D&D 2E AD&D 2e vs. D&D 3.x (and maybe 4e)

[Taloth]

Hey, lemme just provide a little backstory. My group only consists of 4 people, and all of us are very close friends. we decided to keep it this way so we wouldn't have any munchkins or rules-lawyers. To be honest, the only experience we have with PnP rpgs is a D&D 4e demo that we played at some crazy hour in the morning at my friend's party. we liked the roleplaying aspects of it and the lack of concrete rules on what you can and can't do. (like i said, we aren't too big on rules. so long as its semi-realistic and we have fun, let it be.) But... we really got bored after nearly an hour of tactical goblin-fighting. SO, i've always wanted to play Planescape, so i conviced us all to buy, ta-da! the AD&D rulebooks. we've got all our stuff and the DM has his books, and we even bought the Forgotten Realms Boxed Campaign. So i was talking to the DM, and he said that he thought it would be cool if regular run-of-the-mill encounters were the normal non-board type, but if important "boss-battle" type encounters were played on a board, and played tactically. we would have skills that we could only use on these encounters (ie instead of 'attack with longsword' it would be 'DERVISH SLASH!' or something).

The whole goal is to turn the boss battle into a tactical, team-centered, cinematic event. For this purpose, we were thinking of maybe houseruling in some rules from more modern variants of DnD. So, in your honest opinion, what would be better for this purpose? i don't really know about dnd 3.0, 3.5, or 4, or 4: essentials, so i have no idea what would be best.

note: we wouldn't like totally switch to other rules. we would just add in a few that might make things easier, ya'know?

ALSO! we will almost certainly switch around to some other systems, and they will probably be versions of DnD and ADnD, so some basic outlines of the mentioned systems would be great in helping us decide where to migrate when we need to. (pro's and con's would be nice)

Thanks and sorry: i always type too much

 

[Taloth]

b-b-b-bump

 

[Lawngnome4hire]

For the kind of flexibility you're looking for you might want to take a look at GURPs by Steve Jackson Games. It requires a bit more prep time for the GM, but it's completely and totally flexible. The whole system is designed so you can use the same rules for any type of rpg, whether fantasy, modern, sci-fi whatever. It's also very good if you want more freedom to decide just how complex you want your game to be. The rules allow you to go from a free form non tactical combat all the way to extreme detail with shot locations etc. You get to pick how complex you want it by which optional rules you use.

 

[Jhaelen]

So i was talking to the DM, and he said that he thought it would be cool if regular run-of-the-mill encounters were the normal non-board type, but if important "boss-battle" type encounters were played on a board, and played tactically. we would have skills that we could only use on these encounters (ie instead of 'attack with longsword' it would be 'DERVISH SLASH!' or something).

That definitely sounds like you should be looking at 4e.

Apart from all classes using powers for their attacks the system encourages using terrain features, hazards, and traps to make every combat encounter memorable.

I've also seen a few encounters that feature 'powers' that can only be used in a particular encounter, e.g. using a siege weapon, overturning book cases, etc.

And you have a generic mechanism to resolve any cinematic maneuvers not covered by using powers, detailed on page 42 of the 4e DMG.

 

[ghaladen]

TSR did come out with a [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Players-Option-Advanced-Dungeons-Rulebook/dp/0786900962"]combat tactics book[/ame] specifically for grid combat.

Just saying if you wanted to keep it all 2nd edition.

 

[airwalkrr]

I would normally point you to my sig as to what I think is best overall, but for what you are describing specifically, 4e actually sounds best. If you want a cinematic powers type game, then 4e works pretty well for that. Alternatively, you could take a look at the AD&D Skills & Powers rules. That provides some interesting combat maneuvers. You might also want to look at Tome of Battle for 3.5. That is an example of 4e-in-training.

 

[Sotomonte]

if you want to make things easier and faster, you should go with something like the d&d minis skirmish rules, which are a lot more simple than rpg rules.

i am going for this since combats with my group ended up to be long and boring. i think it could speed things up a lot if you don't need to roll damage (in skirmishes every hit makes 5, 10, 20 of damage.. so you don't need to make big calculation).