D20 Is Ruining Role Playing?

Today is day number two of the Reader's Choice Challenge.  Last week I asked people to make topic suggestions that I would use this week, Monday through Friday.  Yesterday, I covered Cthulhu, which isn't a strong suit of mine, and it shows.  MEH!

Dave G of the N++ blog, a great blog by the way, even though I don't know what N++ means?  Heh... I'm losing more geek points!  Anyway, Dave gave me a few suggestions,  this one however is the easiest, and with me getting a little burnt out, I'm going to use it.  He wrote:

- Why D20 is ruining roleplaying. (aka, Remember when D&D was about building interesting characters instead of uber multiclass-feat-skill-other weird skill stuff-other weird stuff combos to turn characters into super heros?)

No, I don't think it is.  There, that was easy.  Time for a nap.

Heh... there I go kidding around again, but really, I don't think D20 is ruining any aspect of the gaming hobby much less role playing.  I'm sure there are many people who would argue otherwise, but do they have evidence?  Of course what I write here is just an opinion.

Sure, maybe there isn't much role playing going on, but the level of role playing ( from what I've noticed ) varies from group to group, and game system to game system.

If anything it seems to be keeping the hobby alive?  To be perfectly honest I haven't played any of the current incarnations of the game.  Nothing past AD&D 1st Edition.  That doesn't mean I wouldn't try any other editions, I just haven't had the chance to try them out.  I probably won't get into the current edition of D&D for a lot of reasons, but I would like to at least try it.  How can I form a valid opinion without experiencing it myself?  If people enjoy D20 then I say more power to them!  Whether it's D&D 4th Edition or Pathfinder everyone is free to game the way they want to game.  That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.

Actually, the whole "uber multiclass-feat-skill-other weird skill stuff-other weird stuff combos to turn characters into super heros." sounds kind of interesting.  Then again I also enjoy playing a character who has trouble hacking his way through a horde of orcs, and keeping his plate mail pants on. That actually happened to me in Ultima Online, but it was actually a bunch of dragons, or something, good times... but I digress...

Now, the new Gamma World seems like a rocking good time.  I am buying it as soon as I can.  The same goes for Pathfinder, those seem like big, fun, crunchy books.  However, neither is a big purchasing priority.

And thus, the scribe finishes day two of the challenge.  What will day three bring?