Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and the original Basic D&D - your experiences?

[Zardnaar]

The trouble with Gygax's work is rarely actually the mechanics - which are incredibly solid in D&D - but in his explanations of how they work.

He's fine whenever he's talking about class abilities or the like, but the moment we get to the actual processes by which D&D works, his writing is incredibly poor.

Yeah something like that. Thew 1st ed DMG is still probably the most entertaining DMG ever put out though. A few of the later ones feel a bit sanitized by comparison.

 

[WayneLigon]

My long-held opinion has been that AD&D was regarded more highly (primarily due to the options it gave players), whilst Basic D&D, whilst I considered it the rules to be much clearer, was too limiting in character options. (It should be noted that for a very long time, I didn't own the Companion and later rules, and so domain-building was never part of my play). However, I wouldn't at all be surprised if I've projected my opinions on to how the world in general saw the game.

Our little part of the world may have viewed it similarly. During all the years I played AD&D at the game shop, or when talking with others who came in and out of there, never once did I encounter anyone running or playing in a Basic D&D campaign. SOMEONE was, because boxes would be purchased and restocked, though not very many of the latter boxed sets. The Mystara regional modules sold well among the AD&D crowd because they were just that cool. The only purchase I ever made beyond 'the blue box' was the D&D Cyclopedia.

Once in a while one or two of us would think about running a Basic campaign, but we never could get over that speedbump of races being classes. In AD&D we regularly house-ruled that all races could be all classes, as well as freely multiclass, but for some reason nobody wanted to do the body of work that would be required for a similar house rule in Basic.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

I started with the Moldvay set, then quickly moves on to AD&D. If I recall, I liked the change, primarily because of the additional character options.

 

[Emerikol]

I have found most of the DMGs to be useful and it was actually a high light of 4E. C&C has an amazing DMG (CKG whatever) and in some ways the 2nd ed DMG is better than the 1st ed one. THe 1st ed one has a certain charm to it due to Gygax's writing.

Please all, take what I'm saying IN CONTEXT. I am not saying the 1e DMG is the best at everything and has been downhill on everything since. I'm talking about the specific guidance Gygax gave on how to be a good DM. Not the other rules which I agree could be cryptic and poorly worded.

I'm also not saying that everything which followed was no good. I'm just saying that I feel the 1e DMG was the best and everything else was not as good but in some cases still good.

 

[MerricB]

I must say, the impression I'm getting from this thread confirms my original beliefs - Basic D&D was not a major force.

I particularly don't count the massive sales of the Red Box as indicative fo the game being played. I see them as being used as a introduction to D&D in general, after which many people moved on to AD&D... or didn't actually continue in the hobby.

Cheers!

 

[fjw70]

I must say, the impression I'm getting from this thread confirms my original beliefs - Basic D&D was not a major force.

I particularly don't count the massive sales of the Red Box as indicative fo the game being played. I see them as being used as a introduction to D&D in general, after which many people moved on to AD&D... or didn't actually continue in the hobby.

Cheers!

I would be very interested in seeing how many basic sets sold vs how many expert and beyond sold.


I started with Moldvay in 1982. My friends and I very quickly moved on to AD&D. I never even bought the expert set. One of my friends had it but didn't use it much. No one I knew played non-advanced D&D for very long. AD&D was the thing.


I didn't want to restrict myself to "basic" D&D when I could play advanced. It wasn't until my gaming resurgence about 6 years ago that I began to appreciate how well written BX was.


I was aware of the BECMI sets but had moved on to AD&D by then and didn't pay much attention to them.

 

[Alan Shutko]

[3D][/3D]

Like so many kids in the 80's, we mixed and matched freely.

Then I moved totally over to AD&D. I still love it.

Today, though, I think RC D&D is a much better-designed game, and next time I run old school, that will be my pick.

Hey, Obryn, I'll run it for you.

Through a very random act of fate, I found myself with a copy of GAZ3 The Principalities of Glantri and bought Obryn's boxed BECMI sets. I fell in love. Companion and Master, especially, seemed to open a new world beyond AD&D's dungeon-centric view. There was Battlesystem for BECMI's War Machine, which was extremely exciting, but it got forgotten in 2e.

I even liked Race as Class. It made sense to me that different races, especially humanoids that seemed particularly bound to culture by their long lives, would develop unique twists on things that could not be expressed by a +2 to dex. Racial feats eventually added this concept back into the AD&D vein.

 

[Alan Shutko]

Yeah, it's Rules Cyclopedia, the BECMI compilation.

I actually prefer two of its retro clones, Dark Dungeons and Darker Dungeons.

Why is that? I haven't really looked at the clones (having the PDF and three copies of the RC).

 

[Obryn]

Hey, Obryn, I'll run it for you.

Hehe I think I'm running it in a few weeks. Next interlude from our main campaign, I asked if they wanted to play Next or Basic, and they chose Basic, so...

Why is that? I haven't really looked at the clones (having the PDF and three copies of the RC).

The rules are tidied up a bit, mostly, especially in Darker Dungeons. In Dark Dungeons, all the classes move to a 1-36 progression (while keeping the rules the same, because Attack Ranks are dumb), combat switches to d20+Atk+AC >= 20, and a few other improvements. Darker Dungeons switches a few more things around, making the entire system d20 checks vs. DC 20, along with some weird changes to the Classes and some new additions like the Mountebank.

In both cases, it's still 100% compatible.

When I run it, I'm going to probably do something to make Thieves less terrible though. Thinking of adding 2xDex Score to all their skills.

 

[Alan Shutko]

When I run it, I'm going to probably do something to make Thieves less terrible though. Thinking of adding 2xDex Score to all their skills.

No kidding. Something needs to be done there. I never figured out the best way.