D&D General An Appreciation of David "Zeb" Cook

[Snarf Zagyg]

Anyway, Zeb Cook... Star Frontiers was a fun game, though I never gave it as much time as Top Secret or Gamma World. The Isle of Dread definitely deserves its praise. Looking at it, in 1981, that it was an almost completely open-ended, non-dungeon crawl island, was pretty ahead of its time.

Fun fact that I happened across the other day; Moldvay did the outer parts of the Isle of Dread, and Cook made the interior!

 

[Sacrosanct]

With those three, we see his brilliance as a game designer. In so many ways, Zeb is the bridge from Gygaxian D&D to 3e.

More than many people realize. I recall an interview years ago where he said they wanted to use ascending AC in 2e, but decided they wanted it to be compatible with 1e even more.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

More than many people realize. I recall an interview years ago where he said they wanted to use ascending AC in 2e, but decided they wanted it to be compatible with 1e even more.

The great thing about 2e is that, by limiting it, it was completely backwards compatible ... allowing a pretty decent legacy from 1974-1999. That's a good run!

The bad news is that by limiting it so much, it really limited the ability of developers to clear away any of the cruft that was accumulating.

But yes, he had to work within some pretty hard-coded rules given to him by the powers that be.

 

[Sacrosanct]

The great thing about 2e is that, by limiting it, it was completely backwards compatible ... allowing a pretty decent legacy from 1974-1999. That's a good run!

The bad news is that by limiting it so much, it really limited the ability of developers to clear away any of the cruft that was accumulating.

But yes, he had to work within some pretty hard-coded rules given to him by the powers that be.

I think their take to make it backwards compatible was the best choice myself. It cleaned up some things (1e is my favorite, but I like how 2e handled thief skill progressions, non weapon profs, bard class, and priest spheres). 2e was focused on settings and fluff and not nearly as much on actual adventure modules, so being able to play all the existing modules in 2e was a big deal.

 

[The Glen]

I did a list of the top 10 Mystara modules for a video channel. His name appeared on fully half of them. Tom moldvay appeared on the other half with them sharing Isle of dread.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I think their take to make it backwards compatible was the best choice myself. It cleaned up some things (1e is my favorite, but I like how 2e handled thief skill progressions, non weapon profs, bard class, and priest spheres).

Yes on thief.
No on non-weapon proficiencies.*
Yes on bard.
No on priest spheres (I get the domain love, but tying it specifically into a deity and not a sphere is very much more in keeping with the ethos of the time, IMO).

*On NWPs, I just never felt that that they jibed well with the underlying system.

 

[The Glen]

Yes on thief.
No on non-weapon proficiencies.*
Yes on bard.
No on priest spheres (I get the domain love, but tying it specifically into a deity and not a sphere is very much more in keeping with the ethos of the time, IMO).

*On NWPs, I just never felt that that they jibed well with the underlying system.

I still hold that the rules cyclopedia had the best skill system for D&D. Quick and concise.

 

[Neonchameleon]

2nd edition is where the bulk of all the cool, unique settings were born. I think there's only been one since then...Eberrron?

Eberron, the Nentir Vale, the Wildemount. And unlike most of the 2e settings like Planescape or Dark Sun those work with rather than against the ruleset to the point that 4e Dark Sun works as if it was made for it.

 

[Jack Hooligan]

Wasn't Dark Sun written as Brom's work arrived across the TSR desks? I feel like I read that they built a setting around his art. 4e probably had the benefit of being developed with plenty of lead time and around solid rules.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Wasn't Dark Sun written as Brom's work arrived across the TSR desks? I feel like I read that they built a setting around his art. 4e probably had the benefit of being developed with plenty of lead time and around solid rules.

Dark Sun was envisioned as a base for mass combat rules, hence the codename WarWorld, emphasis on psionics was added later and Brom definitely established the look of the world. Ironically BattleSystem never really took off, so the mass combat bit was dropped later.