h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

G'day,
I quite enjoy getting a bunch of mates together, drinking copious quantities of beer and role-playing, and if the women are lucky they get to join in

Yep, nothing like slaughtering a few characters to make an evening perfect....see you were right about the Dungeon Master (but whatever do you mean by "delusions" of grandeur - I *am* a god!).

Indeed, delusions of grandeur! I'm hurt. I'm taking away 100 of your XP and hmmm.. isn't that the Watermelon Goddess up around the next turn bearing a very ripe gift?

Seriously, being DM wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. In its heyday, my teens, the mid-eighties.... I ended up always being DM. If I wanted to play, I had to teach my friends the game, get them hooked on it... but I always ended up being DM. Even in college (early 90's), I was DM, Gamemaster, Controller.. or whatever the term was for whatever game we were playing. I would have liked the experience of playing a character! I never was able to.


I'm taking 100,000,000,000,000,00 XP away from the RPGers of the world for doing this to me, simply out of spite.

Ominpotently,
KayKay

Should have gone to a geekier college. Caltech in the late 70's was overrun with DMs. We'd go all night long, swapping each other's campaigns and teleporting player-characters between worlds.

Too bad this guide entry completely ignores the fact that there was a rich tradition of D&D *BEFORE* those hardcover rulebooks, which many old-timers feel completely ruined the game. There was certainly a different experience to trying to figure out what the hell the first three slim softcover rulebooks were trying to say.

I was a part-time dungeon master, most of the time. I would share the duty with another member of our group, and we would take turns. When it was my turn to be DM, my character was a silent partner that went along for the ride, cast a few spells when necessary, and got his share of experience and gold.

As for the softcovers: we never really used the hardcovers anyway, whose rules were so mind-bogglingly comprehensive that you ended up spending more time doing math and die rolls than actually playing. We pared down most of those rules, if only to avoid learning math while doing something fun.

MNSHO, then, is that you should write an entry, "D&D Before the Rule Books" and submit it. Perhaps the Great Editors of H2G2 can incorporate it somehow into this one (or at least link them together).

Rule Books Shmool books. Only time they got dragged out was when the new guy tried to convince us he really did have a 50th level wizard.
All in all a fantastic game. They are getting a bit carried away thought already arounf to the 3rd edition of hard covers. thank God (whichever) they also put them on CD Rom now much cheaper.

hi ive never played the game but im sure its quite good. ya right

KayKay, I feel your pain fellow DM. I too have been prepetually handed the job regardless of my wishes as well. Mostly my players excuse themselves by saying they just can't do it as good as me. And lately our gaming sessions involves the little troup sitting around the table in silence for hours until someone finally cracks and says they'll do it. Unfortunately I also happen to be the one with the least amount of patience... Of course, no one cares that I have no plot planned for an adventure at all! "You'll think of something" they tell me. Well, what if I don't WANNA THINK!! Ahem... sorry about that... Ah well, I guess it just goes to show. A good DM is so hard to find...

Hrumpf... I#m a DM... cause no one else in the group want the job...

-The Allamistako

I've been stuck their too. The pitty is that I'm not all that good at it. My wife, who is a drama teacher, won't do it. I think she'd be a lot better at being playing the roles of NPC's and so forth.

Personally, I like the look of the Third Edition. I haven't had a chance to play it, but I like the simple mechanics of the whole thing. I'm not so sure I care for the Sorceror class though.

Just think of the raw power.. no rules.. free-for-all... Spells flying everywhere, no limits so benign as a simple spell book! Wonderful adventure!

'Nonnie

What about all the time and energy my PC wizard has had to put in. He's spent years in school, and hours in study after graduation. Now these upstarts come along. It's just not fair. The wizards should hunt down the sorcerors and root them out.

An idea for a campaign slowly perculates in the DM's mind....

Well.. when you're just born good...

'Nonnie
(HKU is the best teacher, anyway. )

I've not read the 3rd edition. Are these Sorcerer types anything like that misbegotten class the AD&D Psionicist (or Psychic, as some might say)?

The Prophet

They're magic users with innate spell abilities. They have more spells per day than a wizard, they don't use spell books, and they have a larger weapon selection. They can't learn as many spells, and I don't think they get as many feats (these are sort of like proficiencies and traits).

I secretly suspect that they were going to replace wizards with these guys, but the playtesters objected.

It sounds a bit like the Psionicists, who were basically pointless.

It would save wrangling over how big a spellbook is though. I've known DMs who let wizards and bards (always my favourite class) tote their spell book around in a single volume that fits in a rucksack and can be held open in one hand whilst shivving a goblin with the other, and those who insist that spell books run to several volumes, requiring a library - or at least a large trunk and a donkey-cart - to store.

Are first level wizards still Sleep spells on legs (or magic missiles, but frankly your shiv used to do more damage at first level) or are they a little more able to keep up?

Oh, and on a related note, what do people think the chances are of the film being any good?

The Prophet.

I think it'll be good. I saw the teaser at DragonCon. It looked pretty sharp. I expect the plot to be a little weak, but I'm still excited.

yeah, well, now they've foisted the DM job onto the computers of the world. IE: Balders Gate.

Pity you cant gather a group of friends around and argue with the PC whether or not you are allowed to do something..

Boy was I wrong about the Dungeons and Dragons Movie. It was really weak. I mean awful. That little female mage was particularly awful. I liked the way they showed spells being used. I thought those effects were neat.

One thing that really struck me as odd is that there were a bunch of mages using fireballs on red dragons.

Bad movie overall.

Thanks for the warning, Two Bit.

I've never been able to get particularly captivated by computer gaming, because it's so limiting. It always reverts to hack & slash, and you have so few options. With a human DM, you're only limited by your own imagination, tempered with what the DM will allow you to get away with. I've found that, most often, if you come up with a wild solution that sounds funny, the DM will support it completely. How often do you laugh at Balder's Gate?