&D" (which basically means it's gonna suck for experienced players). My group of friends have been sticking with 3.5E, which is working quite well. I'll definitely give 5E a fair shot.

I'm always mystified when I hear everyone complaining about how oversimplified 4e is, simply because I started with 4e only a few years ago, and as it is, gameplay will be interrupted for an hour or more as the DM and a player argue over the wording of a rule. (We're still not sure if a ghost with the "phasing" status can pass through a wizard's illusory wall.)

I'm all for details, but how much did one have to lawyer in order to play the earlier editions?

(Here's hoping 5e finds a happy medium?)

My brother Mike started playing in hie senior year in HS. By Xmas, he had my girlfriend (now wife) our best man, my youngest brother and myself playing. That was in 78. WE played weekly for thirteen years until our interests and other obligations broke up the game.

In answer to Chris' inquiry, we used the rules that worked for us. For instance we didn't roll initative every round. We'd just go around the table in order. We'd have some standing rules to avoid some of the nonsense that players can do. Some of our rules were, you can't physically attack or steal from another player. The DM ship would rotate based on who had a dungeon ready by the following Sunday and it was declared ahead on time. I had about 15 characters as did everyone else and they would generally travel in the same group. It kept the group at similar levels and gave everyone a chance to work with different classes, if they liked.

Little things like that keep play quick and focused. The DM needs to be as flexible as the players. IF something a player does makes sene let them do it, even if it diverts the group from a preset encounter. If the DM doesn't think of everything that is good. It allows the players to use their knowledge and imagination just as in real life experiences.