DnD

I got to DnD and had a root beer float with vodka. It was awesome. it tasted like a root beer float with vodka in it, only good. It was A&W Root Beer and unknown brand vanilla ice cream.

We played first edition DnD. Wizards of the Coast is up to fourth edition. There is a growing swath of DnD players who do not like fourth edition. I have my own problems with it. Here are some of the arguments I've heard against it.

• All the character classes feel like rubber stamps of the same class. There is not enough difference between classes to make the games interesting or to specialize. Every one is average.
• Combat is too complex and takes too long. The rules are more akin to a MMORPG than a pencil, paper, dice based experience.
• You can't play without miniatures. Some think this is a plus, some a minus.

I know there are as many opinions as players. Please add to the list in the comments or email me (in the right pain somewhere).

I had a ball last night. My character was out of a magazine. It was column in a table. I borrowed three dice and a pencil. The one I carry with me died on the job. It turns out I had another pencil, that looks like a pen. I also have an app on my phone that rolls dice.

• I used a loin cloth full of rocks as a sap, like a sock full of nickels. Our DM has this fascination with taking all our possession and equipment away and pitting us against dragons.
• We didn't fight giant ants, but we stole their bridge.
• I dealt the killing blow on a giant crayfish using my sap.
• We made a deal with a bunch of fungus (long story) to get rid of the crayfish eggs in exchange for a way out of the dungeon. It turns out we found our own way out. We kept the bargain to save ourselves from the crab and to get the experience for getting rid of the eggs. Getting rid of the eggs was so impossible, the amount of xp was not given in the module.
• I sat on a ledge for four hours, alone, in the dark, next to a scary pit, with a hole in the ceiling I could not hope to reach, holding one end of a rope that was not tied on the other end, did I mention it was dark? I mean, even with introversion, it is spooky, just sitting there.
• We nearly killed ourselves by asphyxiation twice.

How many battles is that? We fought like six times. We traveled all over the place. In fourth edition we would have had to leave it half way through the second skirmish. You should see the DM guide we are using. It looks like it has been through a couple dungeons.

We did spend an hour of clock time and goodness knows how long in game time trying to separate a badger from it's claws. The same for properly adapting the giant crayfish's claws as weapons. That didn't quite work on either front. This is much more fun that running through a three hour battle in clock time that takes three minutes in game time.