Into the void

Mandatory first post: 

I've been an on-and-off D&D player for about 15 years now, both as a DM and as a player. Which means I got my start with 3.5, played it, loved it for a long time, slowly realizing how obtuse and dense many of the rules were. Then along came 4e, which promised to fix everything but ended up feeling more like you were playing a Pokemon game ("Tordek uses Reaping strike!") than an RPG. And then of course Pathfinder, which tried to fix 3.5 by making it even more like 3.5. Fifth edition was really a fresh breeze when it came out, with simpler, bounded mechanics and a less videogame-y aesthetic. It definitely inspired me to start DMing and playing more.

Of course, as I've realized in the last few years: in terms of innovation and creativity, the DIY/OSR scene is miles ahead of WotC. There's an incredible amount of awesome ideas for mechanics and content out there in the blogosphere (see the sidebar for some suggestions). And one of the coolest things about this hobby is that you can whatever the hell you want with the game. I've always loved tinkering with the rules, even if it never makes it to the table. So, instead of leaving the results in a drawer or on a hard drive somewhere, I'm gonna try shouting it into the Internet void instead. It's mainly going to be OSR-inspired stuff for 5e, but I might post about other game systems as well. Let's see how it goes.