Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A semi-brief history of D&D and some other RPGs: 1967-1979
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 7647458" data-attributes="member: 80487"><p>Extremely confident on:</p><p></p><p>social level, titles, influence (including influence of mistress)</p><p>courting</p><p>clubs, gambling, toadying</p><p>dueling</p><p>status points</p><p>regiments, campaign, battles</p><p>(death, mention in dispatches, promotion, plunder)</p><p>income</p><p>military and government appointments</p><p>embezzlement and civil unrest</p><p>trials</p><p></p><p>The dueling rules (basically an elaboration on "Scissors, Paper, Rock") are mostly right in the tables, and those take up about 1/8 the total space devoted to tables in a handout for a later (UK) edition that I think has just the same scope as the original.</p><p></p><p>If you have the first <em>The Best of The Dragon</em>, "Monkish Combat in The Arena of Promotion" is a kung fu adaptation of the EG dueling system.</p><p></p><p>I think what really trips up people is a tendency to think of RPGs as treating darned near everything at the scale at which EG treats only dueling. It's easy to forget that even in combat, OD&D was at a higher level (one-minute rounds) than the blow-by-blow. The next step up was the 10-minute turn (dungeon moves), then the day (wilderness moves). Weeks were the usual unit of campaign play. (Per Vol. 3, a week's dungeon adventure "considers only preparations and a typical, one day descent into the pits.")</p><p></p><p>Most popular RPGs <em>are</em> primarily tactical games, concerned with combat and booby-traps and the like. What they are "about" beyond that is more nebulous, so rules for other things tend to one of:</p><p>(A) Rules? We don't need no stinking rules!</p><p>(B) Our rules include a list of skills that reads like a college course catalog.</p><p>(C) Ha! Our rules are all that <em>and</em> a physics textbook.</p><p>(D) We have a universal resolution mechanic for anything and everything conceivable.</p><p></p><p>In <em>En Garde</em>, careers of social climbing rakes in 17th century Paris are what the game is about, and it has pretty tight rules for central issues in that. It is not about the % chance of climbing a garden wall, or such fine points of athletics. That's basically the opposite of the ranking of priorities in the most influential early reaction to D&D, which sought to do much the same tactical stuff with more "realism".</p><p></p><p>So, I think part of its significance lies in its having blazed a trail that, a couple of decades later, might be recognized as heading in at least one of the "new" directions of the "indy RPG" scene.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 7647458, member: 80487"] Extremely confident on: social level, titles, influence (including influence of mistress) courting clubs, gambling, toadying dueling status points regiments, campaign, battles (death, mention in dispatches, promotion, plunder) income military and government appointments embezzlement and civil unrest trials The dueling rules (basically an elaboration on "Scissors, Paper, Rock") are mostly right in the tables, and those take up about 1/8 the total space devoted to tables in a handout for a later (UK) edition that I think has just the same scope as the original. If you have the first [i]The Best of The Dragon[/i], "Monkish Combat in The Arena of Promotion" is a kung fu adaptation of the EG dueling system. I think what really trips up people is a tendency to think of RPGs as treating darned near everything at the scale at which EG treats only dueling. It's easy to forget that even in combat, OD&D was at a higher level (one-minute rounds) than the blow-by-blow. The next step up was the 10-minute turn (dungeon moves), then the day (wilderness moves). Weeks were the usual unit of campaign play. (Per Vol. 3, a week's dungeon adventure "considers only preparations and a typical, one day descent into the pits.") Most popular RPGs [i]are[/i] primarily tactical games, concerned with combat and booby-traps and the like. What they are "about" beyond that is more nebulous, so rules for other things tend to one of: (A) Rules? We don't need no stinking rules! (B) Our rules include a list of skills that reads like a college course catalog. (C) Ha! Our rules are all that [i]and[/i] a physics textbook. (D) We have a universal resolution mechanic for anything and everything conceivable. In [i]En Garde[/i], careers of social climbing rakes in 17th century Paris are what the game is about, and it has pretty tight rules for central issues in that. It is not about the % chance of climbing a garden wall, or such fine points of athletics. That's basically the opposite of the ranking of priorities in the most influential early reaction to D&D, which sought to do much the same tactical stuff with more "realism". So, I think part of its significance lies in its having blazed a trail that, a couple of decades later, might be recognized as heading in at least one of the "new" directions of the "indy RPG" scene. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A semi-brief history of D&D and some other RPGs: 1967-1979
Top