If I ever get tired of D&D 3.5E, Adventures Dark and Deep will be my jam. It is a rejection of character creation software, ultimately, and if Hero Lab ever stops working, either the company no longer supports it or allows registrations, the updates go offline, or the entire package becomes unusable and unsupported. I am getting my money out of it while I still can, but D&D 3.5E's life is tied to a commercial software platform, just like 5E is tied to a few websites holding characters.
This has always been the massive flaw in Wizards D&D: the constant support needed sucks the life out of the game. From 3.5E to 4E to 5E, each required software, websites, or character builders. Wizards' D&D is digital dependency D&D.
They make the game too complicated to play; thus, software is constantly needed. Then, they lock the needed content behind non-open releases, and you are bait-and-switched with must-have, unlicensed, non-SRD expansion content into buying something to do all this work and manage the options for you.
If you can't run a character sheet by hand, the game sucks. And I know, but GURPS! I love GURPS, but I have had so many issues with the software over the years, including terrible anti-virus programs complaining constantly about the app when there is nothing there. If an app isn't open-source and the data is free to use, I can't rely on it being around another 5 to 10 years.
It does make me want to give up entirely on character creation apps.
And there is another bad part about these websites and apps: if you have the wrong opinions about anything, they can ban you from using them, and thus, prohibit you from playing the game. We don't live in an innocent age anymore, where everyone is welcome in every game. Just one social media post can invalidate a few thousand dollars in books and hobbies, and keep you out of the community, game, and conventions forever. This has already happened many times, and these VTT and character creation sites only invite this sort of gatekeeping. Refuse to play games that give others that power over you, even if you agree with the current opinion de jour; the winds will change, and you will be locked out someday.
My game is mine, and my speech is mine.
Why do I play games that give others power over me?
As a matter of principle, I refuse.
We never needed these apps in the 1980s, and we played games like Rolemaster, Space Opera, Palladium, Car Wars, GURPS 3rd, and Aftermath. In fact, there is an argument that if a game needs an electronic character sheet, then it is not a pen-and-paper role-playing game; it is a video game.
If I ever give up a game, it will be because I can't support the software dependency anymore, and I see the game as inferior because of that requirement. Games that I can play without computers will be superior. ADAD is the game I will fall back to, thus making it my main game. This is sort of the theory of "Just play now what you end up with later."
Beyond this, it is an OSR standby, like OSE, DCC, or S&W. I can have fun with these, and they are mostly cross-compatible. I worry about Dungeon Crawl Classics, as the system's support feels waning in favor of Goodman Games supporting 5E. I get it, the company needs to make money. I still have a massive DCC library, so I am not worried, but I want DCC to keep going strong since the game is so creative, imaginative, and strange.
To be honest, Goodman Games should just make a version of DCC 5E that uses their dice and aligns their products, making the adventures compatible with either system. You are just a few years back on the Kobold Press timeline, thinking you can support commercial 5E, and then 6E will come along in a few years and torpedo your product development, back catalog, and revenue pipeline. Short-term versus long-term thinking here, and I would love to see what they come up with.
Adventures Dark & Deep is on the same level as OSE, an S-Tier game. The game is so complete and packed with so much first edition gaming that nothing comes close. This is the best first edition game out there, featuring an open license. It does everything just as I remembered, with a few key improvements. This system finally realizes the dream of how weapon speed and initiative were supposed to work, but back in the day, we ignored it. This "does the thing," and it brings me back to that first-edition simulation feeling where you may want a lighter, faster weapon that does less damage just to be able to strike earlier.
And the character sheets are open and trivial to run by hand. The characters are simple, but the combination of the skill system and the referee's ability to "add anything to a character" without worrying about "paying for it with feats" is just so refreshing and frees up my imagination. If a character grows wings due to something happening in the game, guess what? They have wings. Write it on the character sheet and record the flying speed, oh, and make a note of encumbrance when you are too overloaded to fly. This is the first edition, you know.
And the game has deep old-school sensibilities. If a character has demon blood, they aren't a cosplay character with blue skin and horns; they are likely of evil alignment and up to no good, with the blood of Satan running through their veins. That classic, almost Bible-inspired gameplay and world model is here in full force. Evil and wickedness come from Hell.
We bought our first D&D boxed set from a Christian bookstore, back when 1970s hippies ran these places and everything was cool, man.
You can't take the Christian influence out of D&D; if you do, the game gets boring, as if its heart is ripped out. The demons and devils are the "end boss" of the game, the reason there is so much evil, why the dragons kill mercilessly, and why the wicked humanoid tribes worship them in dark rituals. This is the reason why evil pillages, conquers, and despoils good kingdoms and untouched lands. Monsters are the corrupted blood of God's creations.
This is why the Satanic Panic happened: AD&D cut too close to being a biblical role-playing game, and organized religion found an easy target. Original AD&D gamified a religious text's world model, but since those stories are the origin of our myths, that makes sense and feels natural to us as humans. You can take the religion out of the game, but you will never take the religion out of the human playing it.
No monster is humanized. Nothing wicked is painted in a good light. And will never be. For many, this is why we play. And we refuse to play anything which can be retconned, the beholders and owlbears made good, mind flayers and devils turned into player races, and the game turns to slop and mush.
I understand where the whole move towards D&D 3.5E is coming from. It is a good, tight, easy-to-play, and modern game. There is no considerable difference in feeling between it and 5E, beyond a couple of mechanical differences and combat being slightly more crunchy. But I like the crunchy combat with the tactical options; this makes table-based play fun again. Both games are broken at high levels. D&D 3.5E is more hardcore than 5E by a considerable margin. And D&D 3.5E was designed for the tabletop and figure-based play; this is a tactical game.
But the first edition is the best game ever written; even 3.5E pales in comparison to its majesty. The first edition is like the Bible of roleplaying, the source document, the origin of all that we have today. Yes, ADAD is a descendant of the first edition, a refinement and improvement, but also a more open document that is worth supporting over the originals. It is either this or OSRIC, and this gives me much more, so this catches my interest more than a pure reference guide. Mind you, OSRIC is the purest form of the first edition, and every bit as significant as OSE. We are also getting an OSRIC 3 pretty soon here once the Kickstarter fulfills.
Both OSRIC and ADAD have far better licenses and community models than the original game. If given a choice, I will support the open games before I support something the community can't publish for.
The first edition will be a forever game.
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