Sacrosanct
Legend
What do you love about your favorite edition that ISN’T rules related?
Yep, anything rules or mechanics related is verboten. So no comments about attack matrix, or healing surges, or vancian casting, or AEDU. I’m talking about what sort of things do you love about your favorite edition that are apart from the rules.
My favorite edition is 1e, and in large part because it captured the pop culture of fantasy in the late 70s and early 80s. IMO the 80s were the best decade for fantasy. It really took off in the 80s to be mainstream rather than something obscure that only stoners who listened to prog rock in their painted van were into. We started seeing big budget movies with A list action stars. Fantasy literature took off. Video games became a thing in every household with actual graphics.
But the best part was how anything went. The 80s were wonderful in that things never took themselves too seriously and going over the top into a bit of silliness was perfectly OK. I mean, just go watch some of those 80s movies and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Conan the destroyer (still the best and most accurate D&D movie to date), Ice Pirates, Krull, Dune, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Willow, Predator, Time Bandits, Goonies, Raiders of the Lost Arc, etc. D&D 1e captured all of that really well.
It was also the edition with the best art, IMO. Black and white art is just as good as color art, just different, and I think modern editions really suffer by excluding black and white line art.
It was the era that also had the D&D cartoon, and a toy line, and a mainstream comic book line.
So yeah, for non mechanical reasons, those are the big ones why AD&D is my favorite. It’s not nostalgia. It’s attitude and aesthetics of that era.
Yep, anything rules or mechanics related is verboten. So no comments about attack matrix, or healing surges, or vancian casting, or AEDU. I’m talking about what sort of things do you love about your favorite edition that are apart from the rules.
My favorite edition is 1e, and in large part because it captured the pop culture of fantasy in the late 70s and early 80s. IMO the 80s were the best decade for fantasy. It really took off in the 80s to be mainstream rather than something obscure that only stoners who listened to prog rock in their painted van were into. We started seeing big budget movies with A list action stars. Fantasy literature took off. Video games became a thing in every household with actual graphics.
But the best part was how anything went. The 80s were wonderful in that things never took themselves too seriously and going over the top into a bit of silliness was perfectly OK. I mean, just go watch some of those 80s movies and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Conan the destroyer (still the best and most accurate D&D movie to date), Ice Pirates, Krull, Dune, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Willow, Predator, Time Bandits, Goonies, Raiders of the Lost Arc, etc. D&D 1e captured all of that really well.
It was also the edition with the best art, IMO. Black and white art is just as good as color art, just different, and I think modern editions really suffer by excluding black and white line art.
It was the era that also had the D&D cartoon, and a toy line, and a mainstream comic book line.
So yeah, for non mechanical reasons, those are the big ones why AD&D is my favorite. It’s not nostalgia. It’s attitude and aesthetics of that era.
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