2e retro clone?

[ancientvaults]

Actually, the Greyhawk Grognard is making one as well. Adventures Dark & Deep. He just finished Castle of the Mad Archmage, an epic take on Castle Greyhawk, so I am confident that he can turn out an excellent game.

No dig on anyone else doing the same. I fully support all retro-clones and have copies of them all.

 

[InkwellIdeas]

Actually, the Greyhawk Grognard is making one as well. Adventures Dark & Deep. He just finished Castle of the Mad Archmage, an epic take on Castle Greyhawk, so I am confident that he can turn out an excellent game.

No dig on anyone else doing the same. I fully support all retro-clones and have copies of them all.

What Greyhawk Grognard is doing seems a little different if I understand correctly. He's moreso taking 1E, looking a what Gary Gygax said he was planning to change for 2E (in a few Dragon magazine editorials/articles and similar sources) and Greyhawk Grognard seems to want to make a variant 2E based on Gary's plans. (I believe Gary was out of TSR or working on TSR's Hollywood interests when 2E was actually designed.)

 

[Thulcondar]

What Greyhawk Grognard is doing seems a little different if I understand correctly. He's moreso taking 1E, looking a what Gary Gygax said he was planning to change for 2E (in a few Dragon magazine editorials/articles and similar sources) and Greyhawk Grognard seems to want to make a variant 2E based on Gary's plans. (I believe Gary was out of TSR or working on TSR's Hollywood interests when 2E was actually designed.)

You're quite correct. Adventures Dark and Deep isn't a retro-clone of 2nd edition so much as a reconstruction of what it might have looked like had Gygax still been in charge. So it has the new classes he mentioned in 1985 (mountebank, bard, etc.), streamlined combat, changed up monsters, etc. etc. The original research is still up on my blog, for those who are interested, and the project is well into the writing stage.

Greyhawk Grognard

 

[ancientvaults]

I am glad that Thulcondar clarified my mistake.
I don't know much about 2E, when it came out I didn't make the switch...

 

[Odhanan]

Yeah, sorry. The guys lost me there: "The good rules remain. The tone and epic nature remains. The bad is delicately remade with modern game theory so that only the game play improves."

If I want to play 2E, I want to play 2E. I don't want 2E with "modern game theory". Bleuargh.

 

[Philosopher]

Why are you waiting for this sort of thing? Did the 2e books stop working?

It's harder to find groups who already play 2e these days. Also, it's harder to get people to play a game if the books are out of print. I know at least one person who was able to get his group to try out 1e simply because they had access to the OSRIC books.

I know, you can pick up used copies and all that. The fact nonetheless remains that having a book currently in print can make a difference.

 

[Crothian]

It's harder to find groups who already play 2e these days. Also, it's harder to get people to play a game if the books are out of print. I know at least one person who was able to get his group to try out 1e simply because they had access to the OSRIC books.

I know, you can pick up used copies and all that. The fact nonetheless remains that having a book currently in print can make a difference.

If any of these games had real store presence I can see that. But honestly I think it is easier to find first and second edition books then it is to find the clone games because they rarely seem to make it into stores. On line I can easily find both so that's a wash.

 

[ancientvaults]

If any of these games had real store presence I can see that. But honestly I think it is easier to find first and second edition books then it is to find the clone games because they rarely seem to make it into stores. On line I can easily find both so that's a wash.

Maybe this was true 6 months ago, but little by little the clones and simulacrums are sharing shelfspace with 4E. The Dungeon Alphabet has been seen in stores (betwixt 4e books) and Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry are in the distribution process. In my area more people play oldschool games or Pathfinder than 4e.