AD&D 1st edition and 2nd edition differences?

[frankthedm]

What actions gain you experience points is completely different, which strongly effects how the games are played.

A big change was 1E gave out less XP for killing monsters and had the bulk of come from gaining treasure.

2E boosted XP for monsters, pushed the notion of story awards and made XP for treasure optional {IIRC it was even suggested against doing so].

This change turned wandering monsters from high risk & low return to be avoided [1E] to Wandering XP [2E].

 

[frankthedm]

if i had a dime for every time i ran into a d&der with a fighter that had exceptional-max str 18/00 and said, "i rolled it!" yeah. Right. Do it in front of me.

amen!

 

[Water Bob]

A big change was 1E gave out less XP for killing monsters and had the bulk of come from gaining treasure.

2E boosted XP for monsters, pushed the notion of story awards and made XP for treasure optional {IIRC it was even suggested against doing so].

This change turned wandering monsters from high risk & low return to be avoided [1E] to Wandering XP [2E].

I fell in love with the Conan RPG XP system. The rule is: There are no rules. It's completely up to the GM.

The GM awards points, as many or as few as he thinks should be awarded, on whatever he thinks is important to the game.

What was important to the gaming session? Was it a story goal that the players achieved? Was it some outstanding roleplaying? Was it a particular fight? Was it a particular discovery?

The Conan GM is encouraged to use XP to reward player actions that make the game fun to play.

So, on one game session, a character may be instrumental in taking out a large Vanir warrior that attacked the camp. He may get a lot of XP for that. Then, next game session, he's one of many, PCs and NPCs, who fight in a large battle against the Vanirman's clan. Even though the PC got a lot of XP for killing the one Vanirman last game session, and the same PC has killed four other Vanirmen this session, that may not be what's important to the game that session--and the PC could end up getting less XP for the four kills than he did for the one kill.

Again, it's about encouraging the good things that happen in the game, and it's 100% up to the GM's opinion about how these points should be awarded and in what amounts.

I really like the system--more more than I like the regulated XP systems of the various D&D editions.

 

[Orius]

I fell in love with the Conan RPG XP system. The rule is: There are no rules. It's completely up to the GM.

The GM awards points, as many or as few as he thinks should be awarded, on whatever he thinks is important to the game.

Yeah, that's good if you're an experienced GM, and you know how fast you want the campaign to progress. It also helps if the entire group likes the same gaming style. It's not great for a less experienced GM who might not know how to "grade" the players, and it's not good if there's a lot of clashing play styles -- say RP awards in a game where some players aren't comfortable with RPing, or just rewarding kills when some players don't have a taste for hack and slash.

 

[Water Bob]

Yeah, that's good if you're an experienced GM, and you know how fast you want the campaign to progress. It also helps if the entire group likes the same gaming style. It's not great for a less experienced GM who might not know how to "grade" the players, and it's not good if there's a lot of clashing play styles -- say RP awards in a game where some players aren't comfortable with RPing, or just rewarding kills when some players don't have a taste for hack and slash.

You definitely have a point, but the system isn't as difficult for the new GM as you're making it out to be.

The new GM simply sits back at the end of the game sessions and asks himself, "What part of the game tonight was most fun? What part of the game do I want to encourage in future game sessions." Then, give points for that.

Also, when I set up an adventure, I have certain story goals in mind. If the players accomplish the goals, then they get points, too.

Simple as that.

 

[winemaker81]

That is, you could read an adventure in 2nd Edition or AD&D, and you'd understand the content if you knew either system. But it was a different rules set, mostly in changes to the PC's.

You could play a module from either edition, but when I ran 2nd Edition modules for my A&D campaign, I completely redid any NPC's. For the monsters, I just referenced the Monster Manuals from my edition instead, with pretty much everything mainstream in 2nd Edition having an AD&D predescessor.

The same is generally true of BX and BECMI modules. Anyone conversant with any of the listed games should be able to translate the differences on the fly. If something doesn't make sense, make up something that does!

 

[darjr]

Interesting tidbits about 2nd edition, from Steve Winters, among others. They debated going with ascending AC for 2e

Not that link goes sorry to an mp3 and might start playing right away.

http://media.wizards.com/2020/podcasts/dnd/pod_dt_walters.mp3

Here’s the blog i found it from.

The Dungeons & Dragons Books that Secretly Previewed Each New Edition

Dungeons & Dragons players have seen five editions plus a few versions that fall outside the count. We tend to see the release of a new Player’s Handbook as a clean break from the last, but eac…

dmdavid.com

Apologies for the resurrection but I thought it belonged here.