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

Hey everyone says that 3rd editoin is really really good. Do you think so? How much is it different than 2nd edition?

It has changed. I still remember changing from first edition to second. The horror, the horror.. i mean, the dragons, the dragons. Right now we are playing Dark Tower, refitted for second edition. I must say, it is interesting to see an old red dragon second edition trying to fit in a first edition room. Imagine a cat in a kid's shoe box.

I am in the middle of reading the 3rd edition player's book. There are several changes, some small, some quite different. There are zero level spells now, there are mages who don't have to pick spells at the begining of each day. The skills and proficencies have been consolidated and then split into skills and feat systems. All races can be all classes (ie, a dwarfen mage). They have brought back monks and illisionists. They have changed how you roll for attacks and saves. I think they were trying to make all rolls such that the higher the number, the better. What wizards had in mind was to make a few more consistancies with the rules.

But that is one of the biggest problems. The Player's is now called a RULEBOOK. It has always been expressed by TSR that these books are Guidebooks, which can be altered to fit your house style. I think that wizards may have tried to make it more uniform. They have put out a box set, a beginners intro to the third edition. It works a bit like a board game. I am going through this now. The movements are a bit weird, but more defined. There are pluses form "flanking" which i don't agree with. That's when 2 people attack one creature from each side at 180 degrees. There is something called "takeing 10" and "takeing 20". You can attempt to pick a lock over and over. Now, if you fail on your first attempt, you can try again. However, and this is where i have problems. You can take 10. That means that you take 10 attempts at the same time taking you 10 times as long as one atepmt, and for that, you automatically roll a 10 on your d20 (adding in your plusses for theiving and such). Same with a 20. But tell me this, what if the lock is traped? Do you automatically set off the trap? If the player asks to take 10 on a lock, the DM would have to tell them they can't (which is like telling the theif, "yes there is a trap but you don't know about it even though i am telling you"). I haven't gone through the whole thing, so it is difficult to say that this is better. Being raised in the rhelms of first and second edition, what i'll probabhly end up doing is combining all three. I don't know. I hope the new rules make playing clerics better. A problem i have always found is the lack of anything for the clerics to do other than be healing machines and back up back up fighters. Healing spells are more powerful (cure light is d8 + 1pt per level). Arg. I'm rambling. Respond to this, and i'll add more, hopefully with a more pointed response.

Sounds like it just keeps getting more complicated!! I'm glad that they brought the monks back but personally I just kept them in and winged it in the games making up my own rules for them. Have they made any changes to the Rangers? And what are these zero level spells of which you speak? Does this mean that any class can cast spells that are zero level or that you can have infinite of these spells? Wow this definatley poses some interesting questions!