Friday, January 28, 2011

Games come, games go / Clearing out

I have a gaming dilemma. I have caused it myself.
I have suddenly decided that I should have a clear out of my gaming books. Get rid off the stuff I'm never going to use and don't want to keep.
I know, it sounds like madness. It is madness. I know it is. I still regret throwing out all my old World of Darkness, Exalted 1st edition and Ars Magica 4th Edition books. I regret throwing out my D&D 3.5 books.
I got rid of all of these books because I made the conscious decision to go all in with the new editions.

This proved to be a mistake with Exalted, D&D and Ars Magica, as I really do not like the new systems. I dislike them so much that I am now considering ditching these games.

To be completely clear, I am thinking about selling, trading, gifting or simply binning my Exalted 2nd Ed, Ars Magica 5th Ed and Dungeons & Dragons 4th Ed books.
  • Ars Magica 5th Edition
  • Exalted 2nd Edition core rules
  • Exalted 2nd Edition storytellers screen
  • Exalted 2nd Edition storytellers companion
  • Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Players Handbook
  • Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Dungeon Masters Guide
  • Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Monster Manual
  • Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition DM Screen
  • Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide

The overriding reason why i'm thinking of getting rid of these games is that I can't get behind the systems.
I don't like the 'everything is a power' thing in D&D 4th ed. It works for Wizards, but not for Rogues or Fighters. Whatever happened to just hitting someone with your sword?
The 2nd Ed rules in Exalted just hurt my head. It's like they were made deliberately complicated and obtuse and ridiculous.
Ars Magica 5th Ed may be a more viable system than 4th Ed, i'll give it that, but I really don't like what they've done to the setting and layout. It's too dry. There's no excitement or flavour, just dust.

I'm not shedding a tear about Exalted or Ars Magica, but I am oddly reluctant to leave D&D behind. I don't have any other game like it - the classic level/class based fantasy quest growing from barely competent chancers through seasoned adventurers to epic godlike heroes.
As a result, I find myself considering Pathfinder. So much so that I've just cleansed my Amazon wishlist.

So, two questions to you all out there:

  1. Want to buy some books? All in excellent condition except the Exalted second edition, which has some interior spine damage.
  2. Should I invest in Pathfinder? Is it any good? Does it actually improve on D&D 3.5?

3 comments:

  1. Painfully late to the party, but if you somehow still have the Exalted screen and/or Ars Magica 5e, I'd gladly relieve you of those if you can ship to France without selling a kidney.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've still got ArM5. I'm not sure how much it would cost to ship to France. I can find out and we can agree something if you're still interested.
    Welcome to my blog, BTW

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would recommend either

    Adventures Dark and Deep
    http://www.adventuresdarkanddeep.com/

    or

    Legend and Labyrinths
    http://8bitfunding.com/project_details.php?p_id=207

    ReplyDelete