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One rule I back-port from 3rd to 1st is casters being allowed to memorize lower-level spells in higher level slots. It just makes sense.

I don't fudge now because when I first started playing D&D, my first DM was an enthusiastic fudger and pantser, and frankly, it sucked not feeling like anything I did in the game actually mattered.

Fifteen years of OSR blogs… honestly, I haven't bothered keeping track of most of it. This article on freeform fighting maneuvers is a particular favorite though. Excellent house rule for any old-school game.

A solid, thorough list. I don't agree with every single point, but it does a good job big-picture of summing up how most grognards and retro-gamers describe the old-school and OSR play-styles. I'd personally draw the "old-school vs. modern" cutoff line much earlier than 2000 — the trad...

Well sure, but let's not forget that this is a piece of game-design put together by a wargamer who probably thought that 3 demihumans out of 5 player characters was 2½ demihumans too many (and who believed that everybody would want to play Conan because wanting to play Gandalf was weird and...

The demihuman level limits are there to enforce AD&D's human-centric genre of sword & sorcery fantasy. AD&D assumes lots of self-interested adventurers running around the fantasy world, the most successful of whom will eventually become the region's local lords, patriarchs, wizards, and other...

I started playing with Classic D&D (which still used the SIWDCΧ order) and AD&D 2e (where the SDCIWΧ order originated), and I always liked the latter better. It made sense to block the stats into three physical and three mental, and I didn't really understand at the outset where the Classic...

Ooh, Hope. That's really good. I like that. I had been thinking either "Valor" or "Freedom", but "Hope" is just as much of an ideal as "Dread" is a… well, whatever the demotivational opposite of an ideal is. Excellent suggestion!

In the new version of the HeroQuest game recently released by Hasbro, "Chaos Warriors" and other similar enemies were renamed "Dread Warriors" and the like, probably to avoid getting entangled with any GW IP. But now I have to ask… let's imagine that one were going to play a full-on RPG set in a...

Ah, the zeal of the converted in combination with the rebellious feeling of countering the mainstream. It makes for a heady brew that compels us to preach the Good Word. The indie RPG movement has its pet issues ("the mainstream is GM authority and combat-focused sim, but distributed authority...

I'm solidly in the "forever!DM and happy about it" camp. I don't really enjoy playing, and the main reason for that is, nobody will ever DM a game the way I'd do it! I'm particular. I like building worlds, I like designing dungeons, I like kitbashing together core rules and house rules, and I...

The 2e barbarian (CBHB) could be LG, LN, TN, NG, or CG. The shaman from the same book had the same alignment restrictions—no Evil or CN allowed. (In 3e, the CD spirit shaman could be of any alignment.) The 2e psionicist (CΨHB) and 2e ninja (CNHB) could not be Chaotic. (In 3e, the psion and the...

The problem with ye auld "why not just play a board-game if you aren't going to get into character?" chestnut is that board games are generally constrained by rigid rules, don't have a human referee, and don't allow for tactical infinity. If you want improv acting, you can do a freeform LARP or...

Well I did say mostly. As in, I don't require/allow most characters to pick an alignment. I see no reason to impose that on players, and most players (even if I clearly explain the Moorcockian/Gygaxian cosmic perspective or the Andersonian faerie-tale perspective to them) still take alignment to...

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+pronounce+multimeter&sxsrf=APq-WBvc-9sn0heMjbHiAWgDCI5H_rQwHA%3A1646285896345&ei=SFQgYta8FMajptQP98GfgAQ&ved=0ahUKEwjWgLPwnKn2AhXGkYkEHffgB0AQ4dUDCA4&oq=how+to+pronounce+multimieter&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQDEoECEEYAEoECEYYAFAAWABgAGgAcAF4AIABAIgBAJIBAJgBA...

Every dictionary I've ever looked at says "ar-TIFF-uh-sir." Same emphasis as "photographer" or "psionicist." Or "altimeter" and "multimeter" (and "kilometer" and "odometer"…).

While I (mostly) don't find alignment useful and therefore didn't vote in the poll, I wouldn't use either of the OP's definitions. They rely too much on character behavior or beliefs. Alignment is cosmic—it's either allegiance to a big, universal "side", or some inherent quality in a being's...

Best avoided altogether when players are at the table together, their characters adventuring in a party. Totally expected when high-level characters attain political power and it's time to break out the Diplomacy and Chanmail sets.

#1 is merfolk. Unusual, mysterious, a variety of folkloric portrayals ranging from dangerous and fey and to playful and benevolent. That they're found in all mythologies worldwide, but they figure with especial prominence in Irish folklore, is particularly appealing to my Irish-American...

I toed that official line to a tee back in the day. Never mixed D&D with AD&D, because the D&D books said not to (and the AD&D books generally never acknowledged D&D's existence—because of course they didn't, TSR was in the business of pushing AD&D, and they only kept D&D in print because they...