Company: Wizards of the Coast
System: Dungeons and Dragons
Version: 3.5
Review: for average to experienced players

D&D has been out for ages, from 1st all the way to the new 4th edition.  What a lot of the core players have settled on is the 3.5 edition.  It still holds the original ideas and rule schemes from the first edition, while giving a more balanced environment than 3rd Ed.  When they switched to the 4th edition, the system was rebuilt entirely.  Now that I have given the traditional D&D set of background text, here is the review:

The biggest thing this version will give you is Choices.  There are hundreds of rules, character classes, alternate character rules, feats, skills, items and more.  The number of options is what stops beginning players from really getting into the system (though some are not deterred by it).  Yet its what makes more advanced players love the system.  With this complexity, these options, you have the Challenge of Building the best character you can.  Even if you have gone through most the options, once you get to the next level there are more that open up.  Even if you tire those out, each Dungeon Master (DM for now on) will limit books or abilities that will change the rules for making a character.  This in itself gives a group of players joy in just filling out a blank sheet.  I admit to being in the ranks of them, called Min-Maxers.

Now that is just the start, we haven’t even gotten to gameplay.  The system is really oriented on Combat though the social play can be fun in itself.  But even social characters are built off of combat abilities.  It just means you can talk to the guy before you or someone else kills him.  Though overall it really depends on the DM who is running the game and what the players want from it (though that can be said for any system).  Overall the game is more setup to handle epic battles and the progression of a tale of Heroes.  Story wise it is limiting in that regard but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.

Overall Rating:
Character Creation – Fun and a game in itself
Combat – Good though can be complex and time consuming at high levels
Social – Helps get between combat and can create fun situations
Story – Easier to do Hero style tales though capable of more