James Nicoll Reviews

Inspired by Aaron de Orive's 2020 First Ten RPGs, a brief account of the roleplaying games [RPGs] I have played most recently, beginning with the most recent and working backwards¹. Number one, the Windows of roleplaying games: 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.

As previously established, I only played AD&D once; I thought the mechanics were silly. I did play 3rd edition briefly (still not my thing), and an entire campaign of 4th (although arguably, whatever 4th was, it was not D&D). I've played two and three quarter 5th edition campaigns.

The current version is a decent updating of the venerable RPG, retaining enough of the core elements of the original game--character classes, for example--while vastly improving the mechanics and presentation of Gygax and Arneson's idiosyncratic, sometimes slapdash creation. There are enough crunchy bits for people who like crunchy bits to fiddle with, but it's also playable². There are enough supplements for to beggar the wealthy buying them all, but the core rule books are sufficient for creative DMs to run their own home-made campaigns. It's also more inclusive than Gygax's version.

After three campaigns, I think I have a decent feel for the system, which of course means the Waterloo Gamers will no doubt be moving on to something else.

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1: Unlike last year's effort, this will be a weekly, not daily, project.

2: Many early roleplaying games were strangely unaware of the utility of playability.