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

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm expecting Diaglo to show up any moment now.

I love Castles & Crusades, but most of the game stores down here don't carry it. A staff member at one store told me that the reason they don't stock it is that it's 'just another d20 knock-off'.

Sigh.

It's hardly the merchant's fault. There's been a staggering lack of promotion by the company.

 

[diaglo]

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.

i agree.

when i said feel i meant it on the individual level.

the feel i got when playing 1edADnD definitely isn't going to be the same as that achieved by others. heck, even in my own playing group it was different. we each got out of the game what we wanted. we each had our own approach and our own enjoyment. about the only thing the same was the order we acted in init.

b/c even what the DM described was not the same. as we each only picked up the words we were interested in following up on...

"You see a 10 X 10 room with an Orc guarding a pie..." that could be any edition.

how some individuals react to that information... "Will he get an AoO if I move to steal the pie?" "Can I hide in shadows and sneak behind him to backstab?" "My bow specialized elf kit allows me a +X to hit him. So if I shoot the Orc in the eye with a called shot...."

 

[Ghendar]

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.

Sadly that is the truth. Nothing beats that wonder you felt when you played the first time and not knowing what the hell you were doing. Great stuff.

 

[Mr_Spicoli]

Sadly that is the truth. Nothing beats that wonder you felt when you played the first time and not knowing what the hell you were doing. Great stuff.

That statement just begs the reply:
Just try a new game system, the more unfamiliar the better. Not necessarily overly complicated either. Unfamiliarity can range from the rules, the setting, the inhabitants, the gaming style & flavor etc.

There are tons of games that fit the description of "Nothing beats that wonder you felt when you played the first time and not knowing what the hell you were doing. Great stuff"

For unfamiliar races and settings, yet familiar mechanics
Arcana Unearthed

If you want to stick with unfamiliar mechanics & setting yet familiar races & themes theres:
HARP
Mythus Dangerous Journeys
Tekumel, Empire of the Petal Throne
MERP
HARN

For unfamiliar mechanics, setting, races & sometimes themes try:
The Riddle of Steel
7th Sea
Talislanta
Ars Magica


For more complex, grim, or realistic rulesets theres:
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
Rolemaster
Runequest
Call of Cthulhu dark ages

Theres even mostly familiar races & mechanics yet with unfamiliar settings & magic levles
Dawnforge
Morningstar

Then there tons of games that are in unfamilair settings that are non fantasy- anything from steampunk, cyberpunk, victorian horror, cyberpunk/fantasy, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse, hard sci-fi, space opera and more.

There are plenty of options, you just need to look around and ask people.

 

[Akrasia]

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.

While I agree that simply playing 1e AD&D would appear to be the most effective way of achieving the 'feel' of 1e (it seems almost truistic to say so), presumably 1e was not included in the options by the OP for some reason. I'm not sure why -- and leave that to the OP to clarify. (Perhaps it is because 1e is OOP, whereas C&C and Hackmaster are in print?)

In my own case, while I would be very happy to play in a 1e AD&D game again (and did so briefly last year, much to my enjoyment), I would never DM it again. There are various reasons for this (the incomprehensible initiative system, my personal disdain for demihuman level limits, etc.). Given the number of house rules that I would find necessary to add to 1e, I may as well play either RC D&D or C&C instead.

At the same time, though, I very much like the 'feel' of (much of) 1e AD&D material (especially the ideas and tone of the 1e DMG, the Greyhawk portfolio and box set, the classic Judges Guild material, and the modules from that era, esp. the much-overlooked 'UK' series).

So it makes sense (to me at least) for someone to want to 'capture that old 1e AD&D feel' without actually wanting to play the 1e AD&D system.

(As an aside, as others have already noted, a single system can achieve many different 'feels' -- a 1e AD&D 'Wilderlands' campaign is going to 'feel' much different from a 1e AD&D 'Dragonlance' campaign! I thus assumed that by '1e AD&D' the OP means something like the 'Gygaxian' feel of the 1e DMG and early Greyhawk, as well as the style of modules from the late 1970s through mid-1980s ... )

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

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

With you on part 1, kinda. Not so on part 2. Hackmaster I think is as serious as 1e was, or at least 1e as I remember it. Screaming mushrooms, random monster tables that could drop a dragon on your lap in the middle of a dungeon, stream of consciousness rules -- 1e was fun, but it certainly felt more like a game than a simulation.

 

[dcas]

C&C is a horrible, horrible game. It combines all the bad parts of 1e and 3e.

I'm not a huge fan of C&C (although my name is probably listed in the PHB along with 1000 other people's), but I don't think that it combines the bad parts of 1e and 3e. A 1e aficionado would likely identify the "bad parts" of 3e as: feats, skills, intricately balanced classes, etc., and C&C has none of this. If, on the other hand, the "bad parts" of 3e are unified mechanics and d20 for everything, then you're right that C&C has the "bad parts" of 3e. But then that raises the question of which "bad parts" of 1e are in C&C.

HackMaster isn't really a joke, even if its publisher is currently treating it like a red-headed stepchild.

 

[Xyanthon]

I voted for other. As others have stated, if you want to play 1e, then play 1e. C&C is a great game and I don't want to take anything away from it, but it is not 1e. There is also a lot of new material being put out for 1e now with OSRIC and the works of people at Dragonsfoot, Pied Piper Publishing, Expedious Retreat Press, Ronin Arts, and several others actively involved in creating new material. It is a good time to be a 1e player right now!

 

[tx7321]

Its great to see so much activity going on in the OOP segment. Look, all of these systems create a 1E feel, if the GM and players play them that way. As much as I love C&C, its not supposed to be a knock off of 1E, never was. Its a unique living system, and the creators wanted it that way.

But, honestly, its a silly question, onlye AD&D1 rules set can ever create that "feel".

 

[MarauderX]

Use 3.5. Get some modules from Goodman Games. Take out magic item shops and reduce magic expectations altogether.

I too was on this search as I was tired of the quest to find the best gadget so my cool PC would be more kick-@$$. It was about the PCs, not the quests, not the storyline, not who they faced or the plot. It bothered me that most gaming groups were like this, so I decided to make a homebrew and take it in my direction - away from that of Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk & Eberron.

Does that sound like work? Nah, not a whole lot. Just outlaw everything except the SRD and squash the players' complaints with a 'too bad, it's my show'. And have fun with less goofy rules and books than you ever needed.