Could be anything: books, playstyles, settings, etc. that you enjoy but think are generally unpopular among gamers overall. (as the other thread was more focused on Player Options).


Drow

Book of Erotic Fantasy

Hero System

Using romance and sexuality in games.

(Tentative list, possibly more to come)

Quote from: Nexus;995730Could be anything: books, playstyles, settings, etc. (as the other thread was more focused on Player Options).


Drow

Book of Erotic Fantasy

Using romance and sexuality in games.

These three and:

Trying new games or systems.

The 'Rule of Cool'.

Working with my players rather than against them.

Rule Zero.

Balancing the game so that everyone at the table has fun.

Undead that drain levels permanently.

Elves and dwarves and hobbits mixed with humans, other things more rare.

Despite the above, also gnomes played seriously (i.e. Dragonlance can die in a fire)

Quote from: Steven Mitchell;995740Elves and dwarves and hobbits mixed with humans, other things more rare.

Despite the above, also gnomes played seriously (i.e. Dragonlance can die in a fire)

I have to agree with this.  I like multiple races, even using the stereotype examples of them.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;995735Undead that drain levels permanently.

Seconded. Permanent Level Drain makes undead scary. But I do get the feeling not many people share that view.

A little difficult to tell what the proportions of people who hate and like different things but: 2nd Edition D&D

Also the aforementioned permanent level drain

Trying new systems

Not playing in the same campaign setting over and over and over again

I quite like Bland Vanilla Western European Ren Faire Pseudo-Medievalism.

Peasants. Dragons. Castles. Knights.  We can mix these up, deconstruct, subvert, play Twister,  but still Peasants. Dragons. Castles. Knights. With 20th century hygiene. So no one smells like shit, and the princess has all her teeth.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;995752Seconded. Permanent Level Drain makes undead scary. But I do get the feeling not many people share that view.

I don't dislike it for what it was originally intended for.  The same way I don't dislike rolling 3d6 in order, and rolling hit points, and getting your 2 hit point fighter killed long before you encounter any undead draining levels.  However, it's not the only thing I like, and unfortunately it doesn't fit the style of those with whom I usually game.  With the right group, I'd be all over it again, but it isn't something I miss so much that I'd actively seek it out.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;995752Seconded. Permanent Level Drain makes undead scary. But I do get the feeling not many people share that view.

I would consider that something of an untested/untestable theory, because I don't know how many people remember those and/or ever had those. Restoration was introduced in the GH supplement in '76. And, Gronan notwithstanding, I have not been able to get even a personal inkling (much less something approaching a percentage) of how many people stuck with just-the-3-LBBs style play (and how many of them are still gaming). Thus, for most people, Level Drain has never been permanent. Instead, it has been this thing that requires you to figure out how many xp you have lost, how much is recoverable (if they are different), and keep track of those. Also keep track of your hp rolls at each level. Then you have this mad dash to get to a high enough level cleric (if one will help you, GH, for instance says that "The use of this spell will incapacitate the Cleric for 2-20 days, so non-player character Clerics cannot usually be hired to cast it.") before something else bad happens, or in later editions you run out of time for a restoration to work. So it's not so much scary as it is a royal pain in the ass. Beyond that, it kinda incentivizes every party to need a cleric (not that hps don't as well, but there are more ways around that, like druids or paladins or potions), and in most editions (except the one that overcompensated them to the point that you would be accused of being a min-maxxer for choosing cleric) a whole lot of people did not find playing the cleric (certainly not a pure cleric) to be that much fun. So, for a large swath of people who have ever picked up D&D, level drain hasn't been permanent. Instead it's been that thing that sucks, but you will [strike]probably[/strike]undoubtedly get reversed, but that reversal is going to be a royal pain, both in character action and in bookkeeping. So I'm not surprised it isn't popular. If it had stayed as a permanent, nothing you can do, "look, this is the level-equivalent to losing your magic items in a failed fireball save" kind of win some/lose some situation, I think people would actually like it more.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;995767I would consider that something of an untested/untestable theory, because I don't know how many people remember those and/or ever had those. Restoration was introduced in the GH supplement in '76. And, Gronan notwithstanding, I have not been able to get even a personal inkling (much less something approaching a percentage) of how many people stuck with just-the-3-LBBs style play (and how many of them are still gaming). Thus, for most people, Level Drain has never been permanent. Instead, it has been this thing that requires you to figure out how many xp you have lost, how much is recoverable (if they are different), and keep track of those. Also keep track of your hp rolls at each level. Then you have this mad dash to get to a high enough level cleric (if one will help you, GH, for instance says that "The use of this spell will incapacitate the Cleric for 2-20 days, so non-player character Clerics cannot usually be hired to cast it.") before something else bad happens, or in later editions you run out of time for a restoration to work. So it's not so much scary as it is a royal pain in the ass. Beyond that, it kinda incentivizes every party to need a cleric (not that hps don't as well, but there are more ways around that, like druids or paladins or potions), and in most editions (except the one that overcompensated them to the point that you would be accused of being a min-maxxer for choosing cleric) a whole lot of people did not find playing the cleric (certainly not a pure cleric) to be that much fun. So, for a large swath of people who have ever picked up D&D, level drain hasn't been permanent. Instead it's been that thing that sucks, but you will [strike]probably[/strike]undoubtedly get reversed, but that reversal is going to be a royal pain, both in character action and in bookkeeping. So I'm not surprised it isn't popular. If it had stayed as a permanent, nothing you can do, "look, this is the level-equivalent to losing your magic items in a failed fireball save" kind of win some/lose some situation, I think people would actually like it more.

I think you are making my point that it isn't popular.

Restoration is a 7th level spell in 1E. And there are pretty stringent time requirements on it. Even with Restoration around, I felt it a pretty frightening experience to lose levels to undead.

Yeah, our reaction to "restoration" was "Yeah, good luck getting ahold of one."

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;995780I think you are making my point that it isn't popular.

Restoration is a 7th level spell in 1E. And there are pretty stringent time requirements on it. Even with Restoration around, I felt it a pretty frightening experience to lose levels to undead.

Maybe, but I still think that 'annoying, hard to recover from, but recoverable' is a different animal than straight, flat 'gone. lost forever, start working on making back those xp,' and one might have a different reception that the other.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;995785Maybe, but I still think that 'annoying, hard to recover from, but recoverable' is a different animal than straight, flat 'gone. lost forever, start working on making back those xp,' and one might have a different reception that the other.

I certainly don't like the 3E version, which is the worst of both worlds.