OSR Old school wizards, how do you play level 1?

[Lanefan]

Snarf is on the money in every detail.

In OD&D and AD&D class restrictions on weapons and armor are absolute. AD&D non-proficiency penalties are for weapons allowed to your class which you don't happen to be proficient with. If a weapon or piece of armor isn't on your allowed list, you may not use it under any circumstance.

Per the rules for dual-classing (The Character With Two Classes, 1E PH p.33) if you dual-class and in an emergency use an weapon or armor or other class ability from your old class while adventuring as your new class, before you reach the point of having exceeded your old class level, you can do it, but you gain zero experience points from the adventure. Working from that precedent, it seems like if your suspension of disbelief can't countenance an absolute prohibition, the most natural house rule would be that if a regular MU or whoever uses forbidden gear = zero xp for the adventure.

There is an absolute ton of contemporaneous discussion about (e.g.) Magic Users being absolutely unable to use prohibited weapons under any circumstances. This was a frequent player complaint/subject of disbelief, and Gary confirmed it in editorials as well.

All this shows is that rules trumping in-fiction logic isn't just a WotC-era problem.

And that even 40 years ago I was already making the rules fit the fiction rather than the opposite.

 

[Riley]

There is an absolute ton of contemporaneous discussion about (e.g.) Magic Users being absolutely unable to use prohibited weapons under any circumstances. This was a frequent player complaint/subject of disbelief, and Gary confirmed it in editorials as well.

There wasn’t an internet [for most of us] in the 1e era. We had the books, and some of us had access to some of the Dragon Magazines.

When the rules were unclear or seemingly contradictory (as was so often the case. Sheesh. Gygaxian prose is fun to read, but it’s terrible for rules clarity…), we had to make our own best guess at how to make the various rules work at our table.

We did come across one Gygax article proclaiming that we all must follow his One True Way of strictly following the AD&D rules, and we laughed and rolled our eyes.

 

[James Gasik]

It's like how in the DMG he first tells you that D&D is your game to do with as you please, then turns around and says if you change the rules, you're not playing D&D.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It's like how in the DMG he first tells you that D&D is your game to do with as you please, then turns around and says if you change the rules, you're not playing D&D.

Gary was all over the place. Not just the core books, but his articles in Dragon. I suspect he went back and forth a lot between "this is my game I invented!" and "how do we get the most people to buy and play it?"

It's why anyone who claims to play AD&D the "right way" is probably contradicted by something Gary said somewhere...

 

[James Gasik]

Gary was all over the place. Not just the core books, but his articles in Dragon. I suspect he went back and forth a lot between "this is my game I invented!" and "how do we get the most people to buy and play it?"

It's why anyone who claims to play AD&D the "right way" is probably contradicted by something Gary said somewhere...

What I've been told is that he was really bothered by all the other companies jumping on the RPG bandwagon and attempting to steal D&D's thunder, which is why he'd go off on these rants from time to time.

 

[Baron Opal II]

Can't speak to the rest but it's always bugged me in cinematic warfare of any kind that the archers or gunmen always seem to shoot at the riders rather than the mounts even though the mount is always a bigger target; never mind that if you take it down the rider goes down with it and may or may not get up again afterwards.

True, but it's harder to sell a dead horse than a live one.

 

[Lanefan]

Gary was all over the place. Not just the core books, but his articles in Dragon. I suspect he went back and forth a lot between "this is my game I invented!" and "how do we get the most people to buy and play it?"

Or was told to, for the latter.

It's why anyone who claims to play AD&D the "right way" is probably contradicted by something Gary said somewhere...

What would really rock would be to go back in time and somehow livestream EGG's own table, to see how he actually ran his game; and then use that as the go-to template.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Or was told to, for the latter.

What would really rock would be to go back in time and somehow livestream EGG's own table, to see how he actually ran his game; and then use that as the go-to template.

Well, we do know that, because we've heard from all those who played at his table. And by all accounts that I can recall at least, there was a lot of houseruling going on or the ignoring of RAW. Which I can totally relate to. I think people sometimes think that just because you wrote the rules, you know all the rules. I certainly don't remember every mechanic and rule I wrote for my games. I wouldn't expect Gary to either. Especially AD&D. I don't know a single person who played with all the rules in the DMG.

 

[Maxperson]

I played a one shot 1st level Magic User in High School whose only random offensive spell was light and leaned in on my dagger having the same to hit bonus as the fighter.

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It was a blast.

While I think it's fantastic that you had a lot of fun, I wouldn't really call light an offensive spell.

 

[Maxperson]

I disagree.

Oh, I don't know. I suppose it all depends on what is being called clear. I mean, the black type in the books was pretty crisp and clean, so in that sense the rules are crystal clear. Many of them just weren't that understandable.