General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
I love 1st edition AD&D. I do. I think it's a fantastic game system. It is the best D&D I've ever played, and I've played them all. Gary's writing is awesome. The default assumption of GREYHAWK throughout the mainstay of the system's publication is awesome, too.
Once you get the flow of the rules organization, finding things in the rulebooks (on the occasions they're needed) is a snap.
The modules are great, and I really like the artwork.
1st edition AD&D is my favorite RPG. It isn't the only one I play, nor is it the only one I like, but it's the one I like the most, and the D&D I'll play given the chance.
Parenthetically, photostat copies of the manuscript rules were made, and when the commercial game was published, fans not willing or financially unable to expend the princely sum of $10 for the product did likewise, copying the material on school (mainly college/university) machines. We were well aware of this, and many gamers who had spent their hard-earned money to buy the game were more irate than we were. In all, though, the 'pirate' material was more helpful that not. Many new fans were made by DMs who were using such copies to run their games. - Gary Gygax
Last edited by thedungeondelver; 23rd June 2009 at 10:09 PM..
Reason: formatting
thedungondelver loves AD&D? GASP! I would never suspect that AD&D would be the game that you enjoy the most! This is a complete suprise that no one could ever predict!
Seriously though, it's good when you have a game that's the perfect match for you. I'm sure that you have tons of fun with it at your gaming table. Get you game on!
__________________ "At best and at worst, it is a waste of time." A Mormon bishop on Dungeons and Dragons
Even though I actually play 0e/Swords & Wizardry, I agree that AD&D is awesome. Love the art, love the wonky rules, love the Gygaxian language!
And man, I really hope this doesn't turn into an edition war with people coming to say what they don't like about it. Let a thread stay positive about a game people like.
I can still feel the AD&D love too. I would still play or run it if I could find a local group. I offered to run OD&D/BD&D/AD&D or any retro-clone on our gameshop messageboard, and no luck. I have enough BD&D/AD&D gamebooks to supply a table of 5 players too.
I have a good time with it, too. Apart from maybe 1 year where all I had were the Basic and Expert sets, it's more or less the game I grew up on. Kind of. As much as any grade-schooler did, liberally mixing B/X and AD&D together.
I still can't crack open the PHB or DMG without wanting to sit down and run a game. Which is why I started doing just that a few months back!
My 1e Temple of Elemental Evil game is going wonderfully, even if 6 out of 8 characters died last session in a classic Gygaxian death trap. We're playing again, finally, this week with just about a brand new party.
Anyway, I don't know that it's really meaningful for me to say what my favorite kind of D&D is. I don't compare Battleship, Risk, and Monopoly directly either. I love running 1e, I love running 4e, and I love running Call of Cthulhu d20 (which I'm also doing this week).
Although I started with B/X (Basic / Expert), my fondest D&D memories are of when I got my own AD&D books, so I could run something. I didn't look back. Of all the things I ran using AD&D, the bestest of all would have to be Lankhmar. Ah, good times.
Evocative art, appealing writing, some nice innovations - and solid advice, what's more - just plenty of good stuff, really. Including some neat tables and tools I still turn to, even when not running AD&D, or anything particularly compatible.
I'd drop everything and run all the way to someone's place (erm, within limits, anyway), to play some AD&D again. It's been a while, but I'm sure it would all come back quickly enough.
The 1E DMG was certainly the most fun DMG of all the editions. I've kept my copy and still occasionally crack it open to use one or more of its many system-neutral charts or just to read for inspirational ideas.
To add to the previous, I love how well AD&D does a fast paced action/combat game. Both as a player and a DM, the gold box CRPGs Curse of the Azure Bonds and Champions of Krynn were a big inspiration to my 2E days, and that sort of play on the combat end was what we always strove for.
But the most recent campaign that I played in was everything that some people claim is so bad about 3e - micromanaged rules, character "builds" instead of role-playing advancement, emphasis on tactical grid-based combat, and the feeling that if you didn't have a special ability to do something, you couldn't do it at all.
It really goes to show that it's not the rules set, it's the players and DM that set the tone of the game. It pains me to have people do that to such an awesome game.
Really turned me off. I figure I'll stick to 3.x and B/X for a while before I head back to 1e again any time soon.
That said, I've been re-reading the 1e DMG cover-to-cover again for the first time since I was a teenager, and do I ever love that book.
I almost got to use 1e in my last 3e campaign. The setting we play in has been used throughout most of the editions of D&D. I was going to have them travel back in time and then give them 1e versions of their characters since those were the rules of the setting at that time period. It was going to work poerfectly since all the PCs were of race class combinations allowed in 1e. I was going to buy everyone a copy of the 1e PHB for reference.
I too am completely enamoured with AD&D 1st edition. There just something . . . raw and creative and evocative about it. It allows an awesome kind of freeform rp with fast slick combats, its modularity, its art . . . sigh.
I have never had a problem finding things in the books, there is an excellent flow to it if you just sitting down to read it, and if your not doing that there are excellent table of contents. If you've ever had probablems findings something . . . your probably not looking at the table of contents.
@ Aus_Snow, I too would leap at the oppurtunity to play some 1e. Its hard to keep and game together when you keep moving around, I don't suppose your in Toronto . . .
__________________ - We always forget that the monster doesn't want to die either -
Oh yeah! I agree that the classic modules of the 1e days have never been matched, much less surpassed. They provided just the right amount of detail and just the right amount of crazy to make a memorable experience.
They're also great, because much like with 3e's Sunless Citadel and 4e's Keep on the Shadowfell, they present a common experience for players in different games. You can compare and contrast how far you made it in Tomb of Horrors; discuss strategies on tacking the Moathouse; or talk about your encounters with the Kuo-Toa. It's a great common ground that's shared by an astonishing number of gamers.
It's the game I began playing when I was 13. I have very fond memories of those times. My father is an envangelist and I had been strictly warned never to play any game called dungeons and dragons as it could lead to posession and mass murder.
I remember sleepless nights huddled around candle light with my friends, playing quietly as possible so my parents wouldn't wake up and catch us, exploring worlds of pure magic. Actually now that I think about it, it was the only time I actually got to play, and not DM.
Aaaahhh, the good old days.
__________________ 'I am a predator...the predator improves the race...I kill but not out of hate.' Frank Herbert: Emperor God of Dune
Of the editions of D&D I've played, 1e AD&D is my favorite.
If I enjoyed fantasy roleplaying games more, I'd probably be in a regular game right now.
__________________ On weird fantasy: "The Otus/Elmore rule: When adding something new to the campaign, try and imagine how Erol Otus would depict it. If you can, that's far enough...it's a good idea. If you can picture a Larry Elmore version...it's far too mundane and boring, excise immediately." - Kellri, K&K Alehouse
I started with RC D&D and then moved on to 2nd edition. While I enjoy running 4th edition, 2nd will always have a special place in my heart. I been trying to get my group to let me run a campaign, but no luck.
It's tied for favorite with me - I love 'em all, really. But I've had many fond memories, both as a kid playing in campaigns long past, and recent memories as I've introduced new faces to the cool parts of AD&D, and rekindled interest among long time gamers in various convention games.
I still have an old three-ring with all my previous AD&D characters in them - Linnaeus the Druid (the most twinked out character I ever owned), and Baxian, Swashbuckler of the Heplahnen Guard (the character I most enjoyed playing), you are both missed, as are the people in the groups we played in.
__________________ "Conversely, I'm amazed at the number of people queueing up to tell people that don't like 4e that they are wrong. Why can't people just agree to disagree, and get on with actually playing the game?" --Delericho
If there's one dragon, it's a solo monster.
If there's five dragons, they're standard monsters.
If there's a dozen dragons, either most of them are minions or your DM is tired of the campaign.
--Lizard
It's still my favorite edition of the game. I still use as many settings and rules as I can get away with even in 3E and 4E. Nothing has inspired my RPG imagination more than the original DMG and the fantastic modules of the day. Greyhawk is still home nearly thirty years after I started there.
One new wrinkle of late is using the minis I bought for 4E to play a 1E game.
If the characters keep dying, I may have to drive up I-74 and help Obryn's group.
__________________ Member of Grognards for 4th Edition
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
