D&D General Lethality, AD&D, and 5e: Looking Back at the Deadliest Edition

[Hussar]

Did you grow up among the Amish or something? Because I can assure you it would have been quite uncommon for your average American kid to make soap or candles on a regular basis. (My sister did make a candle in elementary school as part of a class project. My mother still has that candle, but my macroni art is far superior.)

Right? I mean, we had a microwave in the 80's. EVERYONE had a microwave in the 80's. As far as a hotdog at school goes, you ordered your hotdog on Wednesday, and on Friday, the school had Hotdog day and you got your hotdog delivered to your classroom. True, it was a boiled hotdog, but, I certainly didn't cook it.

 

[Lanefan]

Right? I mean, we had a microwave in the 80's. EVERYONE had a microwave in the 80's.

Or some reasonable hand-drawn fascimile that, if wise, you'd stand a good 30 feet away from whenever it was in operation.....

(early microwaves were nasty!)

As far as a hotdog at school goes, you ordered your hotdog on Wednesday, and on Friday, the school had Hotdog day and you got your hotdog delivered to your classroom. True, it was a boiled hotdog, but, I certainly didn't cook it.

Lucky you. We didn't have such things, except once a year at the school picnic.

 

[Clint_L]

Or some reasonable hand-drawn fascimile that, if wise, you'd stand a good 30 feet away from whenever it was in operation.....

(early microwaves were nasty!)

Lucky you. We didn't have such things, except once a year at the school picnic.

We had them but not once per week, more like once per term. And sometimes it was hot dogs but if we got lucky it was a McDonalds burger plus that uncarbonated orange drink McDonalds did back then. And they were fundraisers so you had to pay a buck or something. Well worth it!

 

[Andvari]

What planet did you live on that a kid of 13 in the 80's had downed a buck with a bow and arrow?

What? You've never had to put a band of brigands to the sword on your way to school?

 

[Clint_L]

I like that this thread has veered almost exactly into the "back in my day..." territory Snarff lampooned in their OP.

 

[Hussar]

We had them but not once per week, more like once per term. And sometimes it was hot dogs but if we got lucky it was a McDonalds burger plus that uncarbonated orange drink McDonalds did back then. And they were fundraisers so you had to pay a buck or something. Well worth it!

Ah, now, for me, McDonalds was a special treat. Nearest McD's would have been about 30km. In the city anyway.

Heck, my elementary school, so, that would be about 1985 (IIRC) was my last year, had Commodore computers. So, it's not like it was the dark ages or something. Heck, my Grandmother had a microwave in the 80's.

 

[Hussar]

I like that this thread has veered almost exactly into the "back in my day..." territory Snarff lampooned in their OP.

Heh. But, I think it does rather highlight an important point. When discussing "the game" it's really, really hard to divorce play experience from what the game said. I mean, going back to the item damage rules. Those are BAROQUE. Oh my god. Sixteen bazillion different exceptions and rules that are ... less than crystal clear shall we say.

So, the way I played, the way you played and the way someone else played varies so incredibly much that no one can really say, "Yes, this is the way the game was played." So, rolling back to the idea of lethality, probably the most honest answer is, "Well, it depends."

Although, I would certainly agree that 5e is less lethal than AD&D. No argument from me there. For me, it was 3e combat that was the most lethal. Simply because most monsters could potentially kill a PC in a single round. It wasn't likely, true. But, it was possible. This just wasn't possible in AD&D after a couple of levels. The monsters just didn't do enough damage, nor did they hit often enough.

 

[jasper]

What planet did you live on that a kid of 13 in the 80's had downed a buck with a bow and arrow? ROTFLMAO. I grew up about as rural as you can get in Canada and I guarantee that ZERO people in my town had done that. Never minding a kid of 13. "Trapped a rabbit"? Good way to get a visit from the game warden.

I think you maybe, just maybe, projecting just a teeny bit.

Canada it a magical place with demon geese.

 

[Lanefan]

Canada it a magical place with demon geese.

Turn that into "a demon place with magical geese" and you're well on your way to a hella good RPG setting...

 

[Lanefan]

Heck, my elementary school, so, that would be about 1985 (IIRC) was my last year, had Commodore computers. So, it's not like it was the dark ages or something. Heck, my Grandmother had a microwave in the 80's.

Which simply goes to show how much difference just a few years can make. In high school (grad 79) our student-accessible computing power consisted of a single terminal connected to a mainframe (in Vancouver I think) by a 300-baud modem of the type where you plugged a telephone handset into a cradle.

That fall in university computing science classes we used a punch-card reader. The following year a whole whack of Teleray terminals were put in for student use, and the card reader instantly became 99% obsolete.

Same goes for gaming in that era. Someone who started playing D&D in 1981 entered a whole different environment than someone who started playing in either 1975 or 1987. I don't think the environment is changing nearly as fast today - I'd posit the experiences of someone who started D&D in 2015 and someone starting today will be much more similar by comparison.