RPG a Day 2017 Question 11

What is RPGaDay2017?

I’ll link here to the actual group. Basically, it’s a series of questions that you can answer. There are 31 questions that you can answer to help shine a light on the different reasons people play role-play games. This is my answer to the 11th question. For my full list of answers check here.

Question #11: Which ‘dead game’ would you like to see reborn?

This was an easy one for me. I know that several people will disagree with it but my first choice was Dungeons & Dragons 4^th edition. I miss how heroic my characters felt at level one. You had so many options, powers, ideas, and actions you could do. I loved the way combat worked, the monsters felt dynamic, and the heroes felt like heroes.

I know that a lot of people felt it was D&D Warcraft. I don’t think that’s true, but I can understand the reasoning behind the beliefe. Still, I enjoyed it more than any other version of D&D I’ve ever played. Most of my D&D stories come from 4^th edition. Everything from the time my elf barbarian with a sledge hammer leapt off a ship traveling through a bridge in space to charge an abolith to the time my hafling cleric of the god of trickery convinced a gathered crowd to turn on the Zentharim soldiers who were claiming responsibility for ‘saving’ the town from gnolls.

To further this school of thought there were two specific settings in D&D I loved and would love to see return. Planescape and Spell Jammer. Planescape had such wonderful factions, politics, and the mechanic of doors opening to anywhere, any setting or time that made it so much fun to run with. Your first level character could find themselves on the bottom level of the Abyss because he walked through the wrong door holding a copper ring. Admitidly, that’s an extreme example but still. It was a world where everyone belonged to factions, worked towards hidden goals, and went up against dark cults. It was a more espionage based D&D where players had the universe to play in. It gave us tieflings.

Spelljammer had a wonderful bravado that D&D misses most times. You’re space pirates, sailing ships, fighting mindflayers, and pulling off these crazy maneuvers. There was a mechanic in the game for throwing yourself off one side of the boat and using the gravity plane to slingshot yourself around the bottom and up onto the other side. That was a thing you could do. Spelljammer is the reason a gnome saying opps is scary.