[C&C, AD&D, oD&D] The best of the old stuff...

[Johnnie Freedom!]

OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

Gary Gygax himself disagreed, but what does he know?

 

[Johnnie Freedom!]

DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE - this is literally chock full of "stuff". You want magic items? This is the grandaddy of all magic item books. From mundane potions all the way up to the Apparatus of Kwalish, to the Manual of the Planes this book has items. And the text for them literally drips inspiration.

Well, figuratively, anyway. (Although if it *literally* dripped inspiration, that would be pretty damn cool.)

 

[Treebore]

I loved the Specialty Priests in 2E, so I recommend that.
Which was called "Faiths and Avatars". Lots of classes for Priest types in there.

2E monsters are my favorite version to use for my C&C games. So I would buy any of those you come across.

I actually like 3E Ravenloft over 2E Ravenloft. Surviveable from level 1 and unlike any other product other than Rokugan, feats actually enhanced the over all Ravenloft experience.

1E DMG for sure. If nothing else looking through that book gets your imagination going in the right direction.

I regularly go back to my Best of Dragon Volumes 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Have fun.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I recommend picking up the Dragon Archive on CD: the first 250 issues of the magazine appear there, and it's full of more good info than you could possibly ever use, across the full spectrum of the game elements (classes, spells, magic items, monsters, settings, etc.).

Anyone know where I can pick that one up?

RC

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

Anyone know where I can pick that one up?

RC

You could look for a copy on ebay or amazon marketplace, or you could try to find it on the internet.

EDIT: I just noticed your email in your sig. I'll send you some specific ideas.

 

[Korgoth]

So I've become interested in C&C recently, despite it going counter to my normal gaming preferences. God help me this interest won't go away, and it lead me to look at all the various old D&D books available on PDF. Since it is apparently very easy to convert any generation of D&D product into C&C, I've started to think I might actually be able to get utility out of products that were before my time but no doubt had some excellent stuff in them.

I've heard great things about Birthright, Dark Sun, Ravenloft and Planescape (particularly since I love Torment), for example. So what were the best books of Old D&D and AD&D? I never really got into them, having started with Call of Cthulhu.

I've also found, for some reason, that I have the inexplicable urge to purchase books with nothing but magic items and/or spells in them, and the various compendiums of AD&D seem like they would scratch that itch.

I'm looking for good setting bits in particular, and stuff that'd be good for bringing into C&C, particularly new classes, since I like lots of classes in class-based games.

I have nothing against obsessively focused or "generic vanilla fantasy" books, either- if it's a good book about nothing but Mind Flayers or it's your standard "Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits" setting, I don't mind. I never got that stuff out of my system.

Do you want suggestions for adventures as well? The G1,2,3 - D1,2,3 - Q1 arc is pretty epic, and it gives you the original look at the Drow, etc. C1 and S1,2,3,4 are also quite good. If you want an Egyptian theme, I3-5 is good. Being a Classic fan, I also think B1,2,4,10 and X1,2,4,5 are worth a look. I think all of these modules in their own way make the traditional tropes and assumptions of D&D stand out: exploration, treasure-hunting, trap avoidance, problem solving.

As far as "supplements" go, I'm more of a core rules + adventures guy, myself. I think the original boxed set of Dark Sun was interesting, but it was way too heavily into psionics for my liking. As in, basically everybody has Psi. But it was otherwise a good setting: very alien, strong S&S themes. Planescape is interesting on the level of thought experiments, but it would take some real doing to make its themes actually work out in play (never tried it, myself). The old 1983 Greyhawk boxed set is good insofar as it gives you a reasonable world that suitably accomodates generic fantasy.

As others have said, you definitely want to look at the 1e DMG. The artifact section alone will get your juices flowing. It's really required reading for D&D DMs anyway.

If you're interested in incorporating some newer stuff, I'd suggest checking out Gygax' "Yggsburgh" product from TLG. It seems like very good work.

 

[Festivus]

Anyone know where I can pick that one up?

RC

I recently reluctantly sold my copy on ebay. It's going to be a bit pricey, mine sold for $107, and looks like now that Dragon is going out of print they have gone a bit nuts on ebay, perhaps $175 now.

I really liked it but I needed money more than reading material... and I had read all the articles I wanted from them anyhow.

 

[Winterthorn]

So I've become interested in C&C recently, despite it going counter to my normal gaming preferences. God help me this interest won't go away, and it lead me to look at all the various old D&D books available on PDF. Since it is apparently very easy to convert any generation of D&D product into C&C, I've started to think I might actually be able to get utility out of products that were before my time but no doubt had some excellent stuff in them.

I've heard great things about Birthright, Dark Sun, Ravenloft and Planescape (particularly since I love Torment), for example. So what were the best books of Old D&D and AD&D? I never really got into them, having started with Call of Cthulhu.

I've also found, for some reason, that I have the inexplicable urge to purchase books with nothing but magic items and/or spells in them, and the various compendiums of AD&D seem like they would scratch that itch.

I'm looking for good setting bits in particular, and stuff that'd be good for bringing into C&C, particularly new classes, since I like lots of classes in class-based games.

I have nothing against obsessively focused or "generic vanilla fantasy" books, either- if it's a good book about nothing but Mind Flayers or it's your standard "Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits" setting, I don't mind. I never got that stuff out of my system.

Hi, have you had a look at Kingdoms of Kalamar? The latest setting sourcebook (2000, and 2003) is rich in detail (some call in "dry" but there are ideas everywhere and totally full of great fluff and free of crunch. Great details on a 43 god pantheon, 5 human cultures, 2 hobgoblin kingdoms (the hobgobs are as "civilized" as humans!), and oodles of data on cities, kingdoms and the leading NPCs. There is also very beautiful Altas of the setting. And a Player's Guide featuring six new classes (seven if you procure the update pdf from Fall 2006). Even if you shirk the 3E crunch stuff, there are tons and tons of ideas and concepts worth exploiting and translating into a C&C game.

I don't know C&C, but Col_Playdoh has inspired me to check out the system!

Btw: Kingdoms of Kalamar was initially published long before D&D 3E, and the folks & fans of Kenzer & Co. are typically fans of old-school RPGs.

 

[Moorcrys]

In my C&C excitement I re-collected a few things that I'd personally:

The magic item compendium, wizard, and priest spell compendiums from 2e.

The Arcanum RPG 1st edition -- a lot of class ideas, poisons, skills, alchemy, etc. that can really fire up some imagination for C&C.

1st Edition DMG is a must for any D&Desque game IMHO.

I also picked up the Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal sets for original D&D just to give me some ideas.

Cheers!

 

[Voadam]

Spells
2e 4 volume wizards spell compendium
2e 3 volume priest spell compedium
2e Pages from the Mages I believe it is called for FR specific stuff
2e Tome of Magic (introduces wild magic)

Monster books
2e 4 volume ravenloft van richtens compendiums. (I particularly liked the one with vamps).
Many Monstrous compendium entries:
Planescape or the early outer planes one for fiends and angels
Ravenloft for horror themed ones
Dark Sun for wierd psionic monstrosities

Magic Items
I don't have the magic item compendium ones but I think there is a 2e set of them and a BECM one as well. Book of Artefacts I like more for the fluff than the rules and specific powers.

Classes,
1e Oriental adventures, bunch of different classes, I use Wu-Jen spells as compatible with wizard/MU spells as many other DMs I knew did as well.
Basic D&D book on Lycanthropes, Howl something, breaks down the various were races into classes.
A bunch of Mystara Gazetteer books have individual classes as well, a shaman class in the dark elves book, a diplomat one in Darokin, viking rune stuff in the northern one, etc.
Gods books, Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons, Demihuman Deities, FR specific but awesome books. Also FR adventures, Legends and Lore 2e, Dragonlance Adventures 1e, all have specialty clerics that can be adapted as well fairly easily