By Hemlock (Jose
Otero)
You know how
people say that they don’t like reading Shakespeare because it’s “Old English”?
But in actuality Old English sounds more like “Hwät! We Gâr-Dena in geâr-dagum
þeód-cyninga þrym gefrunon, hû þâ äðelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scêfing
sceaðena þreátum.” (From Beowulf) and Shakespeare wrote more like “Two households,
both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene, from ancient
grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”?
Yeah, that’s the usual misconception of how DnD rules work. You want to see
complicated rules? I suggest you open a BattleTech book for 5 minutes and try
not to get dizzy. DnD rules are pretty simple though some editions are more
complicated than others. Before you go ask your buddies to join you for a
rousing night of goblin slaying, you need to pick what rules you’re going to
run your game in.
First thing’s first: there are 6
distinct rule sets for DnD distributed in 4 editions. First edition, advanced
first edition, second edition, third edition, 3.5th edition and
fourth edition. If I had more time and space here I’d walk your through all the
important aspects and differences between these categories and explain some
others that exist out there. Instead, I’m just going to give you the gist of
these editions and what you should be aware of before investing a substantial
amount of cash in them. First off, of course, is First edition and advanced
First edition, sometimes referred to as Advanced DnD or just ADnD. These are
the early rule sets and have… flaws. Some classes are overpowered, other
classes aren’t worth playing and the more modules you get the more complex and
nonsensical it becomes. Despite the fact that rules in both editions are
complicated they aren’t impossible to learn but it’s going to take you some
significant reading time.
Second edition is in my opinion the
most convoluted system of any DnD game. For example: let’s say you’re holding a
shield. Now you have to declare which way you’re facing. After that you need to
know in what hand you hold the shield and what hand you hold your weapon. You
get full defense bonus on the shield side, some bonus from the front, very
little on your non-shielded side and you actually get penalties for being
attacked from behind. And that’s just shields, wait until you get to
complicated things like climbing walls and throwing spears. Yeah… Second
edition is for experienced players with a need for more of a challenge and a
tighter rule set. Do not be mistaken! These aren’t bad rules and it’s not a bad
edition but it is not for new players. Back in my day it was a rite of passage
to play through a second edition game. And it was not easy.
So then comes third edition and 3.5.
I have to admit these are my favorites. The rules are simpler but not too
simple and there is a lot of fun mythos to work with. Lots of types of dragons,
weird monsters, demons, gods, angels, locales and the cosmology are all a lot
of fun to play with. There are very big differences between third and 3.5 but,
again, I can’t spend too much time on them. If you want to play one of these I
suggest you look up the differences and pick the one right for your group.
Finally there’s fourth edition. Now
fourth edition gets a lot of flak (A LOT of flak) for being very simple.
Everything is streamlined, it’s more forgiving on the players and even the big
sprawling mythos in past editions is simplified for new players eliminating
some really cool stuff that was around in earlier editions. But I have to say
teaching new players how to play fourth edition is a breeze. The DM does most
of the work and the math is simple and easy with bonuses and penalties that
don’t take hours to make sure you’re doing them right (second edition I’m
looking at you). Learning the gist of the rules can take maybe an hour or two
without getting into the really complex stuff which you can introduce slowly as
the team becomes more accustomed to the rules. Is it the best? Probably not but
it’s definitely the best was to introduce someone to the game.
Before parting I have to point out
there’s this new edition called DnD NEXT. I don’t know, I haven’t played it, I
can’t tell you much about it except people tell me it’s… weird. Not as simple
as fourth edition but not as complex as second with some oddball additions and
bringing some old rules back that either make me happy or scratch my head. Once
again I apologize for this very general description of the editions but it’s
all about what’s right for you and your group and, of course, having fun.
Follow
Hemlock and his crazy adventures in writing and DMing games on Twitter!
@WritingOnHemlok
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