D&D 2E Huh. AD&D 2e is my favorite D&D

[Belen]

2e is also my favorite edition. I played it again a few years ago and it still is my preferred game.

I have been working to collect it all digitally on drivethrurpg.

 

[thorr-kan]

2e is my favorite D&D. Baaaarely edging out 1e. Why? I just don't know. I mean it's quirky, inconsistent and, in places, incoherent. But, gosh darn, that what makes it so endearing.

This is the Way.

2E is where I really started playing D&D, through and post-college. It's also where I've DM'd my on-and-off Al-Qadim campaign for the last 25 years. 2E is the pure quill, as God intended.

(Though I started with Basic, I've played some 1E over the last few years, I played the Hell out of 3E, and I am enjoying playing 5E with my boys. Play the version you like.)

 

[Zardnaar]

New campaign tomorrow night 6 players.

Prepping Mere of Dead mean some minor tweaks. Mostly adding some NPCs to the starting area for players to interact with.



3 of them have played 2E before even.

 

[Zardnaar]

New party rolled up.

Morninglord of Lathender
Sensate of Sharess
Crusader of Helm
Fighter/thief
Fighter
Transmuter Mage (spells and magic version).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

New party rolled up.

Morninglord of Lathender
Sensate of Sharess
Crusader of Helm
Fighter/thief
Fighter
Transmuter Mage (spells and magic version).

"Stop if you've heard this one before. A priest of Lathander, a priest of Sharess, and a priest of Helm walk into a bar..."

 

[Willie the Duck]

"Stop if you've heard this one before. A priest of Lathander, a priest of Sharess, and a priest of Helm walk into a bar..."

Transmuter to Fighter/Thief: "I don't think you're going to get lucky tonight, this is a pray bar."

 

[Ath'kethin]

I love 2nd Edition. It's where I started and many of my best D&D memories come from playing that game. Like many others here, though, I eventually migrated to the Rules Cyclopedia for its simplicity, though now I play/run Dungeon Crawl Classics almost exclusively.

I thought you were wrong so I checked and sure enough you are correct. This got me wondering if there were any new optional rules that were not included in the original 2E books or if i just recalled it wrong. Since I also now have the PDF of the "Premium" 2e revised edition from Drivethru I was able to Ctrl+F search for all Optional rules in revised and manually go through the original 2E DM guide;

I couldnt find a single Optional Rule from Revised that wasnt also in the Original 2E.

Yeah. There are differences between what's in the 1989 version and the 1995 version, but for the most part they are minior. From the 1995 intro:

"Yes, there are some small and subtle changes in the rules, but you would have to read the whole book very carefully, and have a remendous memory, to find them. (The changes are the sorts of minor corrections and clarifications we make every time we reprint, and we’ve reprinted both the Player’s Handbook® and DM Guide™ more than 10 times since 1989!)"

There were a few pretty significant changes in the revisions, though they probably didn't affect many actual people or games. For example, under "Dual-Class Benefits and Restrictions" in the Player's Handbook, the first paragraph in the 1989 version ends with "There is no limit to the number of classes a character can acquire, aslong as he has the ability scores and wants to make the change. (Certain character classes have alignment restrictions that the character must meet, however.)"

That paragrah in the 1995 version, on the other hand, ends with "A character can acquire up to four classes, one from each group, as long as he has the ability scores and wants to make the change. (Certain character classes have alignment restrictions that the character must meet, however.)"

I didn't notice that on my own, incidentally, I remember reading an article on poewer gaming years ago that brought it up (with the suggestion that you convince the DM to use the 1989 version of the book so you could take ALL the classes).

 

[Zardnaar]

"Stop if you've heard this one before. A priest of Lathander, a priest of Sharess, and a priest of Helm walk into a bar..."

Sharess Kiss in Baldurs Gate.

 

[Maccwar]

Until Shadowdark came along 2e was probably my favourite edition of D&D. The good news for me is that it is really easy to convert my old B/X, 1e and 2e adventures to SD.

I recently bought POD copies of the 1e core books for nostalgia's sake but I ran both Dragonlance and ToEE for my group in 2e only a few years ago. If only they had the complete x handbook series in POD I could work towards completing my collection.

 

[Stormonu]

I'm of mixed feelings on the 2E original vs. revised books. There's some art in the original I really like, but I find the formatting of the revised book more readable, especially for me olde eyes.

I just downloaded the 2E retroclone "For Gold & Glory" and I'm comparing the layout of that. I do like that it appears to have tightened up the language to make things easier to find. Haven't had enough time to see if it has changed any rules. Has anyone been using that or have we all just been relying on our old books?