So, after lambasting D&D, why have I had a mild change of heart, a softening of rhetoric?
After selling most of my huge Pathfinder collection and reasonable clutch 4th edition of D&D, I swore never to fo down that path again. I did keep another D20 game called 13th Age, but that was more out of book bloat hiding it from culling eyes than design. More on this later.
So, in a moment of open minded weakness, I bought D&D 5e!
Lots of positive press about the improvements in play, clarity and application of needed fixes sucked me in. Also came the promise that they would not bloat the landscape with countless-useless tomes as the past editions had done. Three core books, all done. No Harm.
The books were a good if slightly dry read, addressing a lot of the more obvious problems with 3rd and 4th editions and promising a play style more in keeping with earlier editions, without their system clunkiness and pitfalls. Their main focus seemed to be on curving out of hand magic and making any character of any level always vulnerable.
This prompted me to get the Adventures in Middle Earth (AIME) books by Cubicle Seven. I love their take on Tolkien’s work in The One Ring RPG, but found the system suffered from an “evolving as it comes”, syndrome and some slightly too rigid processes that force players down some strict systemic pathways. I still like the system for all of the right reasons and was disappointed to hear the cleaner and more complete second edition, indeed the whole line, has been canned*.
Beautiful art, good to great writing and a successful capturing of the feel of genuine Tolkien.
AIME is for me the perfect combination of original D&D concepts as refined in fifth edition, blended with the low magic, low power world of Tolkien. Even at high levels, characters feel lower powered.
I am a strong supporter of the D&D 3e “E6” movement, which places a strong limit on character power, usually 6th level, but sometimes higher or lower. It came from an article arguing that Gandalf was only a 6th level Wizard (and he used a sword!) and that a Dragon, any Dragon should be at least region shaping event and frikkin’ scary, not just a “speed bump” for high level characters on their way to demigod status. This led to my own “E10” Pathfinder re-boot and more time wasted, when D100 games were set up this way anyway.
The beauty of AIME is it’s successful combining of the better concepts of The One Ring seamlessly and some say more efficiently, into the well trod mechanics of D&D for a coherent and complete game (the benefit of coming second after TOR is no catch-up). The game is so complete, that it only needs twenty pages from the free 5e intro rules (“Playing the Game”) to work. I traded my 5e books for some X Wing ships and moved into full AIME mode quickly.
Straddling the fence between main stream D&D and The One Ring look, the books are more cohently organised, even if most of the story lines and art are identical to TOR, but who cares. There is enough content to play both without crossing over, but I will be sticking to AIME.
Why does it work for me? Lets look at my main complaints about D&D.
Levels. It does use levels, but the 5e take on levelling up is less powerful than previous versions and AIME feels even gentler, due in part to it’s inherent mechanics. The 5e designers intent was to make even high level characters vulnerable to hordes of low level “mooks”, but magic is still an unbalancing element (see below). Ironically, levels in AIME line up perfectly with the “adventuring year” concept and the decades long campaigns that the designers have created. One year of adventure, an off season of retrospection and contemplation, leading to more preparedness, equals levelling up, then off on another adventure year stronger, better prepared and wiser. This forms decades long stories and it fits the Tolkien ethos perfectly. I have two long campaigns and dozens of filler adventures to fatten up the years of character challenges as well as countless adventure hooks in their region guides. Elven Characters for example could even adventure with multiple generations of the same family.
Magic. Magic is, just like the books, out of the hands of the characters. Some races may have access to magical items and the world has many powerful magical elements, but there are no magic using classes and few powerful magical artefacts or weapons, again just like in the books. Remember a clutch of magic rings and a handful of magic swords changed the fate of the entire world. You may meet a Mage, maybe even Gandalf, but you will not be one.
Classes. There are classes in the game, but they are in keeping with the character types common to the world and heavily influenced by race, region and personal choice. Without magic using classes they are limited to six robust types, with lots of customisation. I cannot find fault with the designers choices. Early trepidation at having only six classes was replaced with much excitement after making up three very different characters from just one class. The classes are D&D equivalents, but fit the genre better.
Combat. Combat is what it is. I have to admit, 5e has addressed a lot of the hit point bloat and un-touchableness of 3e, high level characters and I can accept that long earned experience works as an abstract hit point pool in this game. Hypocritical of me I know, but maybe the original concept has found a harmonious home (for me). I like the story first, old school feel of this world and the mechanics as is.
So, this is one way of liking D&D from a D&D critic’s perspective, but there is yet another.
*Cubicle 7 has relinquished the licence for any Tolkien based work. Fear not though! There is plenty around still and the PDF’s are still available cheaply.