Aye, I first picked up D&D and started playing in 1977, so I know where you're coming from. Remember when 'Elf' was a class? lol

And while I haven't played PnP 4E, I do own a bunch of the 4E books (I'm one of those weird types that enjoys just reading the rulebooks).

Oh, no argument there. I was just amused that my Fighter, who has a +1 BAB advantage over the Cleric, was missing waaaay more often. Just the vagaries of the to-hit rolls, but it was kind of funny that it was always the same Cleric that was hitting most often.

I got the funniest looks when I told my 4E group about demi-humans in Basic D&D...how the Dwarf was a fighter no matter what & how all Elves were fighter/mage hybrids. And how the only thieves & clerics were humans!

1981 for me. I remember taking the bus an hour across town to the one store that sold the modules once I outgrew the Basic boxed set. Too young to drive and no online ordering back then. Now I see the 4E sitting in every local bookstore!

Since we're all dating ourselves, I started probably in 1986 or 1987. My best friend said he & his brother wanted to play D&D, but it was better if you had at least a 3rd person. I had no particular interest but tried it anyway & we had the best time of our lives.

We used to buy stuff from hobby stores, regular book stores around us just didn't carry them. I remember us going to someone's house to buy some modules that they had tucked away (an older couple I think) and I think they had comics & stuff too. Kinda sucked not having an internet back then & having to figure out for ourselves what places might have D&D stuff. ;-)

Just finished the game. I enjoyed it, but not as much as previous Troika games. I didn't like the lack of sandbox environment...I like to be able to travel anywhere I darned well please. Otherwise, it was a pretty fun dungeoncrawl.

Yep. Pretty fun. It was a good break from the infinity engine of BG1, BG2, IWD1 and IWD2 for those of us that needed our DnD fix.

So what's next for you? I'm flying through Mass Effect 1 which is surprising since I usually avoid shooters. It's not a FPS, so I guess that helps.

Since you like Sandbox games, are you a big fan of the Oblivion/Two Worlds/Gothic style games? I think I actually prefer a little dungeon crawl/linear behavior. I like the tactical aspects combined with RPG... Guess that explains why I always had a soft spot for Battle Tech back in the day.

I haven't played any of those games. I like sandbox, but I also like turn-based combat like the Troika Games and Might & Magic 1-5. Any of those games you mentioned go turn-based?

I played Space Quest 1-3 before starting ToEE, so I think I'll play King's Quest 1-3 next. I played them all when they first came out 20-25 years ago, so its more a sentimental thing with them.

I'm not much into FPS games either, but I liked the ME games. I'm a fan of BioWare's games, so that's why I decided to give them a shot. Good fun, and worth the money, IMO.

I've just completed the moathouse, and my party's hit level 4. Having fun, although (as with most games) there are some aspects of the game I find frustrating.

How many hours do you guys figure you put into ToEE?

Very loose guess, as I don't really keep track...60-80 hours maybe?

Ah, cool. I don't generally keep track either, so a ballpark is close enough for me. Thanks. :)

Half that number of hours for me.

Yeah, there were aspects of ToEE that drove me crazy, but not enough to be a deal breaker at all. And there were also things I really, really liked which the Infinity Engine never did, namely accurate movement plotting and defining the area of effect for spells like Fireball. I don't know how many times I fireballed my own people in the BG games and IWD games...

I find that both a like and a dislike for me. I do like that I, as a player, can see exactly where the AoE of a particular spell will land (and I used that to great advantage several times last night with Sleep and Web spells), so it gives me far better control over the battlefield. But I also like not being able to see it, as that reflects a better 'reality' in that there's no way the caster character would be able to gauge it that finely, so it lends a game one further element of 'logical immersion'.

I actually got quite good at gauging the range of the AoE spells in infinity engine games, particularly fireball. I rarely hit my own people but I played those games a tad obsessively for a while so there is that. My grump is that their is so much potential in this engine, but it was released as if it were in a beta stage of testing. (stupid web spell)

As it stands, between all of my attempts to play ToEE I have probably put in close to 60 hours. However I keep losing party members to glitches, or corrupted saves, or something else. I have yet to even explore the main temple. I keep restarting.

actually I am doing my level best to get it working right now. It keeps saying that an existing instance of the application is already running, opens a window for a brief half second and then shuts down. I believe the current GoG version is the 2nd patch... right? I hear conflicting reports around the forums and I was unable to find it on the main purchase page for ToEE. Here is hoping the second time is the charm...