D&D Genre' A comment and reminder about D&D and the limits we chose to play by.
1: Player and DM coordinate to establish understanding of the general idea of the campaign setting.
2: Discussions revolve around players and DM's to establish PC character concepts, development options such as, whether or not to swap feats with skill points, professions or any other character development background points and utility of printed material for character individualization such as UA, Sage, Dragon Magazine ect....
3: Character reviews should be done before game night and level, class, kit, professions, equipment and general PC concepts should be hashed out beforehand.
4: PC's should be developed fully with background, interests, motivations, Ideology, Flaws, Feats or not, Total character points for skills and abilities as well.
5: If your group is Adventure League you can forget most of this as AL requires exacting steadfast restrictions and adherance to listed, rules and Authorized content. (define Authorized)
6: If your group is open to flexible use of "Approved D&D gaming Material such as Sage, UA, Handbooks, and any other D&D concept material approved through the ages or agrees to follow specific "generational" D&D such as AD&D, 2nd Edit., 3.5, 4, 5e, then all the better for you and your group.
Remember, most of those groups will not be able to play that developed character in an AL tournament...too much diversity for AL new generation players to grasp. Also too much data for most new players to be aware of.
7: For those seeking to have a good time playing in a campaign My advice is to listen to the DM, get a really good feel for his concept and interpretation of his world, create a character that fits his world and that fits your idea of a fun character and work with the other players to have fun.
8: For those players that want to mini-max and select only abilities, feats, skills, that might contribute to an OP idea of a character, your playing the wrong game.
FOR EVERYONE:
pg 6 AD&D 2nd edit. Players Handbook
"Everything in the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS system has purpose; most of what is found herein is essential to the campaign, and those sections which are not --such as sub-classes of characters, psionics, and similar material -- are clearly labeled as optional for inclusion. What is here is, hopefully, presented in as logical a sequence as possible, clearly, understandable, and with as few ambiguities as could be managed. Many readers will want more material. There is a wealth of commercial and fan material available for fulfilling such needs. Similarly, even the most important material herein can be altered and bent to suit the needs of individual campaigns. Where possible true guidelines have been laid down to provide the barest of frameworks for those areas of the campaign which should be most unusual and unique. Read the work (or both works if you are the DM) through and assess for yourself what ADVANCED D&D really is. I am convinced that it does for old D&D + suppliments what GREYHAWK did for D&D when it first appeared, and then some."
~ Gary Gygax ~ @1978 -- TSR Games.
Pg 2 ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS DMG Forward:
This book holds much in store for you as a DM -- it is your primary tool in constructing your own "world", or melieu. It contains a wealth of material, and combined with other works of ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ( the MONSTER MANUAL and PLAYERS HANDBOOK) gives you all the information you need to play AD&D. But, as always, one more thing is needed -- your imagination. Use the written material as your foundation and inspiration, then explore the creative possibilities you have in your own mind to make your game something special.
~Mike Carr~ TSR Games and Rules Editor 16 May 1979
pg 3 ADVANCED DUNGEON & DRAGONS UNEARTHED ARCANA Preface in parte'"
"The AD&D @ Game system is dynamic. It grows and changes and expands. Our universe does all this, and so too the multiverse of this game system. The description and definition of an infinite multiverse must necessarily be done piecemeal -- adding new discoveries as they come to light, expanding horizons as the sum total of our past knowledge allows. As the original volumes of the game system (monster manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeon Masters Guide) have altered from their first editions, so the game has changed in form and substance. This new material grew from my own campaign, articles published in DRAGON@ Magazine, and input from many Dungeon Masters and Players also. The book has a single purpose: Unearthed Arcana brings new dimensions to the AD&D game system. The compiled material which lies herein offers fresh new approaches to play without materially affecting any ongoing campaign adversely,"
This work does not alter former "Laws of the multiverses," but it does open insights and vistas beyond those previously understood and seen. All the participants of a campaign will find this material of greatest interest and benefit to them. Dungeon Masters will discover new sub-races and their inter-relationships, new deity models for non-humans, and much in the way of magic -- a trove of spells and items indeed! Players, of course, benefit from all of that and more. There are new horizons for demi-human characters, new professional callings, new weapons, new approaches to just about everything. Yes, some of the material has appeared previously, but here it is carefully revised, edited, and compiled so as to change it from a possible insertion to an integral part of a vital campaign. There are new choices, new possibilities, new opportunities, and new ideas laid out before you. Best of all, these rest upon the solid foundation of the AD&D game system -- the most widely accepted and played role-playing game in the world.
~GARY GYGAX~ May 1, 1985
Why did I include these quotes from the AD&D books?
As a teenager in the late 70's and early 80's I found the game and the stories I played in, quite exhilarating and the DM's I played with had such imagination that I was entranced in the D&D genre' from then on. Through the decades, I found as Gary is quoted, that there truly were new insights, horizons where crossed and fully explored. New concepts and ideas developed. Laylines, Nexus, wild magic and magic in many forms, Humanoids, Of which I love to play and challenge players with. The title of the books may have altered, the artwork may have developed and improved (Greatly) but the core concepts of the game are solid. The rules are guidelines for play, The books are a base or foundation to work from but in no way the only interpretation out there. The laws of the multiverse are vague, limitless, flexible and malleable. The dimensions of the game are limitless and can be divergent. House rules can be as limited or flexible as a DM and or his players decide.
New generation players, those playing in say the past 4 or 5 years, the information I provided above is a guide and nothing more, play as you and your friends like.
Lastly, the D&D genre' game/s is/are to be fun for everyone.
Hope my diatribe was not too severe.
DM: 8318686838
~Dave~ AKA David Niewoehner
