Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
An Examination of Differences between Editions
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="RFisher" data-source="post: 3439187" data-attributes="member: 3608"><p>Wasn't there something like that in one of Ray Winninger's <em>Dungeoncraft</em> articles in <em>Dragon</em>? ('Cause I discovered the classic D&D dominion rules <em>because</em> of that.)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, we never went as far as "swinging from chandeliers", but that wasn't what my group wanted.</p><p></p><p>In some ways, I think AD&D really confused this issue for my group. It seemed to swing between levels of abstraction. With very little explaination that this was really just a collection of (what had been) independent house rules. With very little guidance on why you might or might not want to use something in your game. It might have been better if AD&D had continued the base + supplements structure.</p><p></p><p>I think our classic Traveller games were much more coherent & went beyond the books much more freely.</p><p></p><p>There is no doubt that my ability to enjoy classic D&D as much as I am depends upon things I've learned here, at Dragonsfoot, on the Wizards OOP forum, on the Pied Piper boards, during the C&C playtest, & elsewhere during the last several years.</p><p></p><p>That said, I would've abandoned AD&D much, much sooner had our games been nothing but hp-attrition combats & truly random save-or-die traps. We did apply tactics to combat. We did have interesting explorations of not-entirely-arbitrary dungeons. We did do a lot of non-combat, non-dungeon things on role-playing & DM judgement (or fiat) alone.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No. It is <em>smart</em> marketing. If my company's sale force tried to sell enterprise products to our mid-sized customers, we wouldn't be one of the dominate players in our market. (Imperfect, like all analogies. So, please don't bother poking holes in the analogy.) The TSR of that period understood that the DMG wasn't for everyone, so they planned expected sales accordingly. That's why the PHB was a separate book from the DMG. That's why they had a separate D&D line, three (four if you count FITS) other role-playing games, board games, minigames, &c.</p><p></p><p>Even Wizards has never been first & foremost a D&D company.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RFisher, post: 3439187, member: 3608"] Wasn't there something like that in one of Ray Winninger's [i]Dungeoncraft[/i] articles in [i]Dragon[/i]? ('Cause I discovered the classic D&D dominion rules [i]because[/i] of that.) Well, we never went as far as "swinging from chandeliers", but that wasn't what my group wanted. In some ways, I think AD&D really confused this issue for my group. It seemed to swing between levels of abstraction. With very little explaination that this was really just a collection of (what had been) independent house rules. With very little guidance on why you might or might not want to use something in your game. It might have been better if AD&D had continued the base + supplements structure. I think our classic Traveller games were much more coherent & went beyond the books much more freely. There is no doubt that my ability to enjoy classic D&D as much as I am depends upon things I've learned here, at Dragonsfoot, on the Wizards OOP forum, on the Pied Piper boards, during the C&C playtest, & elsewhere during the last several years. That said, I would've abandoned AD&D much, much sooner had our games been nothing but hp-attrition combats & truly random save-or-die traps. We did apply tactics to combat. We did have interesting explorations of not-entirely-arbitrary dungeons. We did do a lot of non-combat, non-dungeon things on role-playing & DM judgement (or fiat) alone. No. It is [i]smart[/i] marketing. If my company's sale force tried to sell enterprise products to our mid-sized customers, we wouldn't be one of the dominate players in our market. (Imperfect, like all analogies. So, please don't bother poking holes in the analogy.) The TSR of that period understood that the DMG wasn't for everyone, so they planned expected sales accordingly. That's why the PHB was a separate book from the DMG. That's why they had a separate D&D line, three (four if you count FITS) other role-playing games, board games, minigames, &c. Even Wizards has never been first & foremost a D&D company. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
An Examination of Differences between Editions
Top