Over the past 21 years I've spent a lot of time playing Dungeons & Dragons; and of the versions I've explored none has captivated me quite like Third Edition. Where Fifth Edition made the game more accessible, and Fourth made it feel more gamey, Third Edition was the version that taught me to tinker with things. It was the one that said, "If you don't like the rule, change it. That's what all the supplemental books with their countless alternative rule sets were effectively saying.
The game was a massive beast when Wizards of the Coast (WoC) finally decided to end it and release Fourth Edition. There were over 150 books published throughout the life of the system by WoC that ranged from setting books, like Dragonlance, to adventures and supplemental books that changed the nature of how the game functioned, like Tome of Magic. With all those books as a Dungeon Master (DM), which I was throughout that time, you had to pick out which rules you were going to enforce, which you were going to ignore, and which you were going to modify.
When I first started playing the rules were more a blanket that I could wrap around myself and use to support my own authority as a DM. I didn't have to be the one responsible for stopping a bad form of play (disruptive nonsense, abusive moves, ect.) - it was the rules. I never had to be the bad guy.
The thing is, as you grow older you realize that sometimes being in charge means that you have to be the bad guy. You have to be the one responsible for making a decision that others won't like for the betterment of the group as a whole. Yes, within rules the Wizard could feasibly create a chain of villagers to move a rock forward and create a devastating weapon to effectively nuke the Big, Bad, Evil Guy (BBEG) but it wouldn't be fun. It would create a world where the BBEG could do the same thing to the heroes or one where an even more inane and stupid idea could overcome everything and end the game in one massive blah moment.
That's not what we're here for.
The game is a vehicle for us to have fun together. You, me, and all the other players at the table. We have to work together to create an environment where we have the most fun. This can be stupid ideas that work, brilliant ideas that fail, and even Total Party Kills (TPKs).
Third Edition made me realize that the role of the DM is about making decisions that affect how the game is played and it was liberating. I wasn't just referee creating a scenario for play and impartially deciding the outcome of the dice. I was an active participant in the game.
Fourth Edition, for me, felt like that was taken away. The game was too gamey - by which I mean that the game felt more at home on a board than in us playing with the "Theater of the Mind" as I was more accustomed. I didn't feel confident in such a system with breaking by changing it and ignoring rules that might fundamentally affect the overall experience, as I had been in the older system.
Fifth Edition brought that fun back for me as I was able to adjust the game once more without feeling like I was doing something that would make it less fun for everyone else. It didn't hurt that I was watching others do that very thing from the day that the first playtest document launched. I loved it - still do, but my son is interested in some more crunchy systems and has asked to play 3rd Edition.
So we're going to do just that.
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