NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9678326" data-attributes="member: 7052563">Like many other 80’s kids I learned B/X D&D rules from the red and blue boxes, but then left them behind when I “graduated” to playing AD&D 1E with older kids who had house-ruled away much of that game.  I read the 1E DMG cover to cover, so I knew that AD&D characters were supposed to compete with rival PCs on time-sensitive expeditions into multi-level dungeons, pay exorbitant fees for lodging and level training, hire hirelings, retire at name level to build strongholds, and use Charisma to recruit followers and retain their loyalty.  But nobody I played with even seemed to be aware of those rules, let alone interested in using them.  Henchmen, reaction rolls, etc were just arcane lore from the back of the DMG, like the LOTR appendices.  Charisma was a dump stat once you got past character generation. DMs struggled to run NPCs properly and most players saw NPC interaction as an annoying distraction, like the talky exposition scenes in an action flick.It didn't help that there were very few attempts to run a proper campaign of any sort.  I made a few halfway-decent homebrew adventures, but most DMs just ran the classic early TSR modules as unconnected one-offs.  Players would examine their stable of characters and pick out a few who were suitable for the module the DM wanted to run.  We had to use multiple characters because we were always short on players and a viable 1E party needed at least 6-8 characters.  We carefully tallied up XP at the end of each module, but down time activities were largely left to the imagination, rendering our ever-expanding treasure hoards somewhat pointless.The 1E era retained just enough of the old OD&D wargaming heritage to cause confusion about the DM’s role, which could encourage adversarial DM styles like the dreaded but seldom-seen “killer DM”. I got a hint of what the real old school was like from reading Best of Dragon Vol. 1, which was entertaining but very confusing.  Conflicting advice from the rulebooks and TSR staff editorials did not help either.</blockquote>

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