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I really like the sound of D and D, having played a gamecalled Baldurs Gate on the computer, and I have always wanted a way to create the kind of atmosphere with nicely painted 3d figures.

A. Are the figures supplied unpainted ( and what about assembly)?

B.Does the Roleplaying game (Version 4.0, if I am correct) only play with counters?

C. What are the differences between 3.5 and 4.0?

D. Which is better, and more like Baldurs gate (if you Dakkaites now what that is)?

Greetings,

Let's try to wade through this one point by point;

A. The figures currently produced by Wizards of the Coast are supplied pre-painted (they're made of a softish rubbery resin) You can always strip them a bit and repaint, and there are *many* companies that produce appropriate scale and style figures for the game, though primarily in metal.

B. To the best of my awareness 4.0 like the versions before it, can be played in a variety of ways (even, *gasp* without minis at all!). Most commonly players still use minis, at least in my area.

C. 3.5 vs. 4.0 differences? O vey, that's a small book right there. If I had to break it down I would say that 3.5 tends to be a bit more tactical insofar as battlefield placement of your characters and 4.0 tends to be more about inter character synergy and handling your cooldown times as it has a strong influence from MMOs like World of Warcraft and its ilk.

D. Baldurs Gate (at least the first one) ran off of early 3.0 rules and is, in many ways, closest to old 2nd edition. If you played any of Neverwinter Nights you've really experienced 3.5 in it. Baldur's gate is certainly more 3.5 then it is 4.0

As to which is better? Eek.

I'm an old hand for 2nd and actually left the game for 3.0 but was slowly pulled back in for 3.5 which I came to appreciate...then about a year later they popped out 4.0 and scared me off again.

I feel 3.5 is a bit more cerebral when it comes to building your character and having battles. 4.0 is, supposedly, a little less clunky (not that 3.5 is clunky compared to 2nd...) but it does seem to be vilified heavily for 'not being like DnD anymore'.

If your goal is to aim for a very Baldur's Gate gameplay feel I'd aim 3.5 and never look back. Storyline wise you ought to be able to create similar adventures for either system. Also, honestly, you may want to explore around locally and see if you can find a game of either type and just see which gaming group you like better - as that can make a big difference for the fun of any game.

Actually, Baldur's Gate ran off 2nd edition D&D. It wasn't until Neverwinter Nights that the video games switched to 3rd ed.

If you want a game like Baldur's Gate, go with Hackmaster. Hackmaster is based on the ruleset for 1st/2nd ed D&D. The previous edition of Hackmaster can be a bit clunky, but the newest ed, (so new, in fact, that there aren't any adventures for it yet...) "Hackmaster Basic" is very streamlined and, in my opinion, far superior to D&D 3, 3.5, or 4

As far as minis, you can use any fantasy minis you like for D&D or HM, but D&D does make a line of prepainteds that work nicely for either game.

While both games can be run without figs, you may find it much easier to track the action with figs (or even tokens). For a low budget option, you can always just pick up a dry erase board and some fridge magnets.

Thanks!
I was just wondering, I have a metal 40k tau Ethereal, that has no sci-fi things on it I checked. Would he be the right scale? Im really not familiar with dandd models.

Most RPG's assume a 1 inch scale for their games(where on maps, 1"=5 feet), so as long as the base fits in a 1"x1" square, you should be good. As far as the scale of the official minis, it's close enough to 28mm(GW's standard) that it won't look out of place.

And of course the place to start is to join a friend who already plays D&D at one of his local games. Its the fastest way to leearn how to play. The second way is to buy the players handbook for whichever edition you want to play in and begin reading while you look for a group. A much harder way to go about learning the game, but sometimes its all you can do while you look for a group to play with and something will probably do anyways once you get settled into playing so it doesn't hurt to start that way.

Yeah my very good friend plays it, so I think I'll be fine on rulebooks:

Hey, heres my model. Tell me the rules and lets get going!
The model is on GW standard 25mm (or is it 20mm) round base, so that sounds fine!