What is the best game to capture that old 1E AD&D feel? - Please state why.

[Psion]

Just play 1e. You can buy spare copies of the 1e rulebooks for quite cheap.

Even when we were playing 1e, we weren't "just playing 1e". There are large swaths of the 1e rules that never got used by anyone I knew of at the time, and we house ruled the heck out of it.

C&C is a horrible, horrible game. It combines all the bad parts of 1e and 3e. And Hackmaster isn't serious.

Akrasia Treebore's gonna git you!

 

[EyeontheMountain]

To get the 1E feel again, I would have to wipe my brain of all I have learned since High School and efectively re-live my life. It was my first RPG, and I don't think you can get that again.

For the next best thing, I would need a totally new game, that I had never read or heard about from friends, family or the net. Then I could get the exploration feel that to me was the biggest part of 1E. Explorignthe magic system, the classes, the world, all of it. To me, that newness was 1E.

Yes, I miss it. I get some of that feeling when I start playing new video games (becasue I never look stuff up on the net when I start playing) I jsut jump in and start exploring and making mistakes. It is great. I've always rather pitied those that read up on strategies, best classes and (god forbid) walkthroughs before they even crack open the shrink wrap on a new game.

I can't think of a better way to ruin the experience.

 

[mythusmage]

For the next best thing, I would need a totally new game, that I had never read or heard about from friends, family or the net. Then I could get the exploration feel that to me was the biggest part of 1E. Explorignthe magic system, the classes, the world, all of it. To me, that newness was 1E.

If that's what you want, try Dangerous Journeys. Not only do you get adventure, intrigue, and tons o' spells, you also get Epic Gygaxianisms galore.

 

[reel_big_gish]

I voted Hackmaster.

Why?

Because it's needlessly complicated, it has tables for everything, and most of the ruleset is counterintuitive or just doesn't fit with the rest of the rules. Character creation can take hours, and combat is a total nightmare. The section on critical hits alone is 15 pages long, with detailed critical charts based on weapon type, as well as detailed breakdowns of, and the effects of critical hits on, humanoid skeletal systems, muscular systems, and internal organs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the system. The books themselves are a fun read, and while it has a reputation as a joke system, its just as functional as 1e ever was. The overall clunkiness of the rules captures the spirit of 1e in a way that nothing else but 1e could ever hope to achieve.

It also has the added benefit of being liscenced by WotC, so Kenzer "hacks" many of the old 1e or basic classics, notably Keep on the Borderlands, Against the Giants, and that fabled killer of PCs, S1 Tomb of Horrors. Nothing captures the spirit of 1e quite like telling your player "Make a saving throw vs death magic or die. Just kidding, there's no saving throw "

 

[Treebore]

Just play 1e. You can buy spare copies of the 1e rulebooks for quite cheap.

C&C is a horrible, horrible game. It combines all the bad parts of 1e and 3e. And Hackmaster isn't serious.

Why do you keep proving you don't really take the time to play these?


Calico Jack,

Why C&C? Well, I think others have covered why. But just in case, I'll say/repeat some of them. It is cross compatible (easily so) with EVERY edition of D&D. Did you catch that? EVERY edition! So everything you own can potentially be used by you, very easily.

It uses a lot of 1E attitude on spells and the monster builds, but uses the 3E mechanic for hitting AC's, and saves (whole important categories of saves) rely on every single stat. So you will feel the pain of the throw away stat.

One of my players was so happy about making 8th level he literally cried tears of joy.

C&C lets you put together the rules you like. This means whatever bugs you about C&C, you can fix. C&C's SIEGE engine is so flexible you can ad rules you want from any edition of D&D, and even Hackmaster, and many other games, to make C&C your own cool game.

For example, feats. I don't use feats as written in 3E, but I let my players attempt to do feat like actions. Most commonly it is to Cleave or get an etra attack in a given round. Well, instead of having lists of feats, etc... all my players have to do is attempt to pull off an extra move. They do this by rolling a Target Number (TN) of 12 (base/Prime) + the HD of their opponent. If they succeed they get the cleave extra type of attack, or they can just roll for an extra attack, or both if both "opportunities" present themselves in the same round.


C&C's SIEGE engine is just surprisingly very flexible.

Go with C&C and re-discover the joy of putting together "your" own game, with whatever rules, from whatever source. Plus enjoy fast combats where you can fight 3 different groups of hill giants and a group of goblins, orcs, trolls, and Hill Gaints, all in one 8 hour session, and still have a couple of hours for roleplaying your characters.

Rediscover taking so long to level up that your character actually has a long and sordid history to go along with their levels.

A 3E character will have approximately 266 encounters worth of history when they reach 20th level. A C&C character will probably have around 1,000, at least in my games, with the way I award XP's.

Play a game where you can have random encounters, and not worry about it leveling up your PC's.


Play C&C for three gaming sessions of at least 4 hours each. You'll either feel like a kid in a candy store again, or you'll know C&C isn't for you. Your group can play with one PH and one M&T (or just use the 2E MM's and magic items, if you still have those books), and if you get it off of Amazon they will cost somethng like $26.00, qualifying for free shipping.

Plus visit the Troll Lord forums and http://www.cncplayer.net

 

[diaglo]

To get the feel of 1e, I'd play 1e. You should be able to find the books you need cheap. I see copies at most the used books stores around here.

QFT.

the only way to get the true 1edADnD feel is to play 1edADnD.

it is still possible to do.

 

[diaglo]

wow still no diaglo

i was on vacation.

besides he is asking about 1edADnD not OD&D(1974).

1edADnD is just a poor imitation of the real thing.

 

[Piratecat]

Why do you keep proving you don't really take the time to play these?

Just because someone doesn't agree with your opinion doesn't mean that they're uniformed about the games they're discussing.

Folks, please discuss the good stuff about the games that is worth sharing, but don't get personal if someone disagrees with you. That's no fun for anyone.

 

[Umbran]

the only way to get the true 1edADnD feel is to play 1edADnD.

Having seen more and more of these threads, I just want to insert - games have more than one feel. The same set of books can generate a remarkably broad set of experiences, when played by different people, different assumptions, and different goals.

 

[Geoffrey]

Nothing captures the spirit of 1e quite like telling your player "Make a saving throw vs death magic or die. Just kidding, there's no saving throw "