That Old Timey Feeling

It's starting to feel like the good old days of 2010-11, when I was most active here on the blog. I'm posting a lot. People are commenting. We're having a discussion across two different blogs (here and BX Blackrazor) and it's interesting!

Thanks to everyone who's commented here and over at JB's blog. I'm appreciating all the input! Even from the spammer trying to say he can cure AIDS! OK, not from that guy.

I posted my homebrew "Classic" conversion of the 5E race set-up yesterday. And I sent the entire booklet (with races, classes, equipment, spells, and rules for high level strongholds/followers) to the players in my West Marches campaign. Most of them have at least seen the post. No comments yet from any of them on the actual rules.

Fingers crossed that Paddy and Ahra like the options presented and give Classic D&D a fair try. Greg, well, I knew I was 99% likely to lose him anyway if I switched. But he may surprise me. He does really enjoy the campaign, which will hopefully have the same feel but move faster since we won't be bogged down with combat...or we will, but we'll have more combats with more creatures than before.

I mean, I'm really enjoying 5E the most in play-by-post format, where I can take the time to analyze the situation, analyze my possible moves/actions/spells, and get into the tactical minutia in a format where I have all the time I need to do that. In face-to-face gaming, if everyone was VERY familiar with the rules/options, I can see it going quickly. In fact, in Dean's online video chat games, it does go fairly quickly. I usually have time to do the analysis for my character while other players are taking their turns.

In my current face-to-face group, with three kids and a few adults who aren't into studying the ins and outs of the rules options and a few who are, each player's turn DRAGS.

Switching to Classic, my hope is that each combat round goes faster, leading to less boredom from the kids, and more attention from everyone at the table. When the group gets large, it's hard to keep everyone focused. Fewer mechanical options (but still unlimited potential actions!) hopefully will help with both of these problems.