I like D&D

I've described for a long time my strange love/hate relationship with D&D, but I've come to a realization lately. I actually do like it. When I'm not playing it, I crave it. As much as I'm enjoying playing some Call of Cthulhu right now (and I am very much enjoying it) I've got D&D character concepts going on in my head that I can't get around.

Maybe part of it is that I've buying up a bunch of 3.5 books that I never got before (I just ordered the Expanded Psionics Handbook, Complete Psionic and Weapons of Legacy with a Barnes & Noble gift card I got for my birthday... I'd been using my old Psionics Handbook combined with the online SRD to get psionics up 'til now. I actually didn't have much interest in Weapons of Legacy but it was dirt cheap and it filled out what was left on the gift card much more nicely than anything else that I'd rather have bought... which would have cost a lot more. Now I've got $.91 left on the card.) As I've been reading these books that I've bought, I'm getting more and more excited about using them, of course.

Also, though, I've just come to the conclusion that there's something very satisfying about D&D. I don't know for sure what it is; like I said, I've often been very unhappy with it in the past, but when it works well, it's been some of my best gaming. I really enjoyed playing in the Age of Worms campaign for instance. The Pirates of the Mezzovian Main game I ran was tons of fun until I started running out of steam near the end. The Demons in the Mist game is great.

Granted, except for the Age of Worms, all of those were unusual, to say the least, for D&D games, but still. I've found that D&D, at least of the third edition persuasion, is a better vehicle for delivering great gaming that I had previously given it credit for.