AD&D 1E Edition Experience: Did/Do you Play 1E AD&D? How Was/Is It?

[Thomas Shey]

It was very openly agressive in one case. He was a cheater, liar, manipulator and verbal bully. Unredeemable. We were 15-16. He was older by 7 years and believed he 'controlled' our group.

I'm surprised he accepted it even as an in-game event, then.

 

[The Soloist]

Most people do not understand the Arneson/Gygax litigation.

D&D General Thread 'Arneson, Gygax, and Lawsuits, Oh My! An Actual History of the OG D&D Litigation'

May 14, 2025

As I wrote in the preface to my last essay on D&D history ... no matter how many times I post about history or point people to resources or remind them not to play bards, I have to occasionally repeat what I have said before (or say it a different way) because, like Sisyphus, I think that this time I'll get the rock over that hill.

....But this time it will be different, right? RIGHT?

sigh... no, no it won't.

But as they say, futility is the mother of apathy all internet conversations, so why not? I realized the other day that I often refer to...

• Snarf Zagyg
• Replies: 18
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

• 

Now I remember reading your article!

In the end, he got paid to go away. So it's a win (but not in court). I don't take sides in this. Like you, I agree both men came out not looking good.

 

[The Soloist]

I'm surprised he accepted it even as an in-game event, then.

It was a weekend day, we had parents upstairs listening. He was furious, grabbed his stuff, left in a hurry, got in his car and we never saw him again. I guess when a narcissist's glorious self-importance is chattered by a group of 'inferior' people, they can't handle it or maybe he judged us 'unworthy' of his supreme magnificience and left. I'll never know.

 

[Celebrim]

I picture Gary furiously scribbling his thoughts for some of the sections in the older books on napkins and the backs of envelopes in his car after playing sessions with his friends and colleagues, late at night in his Ford Pinto parked under a lone streetlight, just angrily writing with a stubby, teeth-marked #2 pencil, "YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT."

No. Not at all.

Rather, this is Gary telling you about his own campaign style (which he assumes everyone is ultimately headed toward) which is what a modern gamer would describe as "West Marches" style. And under that style, absolutely it is true that you can't have a meaningful campaign without strict time keeping records. The problem here is that this is written in like 1979, and Gygax has no idea how people are playing or will be playing outside of the Arneson/Gygax framework he is familiar with. Why would he? Or why would he think that anything else isn't just a transition phase toward being a successful DM as he understands the term.

You have to read the DMG in the context of the game it is describing to understand the processes of play. Only then will you understand why parties should appoint "Callers".

 

[Mannahnin]

'78-'79 even. Although I've run a meaningful open table campaign while being substantially looser with the timekeeping between groups than Gary describes.

 

[nevin]

Most people do not

Sometimes, the players took care of the 'problematic' player by killing their character. I've had to happen twice during my 1e DM tenure. They left and never came back.

Strangely all but one of those players over the years just rerolled in our games.

 

[nevin]

I picture Gary furiously scribbling his thoughts for some of the sections in the older books on napkins and the backs of envelopes in his car after playing sessions with his friends and colleagues, late at night in his Ford Pinto parked under a lone streetlight, just angrily writing with a stubby, teeth-marked #2 pencil, "YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPt.

"Unless I decide differently next game......". That was GYGAX....always reliably combative and unpredictable in his arguments.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I picture Gary furiously scribbling his thoughts for some of the sections in the older books on napkins and the backs of envelopes in his car after playing sessions with his friends and colleagues, late at night in his Ford Pinto parked under a lone streetlight, just angrily writing with a stubby, teeth-marked #2 pencil, "YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT."

The funny thing is, I've been running a Cyberpunk Red campaign for over a year, and it pretty much requires an in-game calendar be kept. And it really does make the campaign more meaningful. When you've got rent due at the end of the month, every day you spend healing, hustling, crafting is a day you can't spend on the more lucrative gigging.

Granted, I'm not the DM so maybe there's a conflict I haven't seen, but I don't recall any example coming up in play where one rule completely contradicted another.

Not complete contradictions, but the criteria for sneak attack is somewhat different in the PHB and the DMG. Also, there's information about spells in the DMG that is not present in the PHB.

 

[kermit4karate]

"Unless I decide differently next game......". That was GYGAX....always reliably combative and unpredictable in his arguments.

True, but as it pertains to this and almost every convo on enworld involving Gary, it's pretty conclusive that he believed DMs are the deciders, and he favored rulings over rules.

 

[Blue]

Busy for a necro thread. Guess the question still has some legs.

Played a lot of AD&D and loved it.

Which is not to say that I'd love it if I played it now, both from tastes changing but also from just knowing how the industry has advanced and all the problems with it.

To give an example, I played the heck out of the original Balder's Gate video game. I bought it again on Steam a few years back and found it nigh unplayable. Mostly because it was before a bunch of common UX (user experience) expecations were set, and it used different keybinding (which IIRC I couldn't update) and other things that just made interacting with it extremely unfun for someone used to today's games.

AD&D is like that mechanically. It was great fun when it was the latest and greatest and I played the heck out of it. But so many different tiny subsystems, no unified mechanic, wanting to roll high here, low there, different dice for different things, lots of little one-off charts to look up, crazy fiddly bits -- mechanically I don't want to interact with it now even considering how much I loved it at the time.