Being a player again is pretty spiffy. I've done a few one shots or short campaigns, here and there, but I ran my last few major campaigns. But now I'm playing Zavijah, a lawful neutral human cleric, in Yesteryear, a PBB 2nd Edition Planescape game, and it looks to be rockin'.
Especially because I'm not running it -- noisms is -- so I have someone to pester with pesky questions. I have schemes to unravel, things to explore, and NPCs to bother. It's a refreshing way to play the game, especially with the triple new of internet play, Planescape, and 2nd Edition.
All three of which I quite like. Planescape, of course, is awesome, and it's nice to be able to sit down and compose one's actions, rather than being driven by violent competition with the rest of the table. And I'm enjoying 2nd Edition more than I'd expected to; I doubt I'll ever run it, but character creation was surprisingly enjoyable, freed from the mechanical considerations of feat choice and skill point optimization.
I'm sure there are mechanical optimizations in 2nd edition, but I don't know what they are, and I have no intention to find out. At any rate, having no idea what the usual items for the system or the campaign would be, picking proficiencies and equipment was a lot more about what my character would actually know, and less about the optimal character grind I tend to slip into with 3rd, and 4th is actively built around. I can see why people still play the edition, and I'm glad to have joined them.
Yep, it's a fun system, and not too far divorced from the them olden times of yore. For my wife and me, 2e PHBs mixed with a lot of 1e books and a sprinkling of 3e goodness is our game-of-choice.
ReplyDeleteThe game does have balance issues (some of the clerical powers added after the PHB are insane, and thieves kinda get the shaft, especially in later levels) but a good DM can smooth most of those out. And for solo play, which is what my wife and I do mostly, it fits the bit quite well.
- Brian, aka Sparrow
I've yet to discover a fully splat-booked system that doesn't have more or less massive balance issues. And with D&D, particularly, I don't tend to mine. For some reason I just kind of categorize most of the "wizards rock at high levels" kind of stuff as D&Disms, simply to be expected.
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