OD&D Edition Experience: Did/Do You Play OD&D? How Was/Is It?

[HarbingerX]

I just don't force people to do that. (I played in an AD&D game last year where the GM insisted on rolling 3d6 in order - against the advice of that game - and 2 out of the 5 players failed to qualify for any class - I just have limited patience for that.)

I would only use 3d6 in order if everyone was on board with that. Using arrays sounds like a good way of providing some randomness and better than point buys or standard array.

A DM I played with would usually have us generate 4d6 drop lowest in order and then can swap 2. HP was roll twice and take highest. When leveling up, re-roll all hit dice (so 3 dice at level 3) and use the new value if it was higher. This made bad HP rolls only hang around for one level.

As mentioned the bonuses were low, so you get away with ignoring your actual stats. The only exception to that is if you're playing with the 5%/10% bonus to XP for having a high prime requisite. I played with that once, and it made a big difference in the long run to the one PC that didn't have a 10% bonus; though he was an illusionist so sucked anyway.

 

[JeffB]

Generally for Ability scores, I have them roll (3d6) for 6 scores, and replace the lowest with 15. Arrange as you see fit. That is for OD&D/S&W.

In AD&D we used 2d6+6, arrange as player sees fit Your rarely did not qualify for anything, but most of the subclasses were hard to qualify for- Which was intentional.

For the 4E/5E games ,C&C and 13th Age I tend to use the default array 15,14,13,12,10,8- arrange to taste.

Then mods for class/race etc.

 

[CleverNickName]

So far: of the 74 members of ENWorld that took the survey, almost half (43%) have played the original version at least once. And of those who never played it, about 43% said that they would like to.

And get this: nearly everyone who played it liked it (81%). That's an incredible satisfaction rate. I don't think any of the older editions can even come close to that...

...or can they!? Time will tell.

 

[Oofta]

So far: of the 74 members of ENWorld that took the survey, almost half (43%) have played the original version at least once. And of those who never played it, about 43% said that they would like to.

And get this: nearly everyone who played it liked it (81%). That's an incredible satisfaction rate. I don't think any of the older editions can even come close to that...

...or can they!? Time will tell.

Well ... the real question would be "do you want to play it again for a long term campaign." Because that would change my answer. I played it back in the day and liked it because it was pretty much the only game in town. Doesn't mean I'd want to put up with it any more.

 

[CleverNickName]

Well ... the real question would be "do you want to play it again for a long term campaign." Because that would change my answer. I played it back in the day and liked it because it was pretty much the only game in town. Doesn't mean I'd want to put up with it any more.

I agree--and apparently, so does everyone else: exactly 0% of people who responded to the survey are still playing it. So one could argue from this survey* that while OD&D ranks high in satisfaction, it fails hard in sustainability.

*this completely unscientific, heavily biased, and infamously unreliable survey

 

[teitan]

I’m one that thinks the game SHOULD be hard so that when the party encounters a 9th level wizard they know he’s powerful and has been through some . I prefer a slower level advancement as well as it makes life as an adventurer mean more than going from 1-20 in a year of game play.

 

[HarbingerX]

I agree--and apparently, so does everyone else: exactly 0% of people who responded to the survey are still playing it. So one could argue from this survey* that while OD&D ranks high in satisfaction, it fails hard in sustainability.

*this completely unscientific, heavily biased, and infamously unreliable survey

The only people who would be playing OD&D now are folks that really want to build a game that is their own. As D&D added magic/monsters/treasure, the amount you had to invent yourself went down. Some people like to experience that type of game again where so much of it is their own creation. But it's a lot of work and we're not teenagers with lots of free time anymore.

 

[Don Durito]

I could see myself maybe running Sword and Wizardry at some point (which is basically ODD cleaned up) but I'd probably be bringing in elements such as monsters and treasure from AD&D.

After all part of the appeal of and version of TSR D&D is the ability to use my massive 2E Monstrous Manual.

 

[Garthanos]

I was killed by one of this in room 2 or 3

 

[Garthanos]

It was the old Blue Book edition.

Blue-book D&D

Blue-book D&D, p.n. 1. the 1974 edition of TSR Hobbies, Inc.'s Dungeons & Dragons Adult Fantasy Role-Playing Game. 2. D&D as played by this basic rules set. 3. a D&D game with characters below 3rd level (the bluebook rules only covered characters through third level - more advanced players moved...

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