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A New Taxonomy for TSR-Era D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8348015" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Yeah, I agree with you, to a point. That is, 'Basic' and 'Advanced' were never really the most important divisions. My mental map of D&D is slightly different though:</p><p></p><p>Early D&D really covers the 'Uncodified Era' of D&D, from its prototypal origins in the early 1970's through the publication of the AD&D 1e Player's Handbook in 1978. While the MM and PHB for 1e are 'AD&D' and part of Gary's codification of the earlier systems, plus a few mods, when they came out they didn't really conflict particularly with the existing OD&D/Holmes rules. We simply grafted on the monsters and class definitions in these books to existing play. Any rough edges were no more significant than variations in rules between tables in OD&D, who's rules are very murky and require heavy interpretation anyway.</p><p></p><p>The is era is typified by the lack of significant structure in the rules, a great deal of extrapolation, lots of 'tribal knowledge', and large parts of both the rules and campaigns being invented and extrapolated by DMs either on the fly or systematically. 3PPs published a lot of 'filler material', like Arduin Grimoire and JG stuff. The earliest modules, like B1, and the G and D series arose at this time, though I think the original texts of many of the other modules of the 1e period were also authored at this time as tourney adventures that were then later published by TSR (G and D definitely fall into this category but were printed earlier than the rest).</p><p></p><p>The next period was the one between the publishing of the DMG and the departure of Gygax. It includes the creation of the two classic Basic editions, the 1e DMG, and various supplements up to and including Oriental Adventures. TSR also published MANY modules, the World of Greyhawk, and some other settings more aimed at Basic, plus Dragonlance, though that didn't have a direct source book, just some modules and novels. This was the period of wild TSR growth, the Satanic Panic, Red Box D&D in every book store, the cartoon, etc. </p><p></p><p>With the publication of the DMG the rules for AD&D are pretty nailed down (as much as TSR was ever able to nail them down). All the material is still compatible, mostly, with the original game and nobody even batted an eye at using B2 with AD&D even though it was technically a Basic module, for example. TSR came down on all the 3PPs and pretty much wiped them out during this period. Play evolved from the early model of 'troupe play' and wargame-like play to generally more of an attempt to do heroic action-fantasy, with mixed results. There was a lot of evolution in RPGs generally, though I don't think there was a lot of perception that games much different from traditional D&D were really possible.</p><p></p><p>Late TSR D&D starts with the departure of Gygax, really you could call OA the first of the 'late' books. It has all the hallmarks of rule systems and agenda that were fully developed by Cook later in the 2e books. OA, WSG, DSG, these have all the skills rules and whatnot that 2e makes officially core (technically 'optional') rules. You could pretty much use these books with 2e, and in fact TSR never really did exactly create 2e versions of the material in them, though bits and pieces appeared in the 'Leatherette' series of supplements.</p><p></p><p>Modules continued to be produced during this period, but they were more diverse. There were not so many of the straight up dungeon crawl types. There were things like Battlesystem modules, and whatnot (and Battlesystem itself). Settings proliferated, supplements proliferated, and the 2e rules sort of morphed into a huge blob of option books and whatnot that was not even entirely consistent with itself. Where in the early days you had people filling in the cracks in the core rules to make a working game, in the late TSR period you had DMs trying to wrangle 20 supplements and decide which parts MIGHT or might not be usable (and a lot of it was dreck, TSR allegedly stopped playtesting at some point during this era). </p><p></p><p>And then of course you get into WotC-Era D&D, a whole different beast...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8348015, member: 82106"] Yeah, I agree with you, to a point. That is, 'Basic' and 'Advanced' were never really the most important divisions. My mental map of D&D is slightly different though: Early D&D really covers the 'Uncodified Era' of D&D, from its prototypal origins in the early 1970's through the publication of the AD&D 1e Player's Handbook in 1978. While the MM and PHB for 1e are 'AD&D' and part of Gary's codification of the earlier systems, plus a few mods, when they came out they didn't really conflict particularly with the existing OD&D/Holmes rules. We simply grafted on the monsters and class definitions in these books to existing play. Any rough edges were no more significant than variations in rules between tables in OD&D, who's rules are very murky and require heavy interpretation anyway. The is era is typified by the lack of significant structure in the rules, a great deal of extrapolation, lots of 'tribal knowledge', and large parts of both the rules and campaigns being invented and extrapolated by DMs either on the fly or systematically. 3PPs published a lot of 'filler material', like Arduin Grimoire and JG stuff. The earliest modules, like B1, and the G and D series arose at this time, though I think the original texts of many of the other modules of the 1e period were also authored at this time as tourney adventures that were then later published by TSR (G and D definitely fall into this category but were printed earlier than the rest). The next period was the one between the publishing of the DMG and the departure of Gygax. It includes the creation of the two classic Basic editions, the 1e DMG, and various supplements up to and including Oriental Adventures. TSR also published MANY modules, the World of Greyhawk, and some other settings more aimed at Basic, plus Dragonlance, though that didn't have a direct source book, just some modules and novels. This was the period of wild TSR growth, the Satanic Panic, Red Box D&D in every book store, the cartoon, etc. With the publication of the DMG the rules for AD&D are pretty nailed down (as much as TSR was ever able to nail them down). All the material is still compatible, mostly, with the original game and nobody even batted an eye at using B2 with AD&D even though it was technically a Basic module, for example. TSR came down on all the 3PPs and pretty much wiped them out during this period. Play evolved from the early model of 'troupe play' and wargame-like play to generally more of an attempt to do heroic action-fantasy, with mixed results. There was a lot of evolution in RPGs generally, though I don't think there was a lot of perception that games much different from traditional D&D were really possible. Late TSR D&D starts with the departure of Gygax, really you could call OA the first of the 'late' books. It has all the hallmarks of rule systems and agenda that were fully developed by Cook later in the 2e books. OA, WSG, DSG, these have all the skills rules and whatnot that 2e makes officially core (technically 'optional') rules. You could pretty much use these books with 2e, and in fact TSR never really did exactly create 2e versions of the material in them, though bits and pieces appeared in the 'Leatherette' series of supplements. Modules continued to be produced during this period, but they were more diverse. There were not so many of the straight up dungeon crawl types. There were things like Battlesystem modules, and whatnot (and Battlesystem itself). Settings proliferated, supplements proliferated, and the 2e rules sort of morphed into a huge blob of option books and whatnot that was not even entirely consistent with itself. Where in the early days you had people filling in the cracks in the core rules to make a working game, in the late TSR period you had DMs trying to wrangle 20 supplements and decide which parts MIGHT or might not be usable (and a lot of it was dreck, TSR allegedly stopped playtesting at some point during this era). And then of course you get into WotC-Era D&D, a whole different beast... [/QUOTE]
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