- Original D&D is like the cool underground black and white comic that spawns an empire, like TMNT
- Basic D&D is the cartoon based off of that comic and is how most people are introduced - a cool after-school cartoon like Transformers or GI Joe that gets people interested in finding out what else is out there. (Expert is the second season where it gets really good, Companion is where it starts to get weak, and Masters/Immortals is the Japanese version that bears almost no resemblance to the original other than some names)
- AD&D 1E is the mainstream Marvel version of the comic - bigger and bolder and now in color but some still think it was better when it was an indie thing
- AD&D 2E is the live-action TV show that's a little cheesy and is revised to be more family-friendly (no more demons and the half-orc assassin gets replaced by a female character or a robot or something.)
- AD&D 3E is the 20-years-later-cool-re-imagining of the original show, like SciFi's Battlestar Galactica (It also falls apart in the end game, just like SciFi's BSG) and some of the original participants hate it at first, then get on board, fueling a sort of renaissance.
- AD&D 4E is The Movie, specifically The Action Movie. If the series had one big stunt or special effect per episode then The Movie has a big one in every scene. It uses a different cast, a different backstory, and a different special effects house. The differences spark an uproar among the fans and a schism too.
Discuss, Rip, or Ignore - that's sort of how they all sort out in my head.
7 comments:
Stretched or not, I like this metaphor.
3E would be more like the sequal series, like Star Trek - The Next Generation.
4E would be the spinoff series, like Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise. Some like the new variations, some like where the old series shines through, and some of it is trying to redefine what came before the classic series.
We're still awaiting the "reimagining". It could be really cool, the way the new BSG started: love it-loathe it, at least they makers really tried to make something new and refreshing.
The scary part is the followup to the reimagined series, because Caprica sucked frakkin' eggs.
Thanks James.
GW I can see maybe if 3E is the Next Generation then I think 4E would qualify as the re-imagining 4E and 3E are different enough that I wouldn't think of them as 2 branches of the same tree like TNG/DS9/Voyager. New Trek movie 4E vs. Next Generation 3E- sure, I can go with that.
That sounds fair. 3E & 4E are different enough.
I am still wary of the next new "TV series" though. Caprica hurt. But, new Trek could be different. :)
I too like this metaphor. I get what Grendelwulf is saying except I don't agree because 4E is too different from 3E. Deep Space 9 is different from what came before it but still very much in the mode of the classic version.
Voyager is very 4E. You changed the stuff you shouldn't have and kept the stuff you should've dropped.
I see 4E as more of an "Animated Series": those horrible full color cartoon like Batman or JL they make in US (eheh).
OD&D -> Original Action Comics series.
AD&D -> Frank Miller's "Return of the Dark Knight"
4E -> Fox Network AS
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