As a relatively new player to TTRPG, can we have a thread discussing the high and low points of all the established games and their editions?
like how pathfinder is different from dungeons and dragons, and how D&D 4e is different from 5e which is different from 3.5e and what's good and bad about it all.
Comparing Systems
Kevin Lewis
Nolan Phillips
Clearly not.
The issue is that you have so many autists who will champion their own system like it's the new crusades. If there were people on this board who could hold an intelligent and reasoned discussion (about anything) then they'd be quickly shouted into silence by those same autists who can't bare to hear their side criticized.
Ethan Fisher
>all
Haha, No.
List some systems/editions.
I won't know all of them, but I'll see what I can do?
It'll be a bit biased tho.
Easton Rivera
let's start with the two most popular and their editions.
let's say some simple rundowns on the differences between 3.5 D&D versus pathfinder? or at least some links to were i can read up on the differences in detail so you dont have to type an essay.
Brayden James
3.5 and PF are fundamentally identical.
PF was made as an excuse to write 3.5 modules after WotC dropped support for 3.5.
PF supposedly "fixes" issues with 3.5, but it clings to every last sacred cow.
Eli Rodriguez
ok, and differences between 3.5 and 5?
is 4 even worth mentioning, seems a lot of people dont like it and WotC were quick to move past it to 5.
Asher Parker
4 is a fantastic game mechanically, but it's a bit hamfisted thematically.
You can refluff your way past that, but having to do so for *everything* get's tedious.
The real issue with it is that it:
• wildly departments from 3.5 mechanics, and more importatly
• was marketed in a way that involved slurring 3.5 and 3.5 players
So basically, WotC went of their way to avoid and flip off their existing playerbase.
>and WotC were quick to move past it
Not at all, the 3e line ran for 8 years and the 4e line ran for 6.
3.5 and 5 is kind of a hard comparison, for a couple of reasons.
5e tries to be more like TSR D&D, which is a big departure from 3.5, but it doesn't try too hard.
The best descriptions I've heard of 5e is "aggressively mediocre" and "everyone's second favorite system".
It's easy to find 5e groups, it's easy to settle on 5e, it's hard to dislike 5e, but it's even harder to like it.
Robert Martinez
gotcha, thanks!
which system would you recommend? even outside of pathfinder and D&D.
Elijah Mitchell
I'm a sucker for B/X or OD&D.
But that's about as far removed from 3.5/PF as a fantasy TRPG can get.
Arguably farther removed from 3.5 than 4e, though in a different direction.
Nicholas Wilson
Not him but,
I'd recommend 4e or BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia for D&D.
Outside of D&D there is a huge world of stuff. My favorites include...
Legend of the Five Rings - Magical Samurai doing Magical Samurai Things, often ending badly.
In Nomine - Heaven and Hell are locked in a Cold War for the Corporeal Realm. PCs are Angels and Demons. Best played for Dark Humor.
Earthdawn - Fantasy Fallout. Ambient Magical levels got high enough that horrible monster could manifest in the physical world so everyone built magical bunkers to wait out the monsters. Unfortunately Ambient Magic levels stabilized at a level some of those horrible monsters still can manifest at. Also the best magic item system ever.