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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Mearls on AD&D 1E
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<blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 7371868" data-attributes="member: 12377"><p>When I was 10 years old, I got my first RPG: the Basic Set Red Box. These rules weren't as dense and labyrinthine as AD&D, but they were every bit as idiosyncratic and nonsensical.</p><p></p><p>And you know what? It bugged the <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> out of me. Playing with my 10-year-old friend and his 8-year-old brother, I was the DM, and it was just frustrating having to make everything up. And the rules that were present weren't any better. Who the heck has a flat 1-in-6 chance of finding any secret door? Why, for the love of Pete, does a wizard spend all morning memorizing a spell, and then <em>forget</em> it the moment it's cast? How does one hold a sword in a hand-and-a-half? I don't have any half-hands!</p><p></p><p>I'm not trying to claim that I was some sort of 10-year-old rules prodigy, or that people who enjoyed earlier editions were having badwrongfun. (In fact, if I were a rules prodigy, maybe I would have been a better DM and the whole experience would have gone differently.) It's just that the argument that "poor rules make good games" has always fallen flat for me. I think, good DMs make good games. Good rules make good DMs, and early D&D trained a lot of <em>bad</em> DMs. 3E's over-specified ruleset was a direct response to this.</p><p></p><p>Do I think Mearls is wrong? No, I think some people learn DMing best in a harsh, sink-or-swim environment like 1E. But those people are rare and probably would have become good DMs eventually anyway. And it helps if your last name is Gygax. For most people, we need clear, helpful game rules as a crutch, simply so we function as DM.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="77IM, post: 7371868, member: 12377"] When I was 10 years old, I got my first RPG: the Basic Set Red Box. These rules weren't as dense and labyrinthine as AD&D, but they were every bit as idiosyncratic and nonsensical. And you know what? It bugged the :):):):) out of me. Playing with my 10-year-old friend and his 8-year-old brother, I was the DM, and it was just frustrating having to make everything up. And the rules that were present weren't any better. Who the heck has a flat 1-in-6 chance of finding any secret door? Why, for the love of Pete, does a wizard spend all morning memorizing a spell, and then [I]forget[/I] it the moment it's cast? How does one hold a sword in a hand-and-a-half? I don't have any half-hands! I'm not trying to claim that I was some sort of 10-year-old rules prodigy, or that people who enjoyed earlier editions were having badwrongfun. (In fact, if I were a rules prodigy, maybe I would have been a better DM and the whole experience would have gone differently.) It's just that the argument that "poor rules make good games" has always fallen flat for me. I think, good DMs make good games. Good rules make good DMs, and early D&D trained a lot of [I]bad[/I] DMs. 3E's over-specified ruleset was a direct response to this. Do I think Mearls is wrong? No, I think some people learn DMing best in a harsh, sink-or-swim environment like 1E. But those people are rare and probably would have become good DMs eventually anyway. And it helps if your last name is Gygax. For most people, we need clear, helpful game rules as a crutch, simply so we function as DM. [/QUOTE]
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