Well, it's almost my birthday. I'll be 33 years old this year, and my plan on that evening is to hoist many a Rolling Rock, because that particular beer has a mysterious "33" emblazoned on the side of the bottle. And I like beer.
Although I'll be becoming even older, that doesn't stop me from acting like a kid. In fact, I'm having some friends over this evening to play some good ol' Dungeons and Dragons. It promises to be a swell night. We're gonna kick back and knock out some AD&D 2nd edition.
Because I'm a dork, I decided to do a little research in the ol' 2nd ed. DMG (which is for some reason not actually pictured on Wikipedia...perhaps some editing is in order) and I discovered a number of slight changes that I'm going to employ this evening. These changes won't last long, however. Brace yourselves, players -- your world is about to be shattered.
You see, I've been finding that although I absolutely adore the 2nd edition, I need something more. You know what that means. You can feel it in the back of your heads. You know where this is going.
2nd Edition, it's not you. It's me. I've loved all of the times that we've shared. Some of my fondest memories involved playing with you. Sure, we've had our ridiculous fights (there was even a time where I got up out of my chair and kicked Corey. Yep. True story. I actually physically kicked him.) and our ridiculous triumphs. But dearest 2nd edition, the fire is on the wane.
The hard truth is, I've found somebody new. No, not that tramp 3rd edition. Not even 3.5. Nay. I've spent some time in the arms of 4th edition, and you know what? It felt good. It felt good to get a fresh start. It felt good to lean in close, and what I really want to do is stick my nose in and smell the sweet perfume that is the pages of the book.
It's my birthday. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get the books. The 4th edition books.
Where does that leave us, 2nd edition? I hope that this isn't goodbye. I just need to see other methods. I need to do some soul searching. I need to find myself.
OK back to the real world here. Yes, for my birthday I am really and truly going to purchase 4th edition D&D books. I plan on starting a 4th edition adventure. I hope that my players will accompany me on this journey. It will be fun. I assure you. It won't be painful. It will be fun. And if we hate it, I'm keeping my 2nd edition books and all of the character sheets that I've collected over the years. I know that once my soul searching time is through, if I need to go back to 2nd Edition, she'll welcome me back with open arms. I just might suffer 1d12 damage.
4 comments:
Great post! Fourth edition... here we go. As long as they don't come out with 4.5 in ten minutes.
Why you filthy.....
Nah, it's all good. All it would really take to convince me to switch over would be a fix for the ridiculous slashing weapons vs. skeletons rule.
Slashing weapons vs. skeletons - ummm, can't you damage bone fairly well if you do more of a vertical slice than a horizontal slice? Seems like that would be much more effective than piercing bones . . .
I can understand how something like a rapier would be ineffective against a skeleton, but what about a greatsword or even a bastard sword, which are essentially edged clubs? Or axes, which are chopping weapons.
This needs to be sent to Mythbusters.
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