quick, somewhat random gaming thoughts

Last week we played half of a two-shot D&D game. Todd R., our old D&D GM was in town, having moved up to Ohio few months ago. He's apparently in good with the folks at Goodman Games and he is contributing material to them. So he came down with the plan of running a two-shot/two-night adventure. So we got together, a nice crowd of us, though neither Mike or Kenny showed.

It was standard-fare D&D.

Here's my honest thoughts, and let me disclaim that I've gained a rep with my local game crowd as being and Indie game guy, and snooty about games. Yes, I like indie games, and some non-indie games. It is true that for about a year or so now, I've professed varying degrees of non-interest or even disdain for D&D. I'm not trying to be a curmudgeon, or ruin people's gaming excitement, or even to be intentionally snooty and "to-good-for-D&D". I've just found stuff that works better for me. Sure - I think it could work better for almost everybody, if given a chance, but hey, that's just cause I like it a whole lot. ("it" btw is TSOY and a couple other games). Anyway. It was nice to see people and to hang out and play a little. I totally remember the wide-eyed amazement that I had when I played and ran D&D when I was in high school. And I totally am refreshed on all the reasons that I prefer other stuff to D&D. Also, Todd canceled night two, so we only did half of the two-shot, making it a very incomplete one-shot. For the record, we killed a few giant stone golem-type guys, got caught in a room-size fire trap with some fire elemental-type guys, and fought some dogs and a chain-demon of some kind.

Which brings me to my other thoughts on gaming. I'd kicked around the idea of running a D&D game with the 3 core 3.5 books only. I browsed the RPG section in the bookstore the other day, and GEEZ WotC is churning out the books. They're a For-Profit, so hey, I'm not criticizing really.. except that I will say that I flipped through some of the books, and they seem to, taken as a whole, consist of the following: 70% new feats and prestige classes with a few new spells thrown in; 20% old stuff that're just reprinting or consolidating, and 10% cool new interesting stuff. You'll note that I didnt put the 70% feats and prestige classes into the "cool new stuff" category. Anyway, I'm drifting again. A small part of what annoys me about D&D is the hundreds of feats and dozens of prestige classes. Its a tweakers wet dream. Anyway, I dont think 3 book D&D is likely either, as the core mechanic of D&D still does not appeal to me, in any way really.

That did lead me, however to think about running a Riddle of Steel game in the vein of D&D. I like this idea :)
[edit: oh, and I need to remember to argue with Jason that combat in RoS in no more time consuming or complicated than combat in D&D!! =)]

Also, while listening to someone on NPR talk about the latest James Bond movie, I found myself thinking about how TSOY could so easily work for a modern Spy theme'd game. Damn I love TSOY.

Ok, not so quick. But there ya go :)