Thinking of starting a DnD group

[color="#cc8899"]With my roommate. He's pretty experienced, and would probably double as a GM and PlayerChar.

My character idea is -

 Spoiler

A gnome barbarian

I love the idea of using a dagger in the manner of a 2h sword, and it'd be absolutely hilarious to berserk when you're hardly a foot and a half tall. I could really see myself having fun with the character and roleplaying it, and my roommate is as crazy as I am as far as imagination and thinking outside the box.

We plan on using one of the older rulebooks/variants, probably from 2.0 or so. Most encounters and whatnot will be created by us, no need for monster books other than a general guideline. For the most part, we have the resources we need to get it all set up, and are mostly looking for friends to DnD with.

Any ideas how to smoothly transition to tabletop gaming to prevent any miscommunications?[/COLOR]

In my opinion, 2nd ed DnD is the best of all of them. When TSR was bought up by Wizards of the Coast, they made DnD into commercialized power-gaming -- munchkinish characters, excessively powerful items, etc. 2nd ed is more confusing to learn, but it is pure roleplaying.

I strongly suggest buying extra books if you're planning a serious campaign. Skills and Powers, Combat and Tactics, Spells and Magic, and the Monstrous Compendiums spring readily to mind. The point-based system in Skills and Powers and Combat and Tactics provides a far superior character generation system than the Player's Handbook, nad you'll get more skills and abilities. It is not excessive when you research their current worth; on Ebay you can buy them for just a few dollars each.

As far as the playing itself, it's a good idea, but in my experience it's very hard to get a group. You should consider a smaller group because the larger a group is, the more likely it is that all of you cannot get together on a particular evening or weekend. Playing online is another option, (the Giant in the Playground features Order of the Stick comics, but the forums are full of DnD roleplays,) but internet people are a lot more likely to flake out on you.

Hope this helped.

In my opinion, 2nd ed DnD is the best of all of them. When TSR was bought up by Wizards of the Coast, they made DnD into commercialized power-gaming -- munchkinish characters, excessively powerful items, etc. 2nd ed is more confusing to learn, but it is pure roleplaying.

I strongly suggest buying extra books if you're planning a serious campaign. Skills and Powers, Combat and Tactics, Spells and Magic, and the Monstrous Compendiums spring readily to mind. The point-based system in Skills and Powers and Combat and Tactics provides a far superior character generation system than the Player's Handbook, nad you'll get more skills and abilities. It is not excessive when you research their current worth; on Ebay you can buy them for just a few dollars each.

As far as the playing itself, it's a good idea, but in my experience it's very hard to get a group. You should consider a smaller group because the larger a group is, the more likely it is that all of you cannot get together on a particular evening or weekend. Playing online is another option, (the Giant in the Playground features Order of the Stick comics, but the forums are full of DnD roleplays,) but internet people are a lot more likely to flake out on you.

Hope this helped.

[color="#cc8899"]By having the resources, I meant we have readily available copies of the books online.
We intend to have 3-4 people max. Otherwise Conservation of Ninjutsu takes effect. We don't intend to be "serious" at all, but will mostly operate within the rulebooks. However, we are looking for creative people to play with, no "by the books" people. If we find the rulebooks to be too rigid, we'll simply dump them and go with w/e.

And yeah, we chose 2ndEd because there's simply not as much catering to the player - there is still challenge and nothing being handed to the player.[/COLOR]