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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bramadan" data-source="post: 4135005" data-attributes="member: 1064">Don't get me wrong - I had *fun* under 1st edition but boy - these guys must have played some other 1st edition then I did. If there ever was a system that was disempowering of the DM, it was ADnD1. Very detailed rules for combat, moving through dungeons and equipment (to the point of distinguishing ten different kinds of pole-arms) combined with utter lack of guidance as to anything to be done outside the very narrow Gygaxian game model. Sure, we could improvise, but whenever we tried game was more of a hindrance then a help. Point of the rules in an RPG is to keep it from becoming a moderated "cops and robbers" improv, without putting the game into  a straightjacket. ADnD1 (which was great at the time) had a strong dichotomy: you are either in a straight-jacket or you are playing improv.ADnD2 loosened the straightjacket somewhat (but at the cost of some initial blandness) but improv was still improv.DnD3 felt as if it tightened straightjacket somewhat again (though not by much) but provided decent if not good guidance outside of it with d20 system for skills etc...DnD4 looks as if it is tightening the jacket yet more - which is the part we know - but people promise us that the guidance outside is yet better then it was in DnD3. The way I see it, at worst it is back to 1st ed (except with mechanically better rules for the stuff there are rules for) and at best it may be the best incarnation of DnD yet.</blockquote>

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