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I think Castles & Crusades is AD&D in spirit but not mechanics. 3e itself is both too different in mechanics and playstyle (tries to provide rules for every possible scenario instead of just relying on lots of DM's judgement).

There's only one way to handle this: pistols at dawn! Alternately, you could buy a bunch of jumbo-size d20's and make all your players roll those instead of their own. :D

Most people don't count, we're talking about one of the few self-sustaining RPG companies that managed to sustain full-time employees. Hasbro is in it for the money. Before then, WotC was in it for the money. Heck they even sold off a bunch of RPGs in the mid-90's because those lines weren't...

I think there's no need to try proving anything one way or another since there was a misunderstanding at play... If you hang around old-school players enough, you'll soon find out that many of them use the terms OD&D, BD&D, Basic D&D and Classic D&D interchangably to imply any of the D&D stuff...

Okay, you got me man. :D I can't find it, though honestly it's been a while since I've played 1e. I distinctively remember seeing it in an AD&D book though, so perhaps it was in UA or the 2e DMG. It's worth noting that you can use the Massive Damage rule, or at least that concept, no matter...

Don't forget the "Death From Massive Damage" rule. It's somewhere in the 1e DMG... But there is in B/X D&D, and you did say older editions. In AD&D, he could easily have been grappled/overborne (either by using the extra-crunchy rules provided in the 1e DMG, or the simpler ones from Dragon...

Yeah, CoC. You're all going to die anyway, how strong/smart/fast you are is just an illusion to make you feel better. It won't help you though. Running away might, but by the time you think to do that you've already seen too much. :D Anyway, I think AD&D 1e started the min-maxing trend...

That's more than I wanted to know. :D You understood what I meant though, right? I'm fine with the 5/10/15/20/25 DC increments, but start getting more specific than that and I'm snoozing. I think I've got some networking code to debug, my custom layer-7 protocol needs some work. That should...

You don't have to be trained. In the early 80's, we played D&D very ad-hoc like, probably more than I do now, and it was loads of fun. We also played games with even less rules than Basic D&D, such as Das Schwartze Auge (the Basic version) and even used straight-up Fighting Fantasy (only has 3...

Situational modifiers are a separate thing altogether. I would deviate from the preset DC if I don't know it and don't feel like cracking the book. Actually I'd rather not know it, and just make it up as we go along. I'd just like to pick something that sounds good. If it's not perfectly...

I was hoping to generate enough interest in Basic D&D to make the Rules Cyclopedia books into a high demand item and thus sell my copies and retire to some island paradise. No, you don't think that's a good idea? :D Buff spells, potion/scrolls and feat effects are quite prevalent in 3e. Heck...

In practice it's not that simple. Someone still has to physically lookup the rules. Someone has to add all the bonuses (after figuring out which ones are relevant and which ones aren't). That still takes time. That can even be the source of dissent, and arguments take away even more precious...

Well yeah. In 3e there are preset DCs for specific situations. If you deviate from those, or don't include the required modifiers (feats, skills, buff spells, your mother's maiden name, etc.) then the players may get pissy about you not following the rules. So you end up looking things up a...

Well it depends on the DM and players. The player describes what he's going to do, and if there are no rules for it in the book, then the DM comes up with a die roll and, if necessary, a difficulty modifier. Typically the die roll will be simply an ability check or saving throw. But it could...

Some people do have a problem with THAC0. But it's okay because there are other options. Personally I don't like THAC0 or using the attack matrix. But one day I realised that the attack tables in Basic D&D follow a linear pattern, and you can use a simple equation to figure of if your attack...

That only happens if you take the written rules as unflexible law, and frankly it's not the way OD&D was meant to be played (the DM section in 1981 Basic D&D makes this point quite clear). Fighters attack yes, but they also sneak around (which is different than move silently/hide in shadows)...

I design & code software, of all sorts, for various OS's. That's what I do all day long at work (and in much of my free time too), and others look up to me when they need help to solve problems. It's sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, sometimes rewarding and fulfilling. Invariably though I...

That's pretty much it for me. I don't mind math per se, it's a tool and an indispensable one for certain tasks. But when I play D&D, I want to delve and remain into a fantasy world for several hours, not play accounting 101 or remedial arithmetic. All those modifiers, stacking bonuses...

WG7 Castle Greyhawk. It's like Undermountain on crack. :D Oh yeah, comics: Thrud the Barbarian, Finneous Fingers, Wormy, Order of the Stick

It's not hard to add a house rule if that bothers you. I did something kinda like that in B/X D&D, where I let PCs fight with two weapons (nothing crazy, just sensible combinations like sword+dagger) and although the extra weapon doesn't give free attacks, it acts like a shield for melee...