Both? It's definitely marvelous but it's also a glorious mess...

I never tried to run OD&D by the book back in the day (I started with Holmes Basic, quickly moved to other games including Chivalry & Sorcery, and by the time I was back to D&D, I had the AD&D PH and MM).

These days I run OD&D play by post games and I find them quite enjoyable and refreshing.

Frank

Quote from: Rhedyn;1058091Even Fate?

Is Fate a RPG?

Quote from: jeff37923;1058096Is Fate a RPG?

This should be interesting....

Quote from: Rhedyn;1058091Even Fate?

Steve Jackson makes a combat system, Melee, and a magic system, Wizards that is very much NOT D&D.
People say "those make for a cool roleplaying game"
Steve Jackson writes The Fantasy Trip which does what D&D does in the way that Steve Jackson thinks best using Melee/Wizard as a foundation.
Steve Jackson leaves Metagaming and forms his own company. He unable to retain the rights to the The Fantasy Trip
Steve Jackson writes GURPS
Steffan O'Sullivan doesn't like how GURPS handles Bunnies & Burrows and thinks it has a problem with scaling creatures/characters. I.E. the very small like Pixies to the very large like Titans.
Steffan O'Sullivan writes Fudge
Fred Hicks and crew takes Fudge and adapts it to Evil Hat line of game like Spirit of the Century. Calls it FATE (Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment)
Fate becomes it own thing outside of Fudge.

So yes
Even Fate.

OD&D was marvelous enough to inspire 5E to be more like it. I think that's a pretty strong testimate to the game those old timers put together.

Quote from: Dracones;1058115OD&D was marvelous enough to inspire 5E to be more like it. I think that's a pretty strong testimate to the game those old timers put together.

Does D&D 5E try harder to imitate OD&D, or AD&D 2nd Edition?  (With a little seasoning from 3.5 and 4E of course)

Quote from: Razor 007;1058117Does D&D 5E try harder to imitate OD&D, or AD&D 2nd Edition?  (With a little seasoning from 3.5 and 4E of course)

Yes particularly if you use the four core classes and the archetypes used in the 5e Basic rules. Each class still has more mechanics but not a huge amount. The difference between classes are narrower than most editions like OD&D. The proficiency bonus is one of the core mechanics that supports that.

Take a look at this. I use to allow people roll 5e characters during conventions.

D&D 5e Convention Classes

Quote from: jeff37923;1058096Is Fate a RPG?

If not - it's still a descendant of RPGs. (It depends entirely upon how broadly one draws the line between RPG vs Storygame vs Magic Pretend Time vs Whatever)

Quote from: Razor 007;1058117Does D&D 5E try harder to imitate OD&D, or AD&D 2nd Edition?  (With a little seasoning from 3.5 and 4E of course)

The way I remember it, when starting up the design process for 5E Mike Mearls went back and replayed all the early versions of D&D. One of the things he found really surprising was just how easy the game was to pick up and play from a newbie perspective and how fast the combat and the game itself ran compared to more recent editions. Less time was being spent in combat/mechanics and more time was being spent in the story, dungeon and adventure itself. That experience had a big influence on the design of 5E.

For a mass market appeal game I personally think the guys in the 80's just about nailed it on the complexity angle. Usually the flaws and quirks of the games back then just got patched out with home rules.

Quote from: Rhedyn;1058091Even Fate?

Especially Fudge and Fate. I really do need to put up my comparison article of D&D and Fudge/Fate sometime. To summarize Fudge stripped out all the excess and conflicting rules of D&D and focused on like three of the core D&D mechanics to build a really elegant storytelling RPG game. You wouldn't notice it until it is pointed out to you, but once you see it, you will be all like, "Wow! I'm surprised I never noticed that before?"

Quote from: GameDaddy;1058204Especially Fudge and Fate. I really do need to put up my comparison article of D&D and Fudge/Fate sometime. To summarize Fudge stripped out all the excess and conflicting rules of D&D and focused on like three of the core D&D mechanics to build a really elegant storytelling RPG game. You wouldn't notice it until it is pointed out to you, but once you see it, you will be all like, "Wow! I'm surprised I never noticed that before?"

Fate is a great game. And yes, it's an RPG. It's completely replaced the BRP family as my "Go-to" system for just about anything I'd ever want to run.

Too bad the 4dF bell curve is so steep that even a +1 is a significant modifier. Ultimately I ditched my attempt at using Fudge and now would take an approach similar to AGE where skill and attributes are modifiers to a 3d6 roll.

Quote from: estar;1058210Too bad the 4dF bell curve is so steep that even a +1 is a significant modifier.

At least in regards to Fate, I always viewed it as d20 systems sort of give you a lot of small bonuses like +1 here, +2 there, etc while Fate tosses those out for less frequent +10's. And then they threw in a meta game of gaining/removing those +10's. So your character might be flanking an enemy quite often, but it doesn't really matter until you spend the currency/action to get that big +10 "Flanking" aspect.

Fudge is a very good rules light RPGs.

I've run it a dozen times at conventions for one shots and it consistently does it job well.

Quote from: estar;1058122Take a look at this. I use to allow people roll 5e characters during conventions.

I don't let people roll 0e characters at conventions!!

OMG. Gamers are sooooooooo sloooooooooooooow picking gear and spells.

If I'm running 0e, I'm going Fighting Man, Cleric, Magic-User and doing 3 of each class, one for Law, Neutral and Chaos. That gives me 9 PCs for 6 players so there is enough choices without inducing option paralysis.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1058233I don't let people roll 0e characters at conventions!!

OMG. Gamers are sooooooooo sloooooooooooooow picking gear and spells.

Yeah. And it's the stuff that doesn't matter that takes forever.

For D&D I like PC pregen sheets with all the mechanical stuff and equipment done, but name personality background (non-mechanical) left blank. Then the player can still basically make the character they want. Often there is one item change to the equipment to nail it - with the 3 new players, family friends, & their 5e pregen PCs on Saturday we:
1. Dad - Barbarian - swapped greatsword for battleaxe & shield to make a Viking Barbarian like the player's mini.
2. Mom - Paladin - let the player get rid of the nymphomania flaw from the Traits/Bonds/Flaws (cheers for that one WotC)  :rolleyes:
3. Son - Fighter - swapped Human for Dragonborn on the Race line, removed 3 stat points, and added a breath attack.
Took a few minutes (with flu!) and they had the PCs they wanted.