If you’re interested in the history of the hobby, it’s important, and there are good bits in there, but… yeah. It’s extremely messy, sometimes outright broken, and sexist even by the standards of its time and context.

I love 3e, but it was the first edition I played. If you look at it and think, “No, absolutely not,” I can’t argue with you. :P It’s a mess, but it’s in my trash pile.

“A love letter to 2e” actually sounds a lot better than anything else I’ve heard about the revision. :P

Also, I have a soft spot for 3.x, but my potentially controversial opinion is that 1e is the worse edition by far.

I felt aggressively bored when reading the comments about the playtest.

Did they improve DM support? Make CR actually work? Is combat more dynamic and faster-paced? Is character creation still a pain in the ass? Did they flesh out non-combat? Do player abilities still tend to solve problems by just turning off parts of the game? Is there a clear vision for what this even is?

Oh look, it’s mostly balance changes to the classes.

I’m not saying they didn’t make some changes to fix my issues. I wouldn’t know either way, since I can’t be bothered to check, since the core audience sure did make it seem like its mostly balance changes to the classes.

Right alongside “Never get involved in a land war in Asia,” and “Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”

I think it’s been long enough that I forgot I don’t like Munchkin, and want to play Munchkin.

Honestly, me neither, but apparently those lyrics were still firmly lodged in my brain. :P I think I’m going to give them another listen, too.

Grew a mustache and a mullet

Got a job at Chick-Fil-A

Citing “artistic differences”

The band broke up in May

And in June reformed without me

And they got a different name

I nuked another grandma’s apple pie

And hung my head in shame

“You are using Bonetti’s Defense against me, ah?”

Boring possibility: the DM thinks halflings and gnomes are largely redundant, and picked one to ban.

Or the one shot involves outsiders getting involved with a halfling community in trouble!

Kender, who were similar to halflings and I think are now a variant, were notorious for this. Their schtick is that they “borrow” things from their party members, not understanding that it’s theft. It gave assholes license to be assholes under the guise of roleplay, until the table inevitably needs a talk.

If the players are demanding wild results, especially if they’re the kind to roll unprompted, then sure.

But in my experience, it’s usually just a little flourish or a small bonus, which I think is fine.

And if the issue is that a nat 20 doesn’t guarantee success, technically, sure, but I’d be more annoyed being asked to make a pointless roll. I know there are reasons, like a hidden target number, or other characters being able to do it, but in general, I’d rather just hear “no” than go through a pointless check.

Like others have said, the rules are… bad. Especially the latest edition. A couple of the older editions are “favorites,” but still mixed bags, and lots of people just take the setting and use it in another system entirely.

There’s a Shadowrun actual play podcast called NeoScum that I loved (now concluded), and it began with “It’s like D&D mixed with Bladerunner!” and ended with “Fuck this, fuck Shadowrun, the universe rearranges itself so we can play a different game.” They even had a goofy recurring bit they would do whenever they had to stop play to look up rules or calculate something, which happened constantly. It’s also not a player issue, since they’ve switched to Call of Cthulhu for another story (Gutter) and just don’t have that problem.

I also bounced off of the Reloaded version (and SW in general). Unfortunately, I can’t really speak to the alternatives from personal experience.

However, I’ve been gearing up to try Call of Cthulhu, and found out it has a Western setting! Down Darker Trails. I had never heard about it, but what I could find was really positive. If and when I run a weird west game, that would probably be my first choice, and certainly a top contender.

I love the level-0 “funnels” from Goodman Games. If I have to pick one, let’s say the classic, Sailors on the Starless Sea.

They’re easy to pitch, and really help establish a tone, especially for players who bring a lot of preconceptions from 5e.

I’m annoyed that I expect Hollywood executive, as always, will take the wrong lesson from it. They’ll see it underperformed and think people don’t want a D&D movie, rather than that they shouldn’t have released it between John Wick and Mario.

My theory is that having a horny bard in the party is pretty common, but it depends on how frequently and how (ahem) enthusiastically those scenes get roleplayed. :P

I played the heck out of NWN when I was a teenager!

…by which I mean I was excited by the character options, so I ended up restarting it over and over again. I’ve done the Waterdhavian Creatures quest so many times I burnt out. :P

I should go back and actually beat the game.

Top of the list, I think, is… just some old-school D&D. Technically, probably Old-Shool Essentials or Dolmenwood, both of which are retroclones of B/X D&D.

I just got into watching Dungeon Meshi and playing Caves of Qud, both of which are just dripping with old-school D&D influence. Plus I’ve never actually ran a full dungeon or hex crawl.

Honorable mention to Burning Wheel, 16-time annual winner of My Favorite Game I’ve Never Played. :P

I love that kind of history. On the topic of cooking, Tasting History is one of my favorites!

And I’m also adding that book to my reading list. I’m kicking myself for not reading enough books, but I’ve gone on a nonfiction kick out of nowhere.

I almost skipped over this video, because I thought it was about some other drama about the origins of D&D, which is mostly just outrage tourism.

Happy to be mistaken! It’s been a little bit since I watched Matt Colville, so I’ll give this a watch when I have the time. And it includes a book recommendation on top of that!