The Originals.
AD&D 2E Huh. AD&D 2e is my favorite D&D
- Thread starter Doc_Klueless
- Start date
Yes, and that art was terrible. A bunch of featureless and incomplete drawings compared to nice oil paintings in the original releases.
Willie the Duck
Legend
AD&D 2nd Edition always felt to me to be rife with possibility. All the options. All the optional material from mid-late 1e in the core book. Character customization. XP rules which could* allow you to play epic quest adventures like LotR or the Dragonlance modules without worrying about collecting loot along the way. *emphasis on could, everything was optional and make-it-what-you-will
Yet, the implied scale was bounded -- the artwork depicted a (pretty female* cleric providing first aid to a) warrior having lost a battle to a single giant or a party very proud of the 10-12' (+tail) dragon they had killed and hung up on a tree and the milk-crate sized chest of treasure they had recovered. *Elmore being highly influential to this tone.
Mind you, the mechanics were nearly unchanged from 1E. For all the possible character customization possible, unless the DM was pulling their punches; you really still wanted characters in plate; using longswords, lances, and longbows; not relying on non-weapon proficiencies*; and fighting every fight with the same BX/AD&D dungeoncrawler tactics** you used before. Playing swashbucklers and shirtless barbarians and custom-made priests for each deity*** and the guy who specialized in the awl pike was for when the DM was also playing in that mode.
*which could be worse than doing nothing at all (trying to catch a thrown weapon with Juggling) to simply not to be relied upon (to survive in the wilderness you did not want the survival nwp, you wanted to have had sufficient rations).
**stay in dungeon corridors (because the backline is unprotected in the wilderness with no zone-of-control rules) and overwhelm opponents with fighters and henchmen (because a fair fight is not in your favor).
***until later supplements started making OP versions of those.
Overall, these days I think I prefer a BX/parts of BECM game (or game inspired by such) for actual play. Both AD&Ds have just too much extraneous minutia and patches-that-became-sacred-cows (different dice for opening stuck doors vs lifting gates, percentile strength, charts of nwp costs and score derivation, etc.) that I slowly have realized don't actually add anything to the game for me. However, for a good old re-read for nostalgia's sake, nothing's better than breaking out a random 2E book and just letting the memories wash over me.
Yet, the implied scale was bounded -- the artwork depicted a (pretty female* cleric providing first aid to a) warrior having lost a battle to a single giant or a party very proud of the 10-12' (+tail) dragon they had killed and hung up on a tree and the milk-crate sized chest of treasure they had recovered. *Elmore being highly influential to this tone.
Mind you, the mechanics were nearly unchanged from 1E. For all the possible character customization possible, unless the DM was pulling their punches; you really still wanted characters in plate; using longswords, lances, and longbows; not relying on non-weapon proficiencies*; and fighting every fight with the same BX/AD&D dungeoncrawler tactics** you used before. Playing swashbucklers and shirtless barbarians and custom-made priests for each deity*** and the guy who specialized in the awl pike was for when the DM was also playing in that mode.
*which could be worse than doing nothing at all (trying to catch a thrown weapon with Juggling) to simply not to be relied upon (to survive in the wilderness you did not want the survival nwp, you wanted to have had sufficient rations).
**stay in dungeon corridors (because the backline is unprotected in the wilderness with no zone-of-control rules) and overwhelm opponents with fighters and henchmen (because a fair fight is not in your favor).
***until later supplements started making OP versions of those.
Overall, these days I think I prefer a BX/parts of BECM game (or game inspired by such) for actual play. Both AD&Ds have just too much extraneous minutia and patches-that-became-sacred-cows (different dice for opening stuck doors vs lifting gates, percentile strength, charts of nwp costs and score derivation, etc.) that I slowly have realized don't actually add anything to the game for me. However, for a good old re-read for nostalgia's sake, nothing's better than breaking out a random 2E book and just letting the memories wash over me.
G
Guest 4770
Guest
I dont even think of 2E as an “edition”
Its just 1E with some bits sanded off and some other nobbly bits glued on.
Its just 1E with some bits sanded off and some other nobbly bits glued on.
Sacrosanct
Legend
It's clear of the financial situation of TSR by the time of those reprints. Worst art of any edition (OD&D gets a pass).
While it was meant to be backwards compatible, I think the differences were a bit more than that. The classes were restructured, thief skill % was completely different, KITs, the bard was nothing like in 1e, spell schools and specialization, the DMG cut a ton of rules out that was in the 1e DMG, etc.
Thagdal
Adventurer
I play/DM a mix of first and second that I just call early edition. I really liked the bulk of changes, and improved organization but I love the feel of the original class variants (i.e. druid, illusionist) which I felt was lost with second edition.
I'd never stop using many of the tables/text in first ED DMG for any edition though.
I'd never stop using many of the tables/text in first ED DMG for any edition though.
G
Guest 4770
Guest
my pleasure
though i can not fathom why your yum would be the edition-ness of 2E rather than its qualities. Im calling it 1.75E so yar boo sucks
G
Guest 85555
Guest
one of the good things about 2E is it has such a huge line of supplements, and the flavor from that era just resonates more with me than the flavor under WOTC. So when I switched back to 2E, I could run all these settings and modules (including things like the historical reference books). There is just a massive library of stuff
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