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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lumin" data-source="post: 5552568" data-attributes="member: 59785">Agreed.  Except I would replace the word "had to adjudicate more" to "choose to adjudicate more" (other than saying, "no you can't do that").And this is where I and many here are having a miscommunication about this.  I have been referring solely about the rules as they are written on the pages, NOT how DM's house-ruled them.If you were to remove all prior play experience (I know that's impossible, but bear with me) and simply look at 1st Edition with no prejudice about "how" it has been run, you would see a game that is very strict in how its rules are laid out.When I first cracked open first edition, having no prior experience playing the game, this is what I saw:The rules are telling me that only a thief can pick a lock or hide in shadows.  The rules are telling me that the only guy who can "handle an animal" is a druid or someone with a spell.  The rules are telling me that this is what I will always roll to lift some bars.  The rules are telling me this is what I will roll to force a door open.I am sure that once you've run the game a few times, people are going to ask, "Hey Mr DM, I want to try make a rope out of this twine I found", and as a DM there will be no rule found for that in the book.The point is that, in 3E, there WAS a pseudo-rule for everything imaginable: Roll a D20 + DM selected Ability Modifier.  These were built-in rules for MORE freedom and flexibility.  AD&D didn't have that.So here's my point: The RULES in 3E provided the flexibility, whereas the DM in 1E provided the flexibility.  See the difference?  That's why I claim that 3E's RULES themselves explicitly provided a more free-wheeled game.Now that's not to say that 1E eventually became more free-wheeled because DM House Rulings made it that way.  But there was not a standardized "rule" for how you would manage DM rulings, if that makes sense (other than Gygax's disclaimer about making things up).  In 3E we got the Core D20 system which standardized things that the books did not actually make clear.  In other words, "free-wheeling" actually became a part of the rule system in 3E.</blockquote>

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