My take on it.
In the beginning there was Chainmail, funny notion for table top miniatures.
Then it became Dungeons and Dragons, basically a few rough looking little booklets. Stuff for beginners advanced and masters.
Then came the first hard cover tomes, and the beast was truely alive.
It became 1st edition, and the game was actually starting to really take off. It looked polished, and not just a mishmash of ideas. About this time, the religious crowd started to fret over the demon worshipping satanists
2nd edition was the whole game revamped, clarified and nice new manuals.
This was the first great grab for the cash edition. Manuals for everything possible. Over specialization just so you could print a book about it. Modules for settings aplenty, game worlds aplenty, because more worlds meant more settings which required more modules.
To be honest, 2nd edition was not bad if you meant the Players and DM's manuals, after that it was all the shameless marketing of fluff that pissed me off.
They also did the return to the beginning manual which I think for the veterans was a nice memory lane tome than a practical game manual. I wouldn't mind a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia just for that reason.
I think though, D&D3 has gone toooooooo far. Not to mention they did D&D3 and in a great scam, re released it as D&D3.5. Talk about having your wallet gang raped eh. Bend over and give us your money bitch.
If they had not given out the d20 licence, so that every friggin yahoo under creation could now pretend they were Gygax, it might not have been so bad.
But they staked out the game, stripped it bare with this dumb d20 licence notion, and invited every bored doofus to come have have a go at the ole gal call Dungeons and Dragons.
I've seen the manuals, redundant tripe in most cases. A bloody goblin is a bloody goblin. There's only so many ways to create a sword wielding lunatic. And magic is only able to do so many tricks before the only thing magical, is you came up with a fresh sounding name for "fireball".
A good rolegame requires only a few elements to work.
1. You need an imagination, and don't expect it to work while drunk
2. You need a set of them funny dice.
3. Paper and pencil, and an ability to print legible. This assumes you can write, and no, it's not school. I tell my players, if I can't read it, I don't give a shyt what you thought it was, it doesn't count if I can't read it properly.
4. Actual demonstratable capacity to distinguish the difference between roleplaying and rollplaying. Rollplaying is what table top miniatures is for.
5. 4-5 players that can understand, if the group agrees to meet on say sat evening, missing numerous sessions is the same as saying I can't continue, and you are replaced.
6. At least 1 female is a major perk. Might not be possible, but, I'd rather not hang out sat night with 4-5 guys that can't even find one single interested female.
7. Notice how I have yet to mention the books yet? Roleplaying is mostly about realising, that an imaginary person is basically 6 numbers defining their nature. Commonly this is strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma. It's not a shock that damned near every game ever made uses those terms. It's what works. Think of hexes and turns and you get the idea
A paper person can be extrapolated in a million ways from those 6 numbers. The only real reason for the books, is to make money actually. They're just products eh. If you have mastered the reality, that anything and everything a paper person can ever want to do, is derived from those 6 numbers, then you can see you don't really need the books.
I've got a sword, can I hit the goblin?
Ok roll your strength. You passed, you hit the goblin.
Did I hurt the goblin?
Roll your strength, you passed, it hurt the goblin.
The goblin just tried to hit you.
Roll your dexterity to avoid being hit by the goblin. You passed, it didn't hit you.
That goblin looks like it is trying to tell you something.
Roll your intelligence. You passed, it seems to have said, it is running from a band of nastier goblins.
That might be true. Roll your wisdom.
You passed, that is one tricky goblin, it's a ruse.
Those 6 stats rule every last aspect of rolegaming. The books are only about ad naseum magnitudes of nit picking detail fudging for the most part.
I have a character I am currently playing. In the process of rolling my dice to get my 6 stats I was totally on fire with luck. I had two 18s, normally one is a gift from the game gods
I have mostly awesome stats.
I made an elf ranger. In the process of designing my D&D3.5 elven ranger, I ended up with a 20 for Dexterity. I thought, awesome he's nearly untouchable.
I made him a super archer. I figure as he's an archer, why worry about strength, so I only used a 16 on it, and not an 18.
I thought, he's a ranger, I put a 9 in his intelligence and not my second spare 18.
Yeah I could have had a total tank that was unhitable and great with a bow. But I wanted him to be "fun", so I gave the 18 to his charisma. A rollgamer would think I was crazy.
So far, 6 sessions in, and I used the 18 charisma once to get a nice price for some loot. I could have likely used the doubled skill points I guess. And being able to get the extra damage from an 18 strength might have been nice. But I don't rollgame, I rolegame.
Alas, 3.5 is all about power gaming. By 3 level, a PC schmuck fighter today could likely beat the snot out of a 10th level 1st edition barbarian. It's all about managing the stats, maxing out the feats and picking the right route to getting an uber PC killing machine. It takes a skilled DM to keep on top of this stuff, and keep the game about ROLEplaying now.
As for the supplements, you have to be very careful. Some of them are abominable examples of non existent proof reading. Some of them are just very redundant examples of schlock.
Good players, and a clever DM, is what makes good rolegaming. And with good players, and a clever DM, you can have as good a game, without the books, as someone that has em all.
