Do you consider 2nd edition AD&D "old-school"

[Mark]

(O)D&D and perhaps AD&D1E and Basic D&D are old school. 2E is something like a lost edition and the skills/options/powers/etc stuff is more like an unauthorized playtest done on the customer's dime.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Old-School is anything before I started playing. I started with BXCMI and 2e.

 

[AllisterH]

(O)D&D and perhaps AD&D1E and Basic D&D are old school. 2E is something like a lost edition and the skills/options/powers/etc stuff is more like an unauthorized playtest done on the customer's dime.

The funny thing about the PO series was it highlighted how, shall we say, unbalanced certain kits and specialty priests were. I remember trying to figure out the point value for the specialty priests of Mystra et al rom Faiths & Avatars (greatest campaign specific supplement EVER) and being shocked at how high the point value was, especially for Mystra's priests..

To answer my own question, I started playing with 1e and became a DM in 2e so 2e to me is "old school"

 

[Obryn]

Mechanically, I'd say absolutely. It's extremely faithful to and compatible with AD&D 1e.

I think it moved away from oldschool-style supplements, though. Its overall flavor wasn't old-school at all.

-O

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

For me (especially pre-PO) the game is extremely similar to 1E and thus old school

I've used this comparison before. 2E is to 1E what 3.5 was to 3E; the same game tweaked slightly. I lump things together as follows - 1E and 2E, 3E and 3.X, 4E.

PO is just a bizarre mutation of 2E. I pretty much ignore it

 

[Wombat]

Anything pre-3e is "Old School" to me, and I started gaming in 1976.

All classes have their own XP tracks, THAC0, dozens of extra rules, no skills (except as late optional rule) or other bonuses (what later became Feats), the massive multi-planar situation, Greyhawk still around (and Forgotten Realms falls into that category for me), emphasis on dungeons -- all of these things scream "old school" to me.

But then again, I pretty much left D&D when it became "1st edition", except for spot checks, so my views should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

I started with 2e and I think of it as old school

 

[Alzrius]

I never thought of 2E as old school, probably because it was the edition I began playing the game with. It also just feels very different in tone, though I suppose the mechanics are similar to 1E.

1E settings and adventures feel very minimalist, in terms of why the PCs were there, what impact their adventures had, etc. 2E, by contrast, was the golden age of fluff in D&D, because it wove very strong narratives across everything; adventures, settings, even sourcebooks all helped create a very strong and cohesive feel for the various campaign settings (and the holistic meta-setting) of the game.

I liked that a lot, and was sad to lose that in 3E, though the much better mechanics helped me view it as a trade-off.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Mechanically, I'd say absolutely. It's extremely faithful to and compatible with AD&D 1e.

I think it moved away from oldschool-style supplements, though. Its overall flavor wasn't old-school at all.

-O

This.

2e occupies a liminal space between old school and new school, IMHO.

RC

 

[billd91]

This.

2e occupies a liminal space between old school and new school, IMHO.

RC

That's pretty much the way I see it too. It's transitional. The rules are somewhat tidied up, the philosophy at the publisher different, the entire atmosphere is changing around AD&D at this point. It's got a foot in old school's camp, but that's about it.