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

[thedungeondelver]

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

Aha, that's where you're wrong my friend. It seems that Gary took it upon himself to use probability travel to step into a future where nanobots* could be assimilated into the binding, and as a collective whole they constantly churn out new ideas in liquid form. Didn't you pick up one of these specially-treated copies?








*Now if only they'll stop trying to restructure my dog. I don't care how efficient six legs and opposable thumbs might be, it just looks damn creepy. And it weirds the veternarian out.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Anyone know where I can pick that one up?

RC

Ha! Ha! You're Doing It Wrong!

Seriously, unless you're willing to blow $150-$200 and maybe lose a bidding war for it, you can't. Otherwise...good luck!

 

[DungeonMaester]

You take that back right now or you're not getting a thing from me!





(Kidding! Sending it out shortly!)

You have not sent it yet? Or I should I be expecting them soon?

Also, Thanks again for free swag.

---Rusty

 

[Clueless]

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).

It's not as hard as you would think once you're actually in play. It just looks like it would be.

 

[RFisher]

Gary Gygax himself disagreed, but what does he know?

“What I think isn’t important. It is what your DM decides that is.” —Gary Gygax

 

[ghul]

I love to tinker, and tinker is what I do with my C&C, which is more akin to an AD&D/C&C hybrid. It includes integration of AD&D class abilities with C&C abilities. So, my C&C knight is much like an Unearthed Arcana cavalier, excepting the % raise to stats at every level. It is easy to adjust the classes, using the C&C SIEGE engine to resolve class abilities and non-class abilities. For example, a barbarian can apply first aid with a wisdom check, his proficiency in this class ability increasing with each level gain as per the basic premise of the SIEGE engine. So, my 1e Players Handbook and Unearthed Arcana are indispensable for character classes. I also use the weapon specialization rules of those volumes, and many spells as well.

I also use the 1e Dungeon Masters Guide (IMNSHO the greatest RPG resource ever written) to assist in a number of things: magic items, dungeon dressing, hirelings, henchmen, and the costs of contracting various mundane services.

The 1e Monster Manual and Monster Manual II are also important to my game. I use the Monsters & Treasure C&C volume as well, and although there are subtle differences in duplicated monsters, I believe these add spice to the game. I don't think every wolf or goblin or stirge should be exactly the same, so I enjoy sprucing up my game with monster varieties; this also keeps veteran players on their toes, as they can never assume anything. The tables that group different monsters together by environment at the end of the MM II is also quite useful.

For textual and illustrative descriptions/depictions of weapons and equipment, I use the AD&D 2e Arms & Equipment Guide and also the Palladium Compendium of Weapons, Armour & Castles. There is no finer guide than the latter of these two in showing every type of armour, how it is donned. and the culture and period of origination.

There is one setting resource to rule them all, one setting to bind them: World of Greyhawk boxed set, 1983. I use this in conjunction with Castle Zagyg Vol. I, Yggsburgh, which go together like cookies and milk.

--Ghul

 

[dcas]

1st Edition AD&D: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Unearthed Arcana.

WORLD OF GREYHAWK Boxed Set (1983).

HackMaster: Player's Handbook (new races and classes, a lot of which are from Dragon magazine), Spellslinger's Guide (lots of new magic-using classes), and Hacklopedia of Beasts (each of the 8 volumes has about 200 monsters in it).

 

[TerraDave]

To repeat from above

-1st ed Dungeon Masters Guide
-1st ed Monster Manual
-1st ed Fiend Folio
-1st ed Monster Manual II
-1st ed Deities and Demigods (though the "good one" with Cthulu and Elric is pricey)
-2nd ed Monsterous Manual (I do not recomend the Monstorous Compendiums)
-Early Dragon, which can be through the 250 CD compiliation or the first few Best of Dragon (highly recomended if you can find them).

Also worth noting

-many early modules had bonus material, including Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and Expedition to the Barrrier Peaks.

But what you really want to get:

The Encyclopedia Magica

Released as a 4 volume set, this basically had all pre 3ed magic items with original descriptions. Just some amazing stuff.

Also, much of the above (though not all) can be downloaded from RPGNOW (or I guess or ENworld version of it). And there is overlap, as things would be reprinted and reused (though it can be interesting to compare versions).

 

[Wik]

I want someone to tell me why Dark Sun was awesome (if it was, indeed, awesome). I'm looking for things to scavenge for C&C purposes. I'm asking because all this stuff was before my time- TSR was around in the early days of my gaming, but I've never actually purchased a D&D product before. I started with Call of Cthulhu. I have no idea what were the high points of AD&D books. And so on.

DARK SUN is, in my humble opinion, one of the best gaming lines out there. EVER. Especially the stuff before the "revised" box set (not that the revised box set isn't AWESOME, it just gets rid of a bit of the "gritty" feel of the original).

Essentially, Dark Sun is a desert world that's post-apocalyptic. In the early books, there's hints that people are a bit warped from what amounts to magical radiation, although that's sort of dropped later on. The desert is harsh (and, in 2e at least, a 20th level character died almost as quickly of exposure as a 1st level, so the wastelands were always feared). The cities, designed to be the focal point of a campaign, were hotbeds of intrigue, politicking, and the like.

It had it's bad side - Psionics were WAY too integrated into the game, the setting assumed the PCs to be heroes and didn't really support "survival" play despite what it said (no prices for slaves, much of the adventures wound up as "save the world" rather than "save yourself"), and all that. But it did have some excellent rules to mimic the ad hoc nature of the world itself - piecemeal armour (which we has so much fun with - "My guy has a metal breastplate, a chainmail sleeve on his right arm, studded leather on his left leg, and leather on his right!"), improvised weapons, barter rules...

All in all, if someone showed up at my house today and said "I'm running a 2e Dark Sun game!" I'd be in it in a second, even though I'm really not a fan of 2e rules at all.

***

As for what you can steal for your own game...

1) The monsters are pretty cool and original, for the most part.
2) The armour/barter/weapon materials rules could probably be adapted.
3) The city-states are probably some of the most detailed areas that came from TSR, and could easily be dropped into a campaign world (not necessarily only in desert areas, either... Tyr could almost as easily be a tropical island)
4) A lot of the racial re-workings or monster changes (there are no Dragons as such in Dark Sun, except for the Dragon-Kings, which are something else entirely!) could really give your game a heavy shot of flavour.