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Sticking with 1e as the base ruleset... I know I'm a "race-as-class" guy, but I'm not going that direction. Classic: B/X: ??? BECMI: Weapon Mastery. Advanced: 2E: Specialist Mages (of Effect and Thaumaturgy) and Specialty Priests. Replace the generic Mage and Priest classes. Runner Up...

This. It wasn't just "spicy" content that got redacted, it was everything  weird, everything that wasn't the most watered down versions of Howard, Tolkien, and TH White that readers might still recognize. And they added it back, and then some, but it was all so siloed off in niche product lines...

I never got to play Moldvay/Cook or Mentzer. My introduction to BECMI was the Rules Cyclopedia, which I bought and used (along with The Orcs of Thar) before I fully understoof that 1E and 2E weren't exactly the game game, and that AD&D was different from D&D. My highest level  legit AD&D...

Huh. Noted. Teach  me to guess. It wasn't an important claim, but I don't like being wrong. Thank you.

In this thread, @Sacrosanct asked why so many paleo-grognards and neo-grognards-- two distinct camps I have separate feet in-- prefer AD&D 1E to 2E and why there are so many more clones and offshoots of the former than the latter. I can easily go off at length about why 1E is my least favorite...

It's also easy to make a bigger deal out of half-orcs and assassins being removed from the PHB and devils and demons being removed from the MCs/MM... but removing monks and psionic powers (for PCs and monsters) from the core rules are even more indicative of the shift in AD&D's identity between...

You might be correct--and I'll assume you are, thank you-- but that only lines it up further with WotC editions rather than the "Old TSR" editions. It's still a  major departure from the assumed/intended playstyles of 1E and Classic. You can also look at the difference between 80s D&D modules...

It really, really wasn't. The changes to the class system and combat systems were fairly minor and largely beneficial. The bowdlerization and homogenization marked a major philosophical shift in the game's identity. The most overlooked mechanical change is probably the most impactful-- 2E...

It's not even the best game design by TSR. Subjective opinion is subjective, but I couldn't pass up the Beatles joke. 1E has its merits compared to 2E and especially OD&D, but I'll save the arguments about why it's the runt of the litter for a thread that isn't specifically about why 1E is great.

Traditional fantasy narratives don't mesh with the fantasy TTRPG conceit of "dump stats", particularly the idea that not only must every character have different heroic abilities, but "balanced" heroes have to have specific notable deficiencies compared to average non-heroic individuals. An 8...

List for #1 was a lot longer than I expected. Tippity-top shelf? DADHAT and Super Mario Bros. Gamma World / After the Bomb, or maybe some kind of urban fantasy TEMU TMNT. #2? Phantasy Star. Metroid. Spelljammer. Could list a few more, but I've got specific ideas for those and they'd be better...

I kinda feel the same way about 1e as the OP-- it's my least favorite version of the D&D rules-- but it's not actually the most imitated TSR ruleset (that would be B/X) and other posters have pointed out a lot of good reasons why it's more popular than the versions I like better. Which...

I was dropping in to say this, except there's also-- speaking in hindsight, using the CD-ROM collection-- there really wasn't a single year where UA 1E could have passed as its best Dragon articles. Most of the book wasn't as aggressively detrimental to the game as people want to remember--...

Cranky Kong is the original Donkey Kong; the modern Donkey Kong is his grandson. So, where's Donkey Kong Jr.? Jumpman in the original Donkey Kong games isn't Mario, and Pauline isn't Mario's first girlfriend. Mario and Pauline are Mario (Jr.) and Luigi's parents. Donkey Kong Jr. took his...

Well, I don't want to relitigate my gripes with 3e and 5e multiclassing. Simply applying paragon class features as ancestry bonuses-- with class level stacking maxing out at character level-- would be great. Or, taking another page from Unearthed Arcana 3.5, working ancestry paragon features...

Well, I generally agree-- very broadly-- that any character concept that is supposed to be supported by the rules should be viable under the rules. "Equally viable" isn't really possible or desirable, because the "meta" at every table is different, but if the game tells you that a character is...

Like according to the d20PFSRD, the Dwarf has the Foehammer (Fighter), Forgemaster (Cleric), Stonelord (Paladin) and Exarch (Inquisitor). I'd probably add one for Barbarian and one for Slayer. Their list of "human classes" would include those and variants of those, plus probably Alchemist...

Feels like I'm drifting pretty far afield if I'm talking about multiclassing systems outside of 3.X or 5.X... or at least good 3PP hacks for them. Mentioned recently that my preferred 3PP multiclassing rules (so far) are Tipsy Tabby's Overhauling Multiclassing (for PF1) combined with liberal...

The shortcomings of Classic's "race as class" system (imitated in at least one non-D&D example, Palladium Fantasy RPG) are well-known and... while I might argue they're overblown in context of the Classic D&D rules, they're also not a great fit for modern D&D like games... at least not as...