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Is a more OD&D feel game the natural evolutionary endpoint? Is OD&D actually AD&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4740968" data-attributes="member: 80487"><p>I don't think Gygax was "glad to rubbish" D&D; as indicated (if memory serves) in that very column, he intended that it should remain in print.</p><p></p><p>His vision of AD&D as a standardized rules set seems to me more fully realized in WotC's games. I see 4E not as a return to rules-lightness and DM rulings but as a solidification of a rules-governed approach. Consider that the first three volumes have about twice the page count of the 1st ed. AD&D trilogy of MM, PHB and DMG.</p><p></p><p>I can see how the looser old-style approach might be something to which some more "advanced" players gravitate after having found it at first unsuitable. On the other hand, I can also see how it might actually be <em>less</em> intimidating for many novices.</p><p></p><p>The OD&D books indeed assumed a knowledge base uncommon among the unexpectedly wide audience to which the game's subject appealed. I had the benefit of being introduced via actual play with an experienced DM. However, I was not acquainted with the hobby of medieval war-gaming in miniature (and even WW2 board games from S&T magazine were something else). I found the Holmes Basic Set quite helpful, and suspect that I would have had a hard time with the LBBs ("little brown books") had I picked them up "cold".</p><p></p><p>For all that I prefer 1st ed., I can appreciate the greater accessibility of the 2nd ed. AD&D books.</p><p></p><p>WotC's games seem to me rather directed once again more at fairly hard-core hobbyists than at the general public. I see that not only in the rules-heaviness but in the increasing reliance on self-referential and other-game/media premises and assumptions (as opposed to history, mythology and classic genre fiction). D&D has become that much more "geeky." </p><p></p><p>That may be just what's wanted by a certain demographic ready to spend hundreds of dollars and many hours on the game, a market WotC naturally is eager to tap. Nothing in the past decade suggests to me an evolution of its product line toward OD&D's "Why have us do any more of your imagining for you?" attitude.</p><p></p><p>Old hands who never saw fit to "upgrade" to AD&D, 2E, 3E, 3.5E and 4E may have something in common with a wide segment of the public beyond our devoted game fandom. It's rare enough to find people whose eyes don't glaze over upon contemplating a 72-page rule book, much less a set more than ten times as long.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 4740968, member: 80487"] I don't think Gygax was "glad to rubbish" D&D; as indicated (if memory serves) in that very column, he intended that it should remain in print. His vision of AD&D as a standardized rules set seems to me more fully realized in WotC's games. I see 4E not as a return to rules-lightness and DM rulings but as a solidification of a rules-governed approach. Consider that the first three volumes have about twice the page count of the 1st ed. AD&D trilogy of MM, PHB and DMG. I can see how the looser old-style approach might be something to which some more "advanced" players gravitate after having found it at first unsuitable. On the other hand, I can also see how it might actually be [i]less[/i] intimidating for many novices. The OD&D books indeed assumed a knowledge base uncommon among the unexpectedly wide audience to which the game's subject appealed. I had the benefit of being introduced via actual play with an experienced DM. However, I was not acquainted with the hobby of medieval war-gaming in miniature (and even WW2 board games from S&T magazine were something else). I found the Holmes Basic Set quite helpful, and suspect that I would have had a hard time with the LBBs ("little brown books") had I picked them up "cold". For all that I prefer 1st ed., I can appreciate the greater accessibility of the 2nd ed. AD&D books. WotC's games seem to me rather directed once again more at fairly hard-core hobbyists than at the general public. I see that not only in the rules-heaviness but in the increasing reliance on self-referential and other-game/media premises and assumptions (as opposed to history, mythology and classic genre fiction). D&D has become that much more "geeky." That may be just what's wanted by a certain demographic ready to spend hundreds of dollars and many hours on the game, a market WotC naturally is eager to tap. Nothing in the past decade suggests to me an evolution of its product line toward OD&D's "Why have us do any more of your imagining for you?" attitude. Old hands who never saw fit to "upgrade" to AD&D, 2E, 3E, 3.5E and 4E may have something in common with a wide segment of the public beyond our devoted game fandom. It's rare enough to find people whose eyes don't glaze over upon contemplating a 72-page rule book, much less a set more than ten times as long. [/QUOTE]
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Is a more OD&D feel game the natural evolutionary endpoint? Is OD&D actually AD&D?
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