D&D 2E [COMPLETE] Looking back at the limited series: Player's Option, Monstrous Arcana, Odyssey, and more!

[Voadam]

Deities & Demigods also has Camaxtli in the Central American Mythos, but he's not present in the Aztec Mythology of Legends & Lore 2E. Of course, we found out why later: he was slain by Tenebrous (i.e. Orcus) during the events of Dead Gods (affiliate link).

That is a really nice touch.

 

[RuinousPowers]

Am I the only one who absolutely hated all the metaplot and built in assumptions that are rampant in 2e products? Even their "toolkits" are laden with them.

 

[bennet]

Am I the only one who absolutely hated all the metaplot and built in assumptions that are rampant in 2e products? Even their "toolkits" are laden with them.

How old are you? Lots of younger DMs in their 30s and early 40s like to critique 2e, but back when 2e was the only edition, I loved it and I pulled from every resource whatever I needed for my campaign. There was no internet to jump on to complain about this or that. And the campaign ran for years and was beautiful.

Why I might not have used Legends and Lore, since I had all the deities I needed with FR, I love every all those books.

 

[RuinousPowers]

How old are you? Lots of younger DMs in their 30s and early 40s like to critique 2e, but back when 2e was the only edition, I loved it and I pulled from every resource whatever I needed for my campaign. There was no internet to jump on to complain about this or that. And the campaign ran for years and was beautiful.

Why I might not have used Legends and Lore, since I had all the deities I needed with FR, I love every all those books.

I'm almost 50, and while I love 2e I don't think it should be immune to critique. It's very much an edition that tells you how you should be playing and inserts things, like the Blood War, into places where it doesn't need to be.

And there were places to complain about things online, even back then.

Your assumption that only younger people can disagree with 2e's design choices is ridiculous- lots of OD&D and 1e players, who are older than me, have serious dislike for 2e. So you should drop your complaining about "younger people".

 

[Jer]

Am I the only one who absolutely hated all the metaplot and built in assumptions that are rampant in 2e products? Even their "toolkits" are laden with them.

It was the 90s, so it was the style of the time. As the 90s ended, so too did the interest in metaplot.

Its not a coincidence that the game line most noted for metaplot (WoD) ended their metaplot as the 90s ended. Style shifted.

Wizards was very forward-looking in understanding that interest in extensive metaplot was dying. The days of people buying supplements to read instead of play at the table grew the market for books but it couldn't last forever.

(And I say this as a person whose favorite game in the 90s was absolutely embedded in "metaplot" - Torg).

 

[delericho]

Deities & Demigods also has Camaxtli in the Central American Mythos, but he's not present in the Aztec Mythology of Legends & Lore 2E. Of course, we found out why later: he was slain by Tenebrous (i.e. Orcus) during the events of Dead Gods (affiliate link).

I'd be extremely surprised if that was planned at the point where L&L was published, rather than being an after-the-fact addition. At that stage, I don't think TSR had returned demons and devils to the game, or come up with the Blood War (and Planescape certainly was years away).

 

[Alzrius]

I'd be extremely surprised if that was planned at the point where L&L was published, rather than being an after-the-fact addition. At that stage, I don't think TSR had returned demons and devils to the game, or come up with the Blood War (and Planescape certainly was years away).

No doubt, but it was still a very adroit way of explaining his absence.

 

[RuinousPowers]

No doubt, but it was still a very adroit way of explaining his absence.

Not to anyone who was using him and hoping for a 2e specialty priest for him.

 

[bennet]

I'm almost 50, and while I love 2e I don't think it should be immune to critique. It's very much an edition that tells you how you should be playing

I mean you can complain about 80s music too, or clothes or pretty much anything.
But in those days, it was cool.

I guess I would question, are you just complaining about it now, with benefit of 30 years of game design hindsight? Yeah of course THAC0 and lower AC = better was a poor choice in retrospect.

Pretty much every podcast, every blog, every reddit post loves talk about how 2e, especially dragonlance, was railroading, even though DL introduced grand story telling, replacing dungeon crawls.

No, idk my point.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I mean you can complain about 80s music too, or clothes or pretty much anything.
But in those days, it was cool.

I guess I would question, are you just complaining about it now, with benefit of 30 years of game design hindsight? Yeah of course THAC0 and lower AC = better was a poor choice in retrospect.

Pretty much every podcast, every blog, every reddit post loves talk about how 2e, especially dragonlance, was railroading, even though DL introduced grand story telling, replacing dungeon crawls.

No, idk my point.

I complained about metaplot and railroading back then too; the need to alter every game world to match whatever novel came out.

I never had a problem with THAC0 though.