I actually tried 3rd edition...

Redgar by Todd Lockwood

I'm not sure what exactly prompted it, but at a certain point in the past year my friends and I began talking about trying our 3rd edition (3.5e to be specific). Perhaps it was my starting a new work position or maybe ongoing AD&D campaigns were on a bit of a break. Why not try it? We've tried plenty of other games hadn't we? This quickly turned into several sessions and my first real exposure to 3.5e, its books, and the traces of its online presence. The results were interesting to say the least! What's more, my groups playing of OD&D and AD&D over the past few years combined with this trial of D&D 3.5e definitely changed my preconceived notions. 

I was a relatively late joiner to the G+ scene of OSR games. I was at the tail end of the year google pulled the plug when I started a Labyrinth Lord campaign and instantly loved it. Ever since I started rooting about this corner of the scene, I've heard chatter about 3rd Edition, its evils against humanity, and ultimately how it is oft cited as an antithesis and impetus for everything folks espoused old school games and their ilk were about. Having never looked at the books, I saw it as just a crunchy game that I probably wouldn't like. A cursory search leading to whole forums and sites dedicated to just building and optimizing characters didn't help this either. What follows are some of my thoughts on the whole thing after actually trying it.

The Transformation

In preparation for the game and in part due to some morbid curiosity, I did read quite a bit of  material from this edition. And while I wasn't insane enough to use any of the many splat books, I did end up reading a fair selection of them and skimming a good portion of the remainder to get the general vibe. Much like how reading far, far too much into OD&D made some traces of choices and mechanics roots very apparent in later editions, playing so much AD&D did help elucidate why some things are the way they are... most of the time.

I consider it a relatively cold take to categorize the core books for 3.5e as a "standardized take on AD&D 2e", where the strange mechanics are homogenized. Where the attitude of "here's the rules, work out what's left" was replaced with very extensive defining and a "check the rules, it's probably there" attitude. The (optional but oft used) Proficiencies of AD&D transformed into Skills and Feats. Everything got stats. The explanations and suggestions for various things in the DMG turned into an almost simulations framework. Monsters gained ability scores, stats, and feats as well as defined types to justify their abilities and nature. 2e's Kits became a core feature, turning into Prestige Classes or Feats.

As a general result of this, a lot of the early stuff is comparable to later AD&D. While HP totals are huge due to many bonuses, HD amounts are largely similar across the board if not fully identical (especially so in 3.0 books). As are many spell effects and monster abilities. The DNA of why many design choices were made is quite clear even if it is a different game. Aside from mechanics, the conceptual evolution lines up with a lot of the later 2e modules and material pumped out. 

As much as I love the esoterica of AD&D, mechanical standardization and clarity do have potential benefits. Many established benchmarks and definite examples can be a good resource to make judgement calls in a more complicated system. I'm no stranger to crunch and I don't see it as an innate issue per se. As long as you don't treat the text as some inflexible legal/holy text of course.

The Culture

For my purposes, reading older posts in various communities impressed upon me that the popular culture of play surrounding this game was completely alien to me. Maybe its a trad game thing, I don't know. It's clear it quickly evolved away from what the core books presented at least with the expectation that magical items in the DMG were actually an extended shopping catalog readily available, ideas about balance, that Prestige Classes were a given, and that the execution of a planned build was a fine art form. Where people argued rules in a vacuum on various forums in a manner as if the RAW text of the game, while certainly fallible, was to be utilized and exploited to the utmost letter. Where decisions on items and abilities were made before play even started (if it started at all), rather than being emergent choices. Oh and some of these choices could now be wrong apparently. So wrong that various options and classes were tiered based on their potential and a near-omnipresent grading of classes looms over such discussions. Now some of this is just ttrpgs hitting the internet and is by no means exclusive to 3.5e, but the tenacity of such discourse was quite clear.

One of the most striking examples I can think of was reading on how controversial the "Leadership" feat was among the 3rd edition forums. All this feat did was allow characters to accrue followers at higher levels, kinda like how name-level characters attract followers. Apparently this was considered incredibly overpowered! The baseline assumption seemed to be that the player created their follower and controlled them (this was stated nowhere). So effectively the feat was viewed as "make another character." Another example is the idea of a "diplomancer" where, rules being rules, you could convince anyone to do anything if your Persuasion roll was high enough, seemingly ignoring the rules that the DM decides what is actually possible or impossible in favor of this limitless interpretation. It was really wild stuff all around.

This was clearly a "game away from the game" and I am not the first to make this observation. Much like making an army list or building a TCG deck, the meticulous assembling of a character and sorting wheat from chaff was clearly a massive draw for many people (and in many cases probably their only engagement with the game, I'd wager). The massive drive for optimization and evaluation of options is definitely easy to compare to such competitive games and even video games, with people talking about the various aspects of the game as if they are characters in a fighting game and their tournament viability is up for debate.

Suffice to say, it was quite strange having only read the core books. And maybe I'm looking back with a good deal of hindsight, but it seems safe to say that the play culture diverged from the original text and the later material warped to cater to this new cultural norm. Because played straight, none of this should really even be a thing as far as I can see. We certainly didn't have any of these come up as an issue.

Rakehell - A Review of Exiles and Petty Brigandage

Rakehell is damnably good. It's been circling in my mind since I found it earlier this year, worming its way into my other games and infecting my own ideas of play and creation. I could attempt to dive into the miserable little slice of the world that Brian has presented here which is full of toil, suffering, and fragile hope... but I'm afraid I'm quite ill-equipped to do it justice. 

But I'll try anyway. So think of this as more of a semi-coherent ramble (which I hope you can understand) trying to get across why this zine has been occupying my thoughts even still.

Getting the "overview" out of the way, Rakehell is a full toolkit for KNAVE outlining just about everything you'd need to adventure in a sad little region called the Rift. From adventurer generators, content randomizer for exploration, villains and fiends with plenty of variation, and brilliant factions that ooze atmosphere and spur on faction play. Oh and two thematic adventures, a base town, a reactive black market for PCs to influence. 

There's a lot here. It's $3. Go get it.

So Why the Obsession?

I must confess, I am a huge Warhammer Fantasy fan. The aesthetic and world of WFRP (both 1st and 2nd editions), were right up my alley. It was grim, perilous, dirty, and violent. It immediately captured me and changed the type of stories and settings I would create with my players at the table, even when we weren't playing it. All that mud and blood made the real heroics or victories (when they did occur), all the sweeter.

Something similar happened when I cracked open Rakehell and began pouring over the truly immense amount of content packed into its 90+ pages. Where Warhammer reveled in the darkness of the world (I mean come on, just look at the Chaos Warriors or Beastmen), Rakehell is ultimately about people and their imperfect nature. It's about bad choices, mistakes, desperately clutching to what you once knew in the face of the unknown, petty justification, and the pain you cause others to shield yourself. It's comparatively a very human and personal affair next to the "eternal chaos threat from hell dimension" shenanigans I know from WFRP, but it retains that great dirty and pathetic aesthetic with Brian's own evocative and eloquent twists added throughout.

I mean, it touches on the ugly bits we should be scared of in *this* dimension: empire, institutional failure, the corruption of the spirit and of "noble" causes, the abuse of power, kicking down, and more.

"No Man is an Island"

This evocative flavoring is present everywhere in Rakehell. From the various tables for customizing foes like sinful wyrms or pitiful bandits, to the very weapons and kits PCs start their exile with. But nowhere does this truly shine like the factions presented. There are 10 in all, and each one is just asking for conflict, intrigue, sacrifice, and ruination in equal measure.

See, PCs can start and join a faction throughout the course of a game in the Rift. In fact, it's quite likely they'll do so. Loners and untrustworthy sorts who nobody likes don't last long. It's a land of exiles and folk aching for an opportunity, and nothing screams you're an easy mark like flying solo.

The factions that the characters join can help illuminate what's happening in your world and really make the Rift your own. It organically sets up scheming guilds, pompous institutions, belligerent nations, and zealous religions in one powder keg of a border region. This is ripe for everything from folks getting a second chance to heralding the drums of war whose threat is ever-present.

I also quite like how it hits home the fact that everything you do for the faction, ultimately eats you up in a way. You become less of your own boss (and maybe less than human in one way or another) and more of their instrument, doing their dirty work, trying to move up in the chain in this region that eats people alive. There are no illusions of ever leading a faction or having a say in its goals. Very much sets the tone of faction play here.

Other Random Things I Like

I really like how the factions have unique initiations and shape how characters can earn XP. For example, upon joining the dog-soldiers of the Barghestknecht characters are rewarded for conquering, military, a military junta, or taking a goblin spouse. You also get their nasty tools and grinning helms at a discount.

I like the tables for customizing threats. No two brigand groups are the same and not all of them are generic baddies. For some, their brigandage is quite understandable. A pitiful lot really. The less human threats, like the specters of the First Men or the wicked Fiends, also get quite a bit of nuance from their random tables, full of rich fodder at the table.

It has an Appendix N! I wish more content did this. Brian suggests several other zines, products, and toolkits that would be right at home in Rakehell. Not only does this grant some much-needed attention to great content, but it's a rich way to look at the ways a work can be twisted or tailored for your own table. "Hey, here's some cool stuff to bolt onto this and what you might do with it" is always great.

The weather is... strange in these parts. It is truly bizarre. 12 entries to really get across that the Rift is just not a good place. One moment you're setting up camp, the next thing you know a creeping cold fog filled with predatory things spreads down from the mountains or whaling some clouds for sustenance. Keep that almanac close at hand!

I could go on and on.

Final Words

Like I said when I started this whole thing, it's good and I'm quite fond of it (if you couldn't tell). I've run several escapades with it using KNAVE, Into the Odd, and Whitehack. I've used it for several other campaigns entirely removed from the Rift as well. It's $3. An expanded sequel work is on the way. What more excuse do you need to pick it up?