D&D 2E On AD&D 2E

[Micah Sweet]

I wonder what the demographics of this thread are then.

I’m 45, so basically too young to even remember 1E. I started with a part of a Basic boxed set booklet around 90 or 91, then found a DM who had the RC, but pretty quickly moved into 2E around 1993 and started DMing my own group.

That actually probably only lasted until 1996 or so. I look back at 2E and the TSR game as my personal favorite, but most of my gaming has actually been 5E.

To have actually played 1E (or B/X for that matter) in its heyday, you’re going to probably have to be 55+. I was 9 when 2E came out for instance and born the same year as the original DMG was released.

I'm 48. I started very briefly with the same Basic booklet in '86, then moved to 1e in '87-88 (right before 2e came out). We played with 1e rules (sometimes supplemented by 2e material) until 3e came out in 2000. I also read and assimilated a ton of 2e material throughout the '90s, which is why I love 2e so much even though I rarely played that edition exclusively. Once 3e was out I played and collected that for a while, but eventually we went back to 1e for actual play and mostly stayed there until 2009, when we gave 4e a try. I played and ran 4e for about a year before we gave up on it as our regular system (although we ran arena fights with it for about six months after that) and again went back to 1e until 5e came out in 2014.

We played 5e and sometimes 1e too until my best friend passed away in 2018, which led to the break up of my group. I eventually put together a new group after that and we stuck with 5e (with myself increasingly disillusioned with the game and the hobby) until I found Level Up a couple years ago. I discovered the OSR around 2017, but my current group has no interest in old school play, much to my chagrin.

That's my history in D&D. I played a lot of other games through that time too, of course.

 

[Voadam]

I wonder what the demographics of this thread are then.

I’m 45, so basically too young to even remember 1E. I started with a part of a Basic boxed set booklet around 90 or 91, then found a DM who had the RC, but pretty quickly moved into 2E around 1993 and started DMing my own group.

That actually probably only lasted until 1996 or so. I look back at 2E and the TSR game as my personal favorite, but most of my gaming has actually been 5E.

To have actually played 1E (or B/X for that matter) in its heyday, you’re going to probably have to be 55+. I was 9 when 2E came out for instance and born the same year as the original DMG was released.

What are you considering the heyday of 1e? 2e did not start until 1989. If you had started two or three years earlier it would have been in the 1e era.

1e started in 1977 with the Monster Manual but you did not have a complete usable-on-its-own game until 1979 with the PH and DMG.

I think I was eight when I started playing D&D, maybe seven. 1e and then B/X and then 1e again to start.

I have done a lot of D&D in the 1e, 2e, 3e, (a comparatively less, but still a bunch of 4e as i played a lot of 3.5 and Pathfinder in a lot of the 4e era), and 5e eras.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What are you considering the heyday of 1e? 2e did not start until 1989. If you had started two or three years earlier it would have been in the 1e era.

1e started in 1977 with the Monster Manual but you did not have a complete usable-on-its-own game until 1979 with the PH and DMG.

I think I was eight when I started playing D&D, maybe seven. 1e and then B/X and then 1e again to start.

I have done a lot of D&D in the 1e, 2e, 3e, (a comparatively little but still a bunch of 4e), and 5e eras.

For 1e I would say '82-85 (basically the Stranger Things era). A little before my time as a gamer.

 

[Emerikol]

For 1e I would say '82-85 (basically the Stranger Things era). A little before my time as a gamer.

I think in some ways that is the heyday of D&D culturally. At my high school, pretty much a country county so not on the cutting edge of culture, I saw D&D games being played at breakfast before school started. It was pervasive.

 

[PHATsakk43]

I was a bit of a 2e snob as a teenager, I never bought or used 1e products and have zero nostalgia for the edition.

Oh, when I first found out about 1E I decided I hated it.

I’ve warmed slightly, but I’ve never really enjoyed the Gygaxian prose.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Oh, when I first found out about 1E I decided I hated it.

I’ve warmed slightly, but I’ve never really enjoyed the Gygaxian prose.

Just the opposite. I love and loved reading the 1e corebooks. It made me look stuff up, expand my vocabulary, and it was inspiring. I liked the higher reading level D&D used to have.

 

[overgeeked]

To have actually played 1E (or B/X for that matter) in its heyday, you’re going to probably have to be 55+. I was 9 when 2E came out for instance and born the same year as the original DMG was released.

I’m only a couple of years older than you. I started in 1984 with B/X and AD&D.

 

[TwoSix]

I’m only a couple of years older than you. I started in 1984 with B/X and AD&D.

I think the timing is really sensitive. Like, if I had been born in '77 instead of '78, it's quite probable that 1e would have been my starter edition, rather than 2e.

 

[overgeeked]

I think the timing is really sensitive. Like, if I had been born in '77 instead of '78, it's quite probable that 1e would have been my starter edition, rather than 2e.

Absolutely. What age you started, what year, what was the current edition, what the group actually played, etc are all super important.

We skipped 2E and 3X entirely. Went from AD&D to 4E then 5E. If someone joined our group between 1977* and 2008 they’d be playing AD&D.

* No idea when the older guys in my group started.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think the timing is really sensitive. Like, if I had been born in '77 instead of '78, it's quite probable that 1e would have been my starter edition, rather than 2e.

Makes sense. I was born in '76.