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Well that makes more sense. Interesting that the GDQ series was probably what made me think of it in the first place. I don’t think the drow city would have a Paladin’s Guild where you could practice jousting.

In retrospect it is kind of amazing how EGG’s writing could be so verbose while also being so thoroughly opaque, leaving important game design goals in near obscurity. Ironic that Gygax’s favorite class, the fighter, may have suffered the most from having so many of its class features (e.g...

Strict application of the training rules would also act as a disincentive to exploration. It would be hard to go hex-crawling over the hills and far away, or sailing off into the wild blue yonder, if you know that you cannot level up until returning to a home base of some sort. Explorers would...

I have never come across an explanation for why crossbows were so weak in AD&D, when IRL they were super effective. When I first got the 2E PHB I loved most of the new rules, but was baffled that they actually buffed long bows with the addition of sheaf arrows (1d8 damage) while leaving...

There was one UA polearm (fauchard-fork maybe?) that had a special ability to pull opponents off balance with its hook. The derro from MM2 used it as a standard weapon. As a DM I used them in a derro encounter I made, and as a player rolled up a polearm fighter who used a fauchard-fork, but it...

When I started playing 1E c. 1986-87, UA was “the new shiny” and everyone was excited to own and read the book, simply because it was new official D&D content. In retrospect, we only consistently used weapon specialization, the spells and magic items, and the expanded class choices and...

A few more thoughts about Wizardry, and how it both followed old D&D conventions and also anticipated some later trends in character building and party composition. For my friends and I, this game felt like playing D&D solo since the minimal dungeon graphics were basically the same as theater...

I am imagining the “open market” for magic items in a Gygaxian 1E world like Greyhawk: (a sketchy half-orc dweomer-monger, clad in a long black leather overcoat, lurks in a dark alley next to the odoriferous privy behind the Drunken Druid Tavern, accosting passersby) “Pssst... hey buddy...

I wonder how closely “New Jobs for Demi-Humans” matched the expanded rules for demi-humans in Unearthed Arcana, released this year (1985). That book became notorious for errors and misprints, and when we reach November 1985 there will be a Dragon article of UA errata and rules clarifications...

Wizardry also had ASIs and proto-prestige classes. Your abilities had a random chance to increase every time you levelled up, and occasionally that would allow a character of the four basic classes (Fighter, Mage, Priest, Thief) to switch to elite classes usually unavailable at level 1...

My memories on this point may be faulty, but my impression was that “magic shops” were one of those things that EGG absolutely forbade, somewhere in the advice section of the DMG. But I also seem to remember rules for selling unneeded magic items and counting them as monetary XP rather than...

The 1E race/class restrictions seem completely arbitrary to me. Elves and half-elves could be mages but not illusionists, while for gnomes it was the reverse, and dwarves, halflings, and half-orcs could not be any kind of spellcasters until UA IIRC. Those rules seem to be based not on any kind...

Some reasons to not play 1E: Ability Score Anarchy The attribute system was an absolute mess. EGG actually recommended four generous methods to roll up characters, which were necessary because bonuses were only available for very high scores. This created a perverse incentive to get 18% STR...

Sometimes I think 90’s TSR was a novels-and-CRPGs company with a legacy sideline in TTRPGs, somewhat like the way the Marvel and DC comics lines are now arguably just IP mines providing grist for the cinematic universe mills. Or the way car companies used to make a few “halo cars” like muscle...

Slightly off topic, but I can almost see some players in classic Ravenloft deciding to do a deliberate heel turn, for any number of reasons. Maybe their character knows the power of the “Dark Side” and craves it. Maybe they figure that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Is it better to burn out...

That was the whole point of Warhammer, 40 years ago. Now the whole point of Warhammer is, “Miniature wargaming figures and paints are surprisingly profitable, even in the grim darkness of the far future year 2025.” 😁

In general I like this newer modular approach to character generation, separating out ancestry, culture, class, background, etc so players can build highly customized characters without having to bend or break the rules. I have begun learning Pathfinder 2E and character generation is a bit like...

I also find it a bit strange when people complain about D&D 4E (and PF2E) being too focused on tactical tabletop features, including the use of miniatures and map grids, as if this were some newfangled intrusion upon the original spirit of the game. Because of course D&D began as a rules...

One thing I find interesting about the Edition Wars and other philosophical disputes within the TTRPG scene is that two factions can dislike a third faction and its preferred games or gaming styles for reasons that are not only completely different, but are in fact diametrically opposed to each...

“Are you sure Gary done it this way?”