Going Back in Time...AD&D

[jcayer]

Last night, after a bit of planning, my regular group had a bonus session. We usually play every other Tuesday, but everyone was available, so we decided to put 4E away and give AD&D a try.

Most of us grew up playing it, but had a fair amount of fog clouding our memories. In the end, 5 players, created 2, level 5, characters each, in under an hour, and entered the Ghost Tower of Inverness(aka C2).

Everyone had a BLAST. Even the 4E power gamer, who I was really worried about, came out with 2 different voices and RP'd his characters like never before.

Some interesting observations...squishy. While nobody died, someone fell in a hole in the first 10 minutes and burned up 30% of their hit points. I managed to bring 2 guys down to -3 and -5, but a couple of cure lights wounds and they eventually made it back to their feet. Lots of jokes about just spending a healing surge.

Combat was very fun as it moved quickly. Sure, with 10 guys, a typical battle took about 30 minutes, but almost every stayed focused. Very few side conversations like happens in 4E. We did not use a grid or miniatures.

Anyway, anyone who grew up playing this, I encourage you to dust it off and give it a try. It really boiled down to AD&D is a framework, while 4E is a rules system. The players were much more free to do different things and we'll be finishing the adventure next month during another bonus session.

 

[Votan]

Last night, after a bit of planning, my regular group had a bonus session. We usually play every other Tuesday, but everyone was available, so we decided to put 4E away and give AD&D a try.

Most of us grew up playing it, but had a fair amount of fog clouding our memories. In the end, 5 players, created 2, level 5, characters each, in under an hour, and entered the Ghost Tower of Inverness(aka C2).

Everyone had a BLAST. Even the 4E power gamer, who I was really worried about, came out with 2 different voices and RP'd his characters like never before.

Some interesting observations...squishy. While nobody died, someone fell in a hole in the first 10 minutes and burned up 30% of their hit points. I managed to bring 2 guys down to -3 and -5, but a couple of cure lights wounds and they eventually made it back to their feet. Lots of jokes about just spending a healing surge.

Combat was very fun as it moved quickly. Sure, with 10 guys, a typical battle took about 30 minutes, but almost every stayed focused. Very few side conversations like happens in 4E. We did not use a grid or miniatures.

Anyway, anyone who grew up playing this, I encourage you to dust it off and give it a try. It really boiled down to AD&D is a framework, while 4E is a rules system. The players were much more free to do different things and we'll be finishing the adventure next month during another bonus session.

I am a big fan of the older and more free form systems as well. They ahve a different set of strengths and weaknesses than 4E does (and 4E does a lot of things extremely well). But it also illustrates how cool it can be to try something different to change expectations and get out of a rut. I suspect you'd have had the same great success with Savage Worlds.

 

[Obryn]

Last year, I was running both a regular 4e game, and a monthly AD&D game. Both are great systems, and both have stuff they're awesome at.

I'd run or play AD&D again in a heartbeat.

-O

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Last night, after a bit of planning…we decided to…give AD&D a try…Everyone had a BLAST.

That's great to hear; having a blast is what it's all about.

Recently, my nephew (who is in high school) asked me to DM an AD&D game for him and his friends. We've only had a couple of sessions, but everyone has been having a great time, so far.

 

[Bullgrit]

It really boiled down to AD&D is a framework, while 4E is a rules system.

AD&D is no less a hardcoded rules system. It has a minutely detailed and convoluted combat system -- but most people house rule out much of the complicated combat RAW. I presume you must have house-ruled-down much of the RAW for your game?

I managed to bring 2 guys down to -3 and -5, but a couple of cure lights wounds and they eventually made it back to their feet.

Even negative hit points had some pretty specific rules more complicated than what most people think of and use today.

Anyway, anyone who grew up playing this, I encourage you to dust it off and give it a try.

I recently revisited Basic D&D, but I don't think I could successfully revisit AD&D unless I could find a group of people who used back then and agree on now the same house rules that I used -- or use it RAW, which would not really be a revisit for me.

Bullgrit

 

[deganawida]

AD&D is no less a hardcoded rules system. It has a minutely detailed and convoluted combat system -- but most people house rule out much of the complicated combat RAW. I presume you must have house-ruled-down much of the RAW for your game?

Even negative hit points had some pretty specific rules more complicated than what most people think of and use today.

I recently revisited Basic D&D, but I don't think I could successfully revisit AD&D unless I could find a group of people who used back then and agree on now the same house rules that I used -- or use it RAW, which would not really be a revisit for me.

Bullgrit

I'll agree with this. Though I never played 1e, I did play 2e, and there was just something about the system that seemed to say, "Hey, these rules are the important ones. Keep them. This other stuff? You can throw it out if you like." Subsequent splat books just seemed to encourage this, with throwing everything out there as options subject to DM approval.

On another note, I'm glad that I'm not the only one feeling nostalgic for AD&D (2e, again, in my case). I'm not sure why. I think 4e is great, but I find myself yearning for the pre-3e era. I might just be getting old.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Nah, I let my friends who were on a nostalgia trip do that and after they all essentially died at about 5th level they decided to check out some other game systems.

Mind you a lot of us like games like Hero and Mutants and Masterminds so 2 and 1 e have a lot of constraints that just made no sense to us then and make even less sense now.

 

[Chainsaw]

I'll agree with this. Though I never played 1e, I did play 2e, and there was just something about the system that seemed to say, "Hey, these rules are the important ones. Keep them. This other stuff? You can throw it out if you like." Subsequent splat books just seemed to encourage this, with throwing everything out there as options subject to DM approval.

Gotta love the modularity and emphasis on customizing.

 

[MerricB]

I managed to bring 2 guys down to -3 and -5, but a couple of cure lights wounds and they eventually made it back to their feet. Lots of jokes about just spending a healing surge.

By the RAW, they then have to spend a week or two or maybe a month recuperating before they can adventure again. The rule is in the DMG somewhere (around death and dying, IIRC).

I wonder how many players used that rule?

Cheers!

 

[Umbran]

It really boiled down to AD&D is a framework, while 4E is a rules system.

I ran some memorial dungeon crawls with the passing of Gygax and Arneson, and I disagree with your assessment.

AD&D, 3e, and 4e are all rules systems. We may choose to use any rules system as a framework. How free people feel about doing certain things isn't much a function of the ruleset, but more of their notions of how they should do things. In an ongoing campaign, there's a certain onus to stick by the book, for sake of consistency. In a for-fun stand-alone session, there is no such burden.

I see this effect in any one-shot game. One shots are the short stories to the campaign's novel series. Different expectations lead to different behaviors.