D&D 5E I played a game of Classic D&D.

[Irda Ranger]

Personally I think the real joy of Basic D&D (and OD&D) is that you don't waste any time trying to figure out who your character is before playing the game. You just roll stats, pick a race/class, buy some weapons maybe, and roll HP. Done. Then you're thrown into the game and everything else is figured out via play. This is great for two reasons-

1) The game around the table is time better spent than cranking through character options by yourself. Making a character in modern editions (especially 3E) is too much like homework. The game is the thing. Get to it.

2) We can only really define our identity in a social context anyway. Trying to figure out who your character "is" when it's just you and a blank character sheet is unnatural compared to responding to in-game situations organically and discovering who they are that way.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Of course the game allowed you to be creative with equipment. It's probably just the DM that didn't.

Flaming Oil kept Magic Users in business in combat.

A group of mine dodged a Green Slime, then encountered a load of Zombies - the non melee types dipped torches in the Slime and hurled them at the undead!

Yep. ball bearings, torches, etc. All sorts of things a PC could use back then. In fact, IME, when the PCs didn't have a list of abilities or powers, the players tended to be a bit more creative in how they did things. That's all anecdotal of course.

And a MU with a charm person spell was the shizznit in TSR days. Extremely powerful spell. Everyone thought you had to go with magic missile or even sleep. Nope. CP was the most useful and powerful 1st level spell.

 

[iserith]

Personally I think the real joy of Basic D&D (and OD&D) is that you don't waste any time trying to figure out who your character is before playing the game. You just roll stats, pick a race/class, buy some weapons maybe, and roll HP. Done. Then you're thrown into the game and everything else is figured out via play. This is great for two reasons-

1) The game around the table is time better spent than cranking through character options by yourself. Making a character in modern editions (especially 3E) is too much like homework. The game is the thing. Get to it.

2) We can only really define our identity in a social context anyway. Trying to figure out who your character "is" when it's just you and a blank character sheet is unnatural compared to responding to in-game situations organically and discovering who they are that way.

Now here I'll agree, even though I don't think 5e character creation is especially burdensome.

I am a big fan of developing characters during play. I limit character backstories to the length of a Tweet in my games for just that reason. (Also, I don't want to read pages of drivel about somebody's parents who were murdered and how this makes the character aloof and annoying to be around.)

 

[Obryn]

I absolutely love RC/BECMI D&D. It's my second favorite edition at the moment. It's a marvel of tight, focused game design, does some wonderful things to ease players into the rules, and has brilliant things like domain management and weapon mastery baked into the default assumptions.

It also manages to be pretty well-balanced, excepting the Thief class, which just doesn't quite work as-is.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[jasper]

...I died. Made another character in 3 minutes and then died again.

...

Newbie alert. Newbie alert. I bet I can make a new character in 2 minutes 30 seconds.

 

[dagger]

We still play 1e along with 5e, but 5e is the main game when I am not the DM.

Despite the myths about 1e, its has rapid advancement up to about 9th level as well (especially for single class), but it helps if you actually do the XP rules correctly.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

A DM who plays honestly will challenge players with a fair and unbiased encounters where as a DM who wants to "win" or kill off PC's purposely will have encounters that are almost impossible to beat. I'm guessing you probably do not DM much dude, but thats cool, people need to learn the difference between being an honest DM and a non honest DM. Hopefully my explanation will make you a better DM.

Scott

What does it mean for the DM to "play honestly?" What does a DM playing "dishonestly" such that, I guess, PCs are dying look like?

 

[Sacrosanct]

A DM who plays honestly will challenge players with a fair and unbiased encounters where as a DM who wants to "win" or kill off PC's purposely will have encounters that are almost impossible to beat. I'm guessing you probably do not DM much dude, but thats cool, people need to learn the difference between being an honest DM and a non honest DM. Hopefully my explanation will make you a better DM.

Scott

That's not honesty. That's balance. Honesty is just being truthful and not lying or misleading players. And I've been DMing for 35 years, so....

 

[Tony Vargas]

Last year I planned a Tour de D&D. The idea was to play 1st level as Basic, 2nd level as 2e., 3rd level as 3e, 4th as 4e, and finally 5th as 5e, and just convert the characters as best we can.

Sounds awesome! Juxtaposing the editions, reveling in their fun bits and lampshading their failings, can be fun - and 'educational.'

I did a crossover like that, leavened with parody, for a convention. 'Lord of the Editions' ripped the Moria section of LotR. 12hr session, swapped eds every 4hrs...

Actually we didn't make it past basic, because I was waiting for the characters to get enough xp to organically make second level before advancing them to the next stage. My mistake (oops).

You could've started with 1e but might've had the same problem - just dropping a huge monetary haul, though, can take care of it, since the exp to level doesn't mesh well with the exp for taking on the fights you actually have a chance of winning - something 4e & 5e finally got right, if in slightly different ways ...

 

[iserith]

A DM who plays honestly will challenge players with a fair and unbiased encounters where as a DM who wants to "win" or kill off PC's purposely will have encounters that are almost impossible to beat.

So you propose that if a D&D 1e DM and a D&D 5e DM both run a "fair and unbiased encounter," there will be less character death in the D&D 5e game?

If so, what is the difference between a "fair and unbiased encounter" in D&D 1e and D&D 5e?

And what makes an encounter that is "almost impossible to beat" unfair?

I'm guessing you probably do not DM much dude

Only for about 25 years.