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[lumin]

When I was a kid, I spent many an afternoon playing the Milton Bradley game, "Hero Quest" with my school friends (I had one of those moms that thought Dungeons & Dragons was evil).  Now, many years later, I had a bad case of RPG nostalgia so I went out and bought the D&D core 3.5e rulebooks.

Now I was expecting something more complicated than Hero Quest, but not to the point where I was spending 98% of my gaming session flipping pages to find a rule about what happens when you sleep with your armor on.  I have to tell you that I have only played about 3 times with other friends/family that have never played either.  Because every time we got going on an adventure we would be so bogged down in rules that we just got bored out of our minds before we could even start having fun.

Now I have tried to go back to Hero Quest again, but that's about as fun as going from Disneyland to the county fair.  Without the cool skill system, spell choices and leveling options, it's just not fun anymore.  So I ask myself, "can't I have I have the cake and eat it too?".  A few days ago, I found out that the answer is, "YES!"  I found Microlite20.

Designed by a guy who calls himself, "Greywulf", Microlite20 (or M20) is the ultimate 'lite' version of D&D.  The core rules fit on 1 page, rolling a character takes less than 10 minutes, and all of the spells, equipment, and monsters can be pulled directly from the SRD and implemented in just a few moment.  Don't get me wrong, it doesn't strip out any rules, it just shaves all the fluff from off the top, leaving you to implement anything from the D20 SRD and still be able to call it true D&D.  This is what the introductory D&D boxed-set should have been.

Now I have a game that can be played as easily as (or easier than) Hero Quest, but with all of the great options that Dungeons and Dragons has to offer.  If you haven't tried it or are thinking of getting into D&D gaming, avoid the fluff and have fun instead.  Get Microlite20, free, here: http://wiki.greywulf.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/Macropedia?action=browse;oldid=HomePage;id=Microlite20

[Helmaroc]

I agree that DnD is way too complicated. I've been playing 'my own' version without looking in the rules, but using spells and creatures from the books. I'll try this though.

[Skeeblix]

For awhile Wizards offered a D&D starter set with one of every type of die you'd need, a basic little instruction booklet and a couple scenarios and a map for you to play on. Dunno if they still have that, though.

Really, the game is only as complicated as you want it to be, and you learn most of the rules by heart fairly quickly. Once upon a time I could recall to-hit and save bonuses for every class at every standard level, and most of the Epic levels.

But yeah, paying without so much regard for rules is nice, but when you get a good DM who can cite the rulebook verbatim about anything you have a question about, playing with massive detail is awesome too.

Every now and then, all you want to hear is "You hit the dragon", but when you get a DM that actually RPs combat, and makes you feel like you're really fighting a fucking dragon. Score. It's even better when your party's wagon of supplies gets burned up in the fight and you're forced to wander through the desert and almost die of thirst before finding the village you were on your way to.

[Cthulhu]

Call of Cthulhu's system is way better, just about everything is done with the d100, and there aren't all those annoying charts and graphs and grarts and chaphs.

[LSTAR]

I pride myself as a games designer, master and player so I think I'll throw in my opinions. I love the CoC system and I have to say that it's amazing for simulating a semi-realistic Lovecraftian universe but I'm not sure it works quite so well with Fantasy settings (see Rolemaster and the EPIC INSATIABLE CRITICAL HIT CHARTS OF DOOOOOOM). It does do an okay job in historical settings as seen in CoC: Dark Ages, but seems best suited to realistic worlds that can be easily define with percentages. The D20 system, as with most systems works best when you use only the rules you and your group find appropriate. Nothing in any rulebook ever printed is heavily underlined with the phrase "YOU MUST USE THIS RULE AT ALL TIMES" (and if it is, you have my permission to tear it out). I personally like to use my own L.S.D. system (that was actually  inspired by a fairly obscure optional rule in one of the CoC core books.) It works a lot like a regular D100 system but is much more fluid and faster.

[yamo]

in '83 i played a game that had a great hex based combat system but i can't remember the name...i remeber that a dragon PC grew from one hex to three hexes the progression being to 5 then 9 hexes(?)...there were vampires and dwarves and magic gems that blew up when you threw them and animal training....anyone know the name?