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

[Lanefan]

I'd say that sums it up nicely.
When you have the time and patience to do a deep dive into the books, the rationales for many rules become understandable and you can see how about 70% of the content holds together in a nicely balanced system, while 30% can be jettisoned or modified.

In the initial books up to and including MMII, yes; and the jettison-modification process is relatively straightforward. After that, however, in subsequent books (UA, OA, DSG, WSG, etc.) the signal-noise ratio gets much worse and the challenge becomes more one of finding and extracting the bits worth salvaging.

 

[Ben from Periapt Games]

AD&D 1e was arguably the first RPG I played: I had got my hands on a mishmash of D&D books from different series and editions, plus a third-party guide, and tried to paper over the cracks.

 

[kronovan]

AD&D 1e It was my 1st TTRPG experience in the early 1980s and I played it frequently for about 5 years. For a good part of that time, I played it at tables hosted by my College's wargamers club and those sessions were enjoyable. We used the 1977 PHB and being my 1st TTRPG I accepted the rules as is (most other players too), but got the impression there was room for improvement. Hosted adventures and campaigns went through a number of changes at our club evolving into 2 styles; advanced hexcrawls across the WoG or someones hombrewed world; highly narrative games more focused on collaboratve story tellinig where the rules were secondary. We had a number of DMs that houseruled and looking back for the most part they made good choices.

While I still have it in PDF, I don't play it now and instead play and run Advanced OSE to scratch that itch.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

AD&D 1e was arguably the first RPG I played: I had got my hands on a mishmash of D&D books from different series and editions, plus a third-party guide, and tried to paper over the cracks.

The real old school!

 

[CleverNickName]

AD&D 1e was arguably the first RPG I played: I had got my hands on a mishmash of D&D books from different series and editions, plus a third-party guide, and tried to paper over the cracks.

Same here: I learned to play D&D with the red box Basic rules in middle school, but that whole product line quickly went out of print. So for the first few years of gaming, my friends and I had to mash together whatever we could find and make up the rest.

 

[Sacrosanct]

AD&D 1e was arguably the first RPG I played: I had got my hands on a mishmash of D&D books from different series and editions, plus a third-party guide, and tried to paper over the cracks.

I think this was pretty common, especially if your group were kids. I started on B/X in 1981 but quickly moved to AD&D, but still used all those B/X modules and even monsters pulled from the B/X book if we had it handy and not the MM laying around.

 

[GreyLord]

I suppose the mish mash works. I started without even owning any books with a group that already was playing. I didn't get my own copies until later.

However, for AD&D, you had to play a mish mash at first. They didn't have the DMG and such stuff, or at least I didn't have it when the PHB came out, so you used the original rules for stuff that you didn't have yet.

I actually played AD&D before I ever played Basic (any version) D&D...or BX or BECMI or RC. (If I remember correctly, it's been a LONG while since I first started). I think I may have had Holmes at some point before I actually had all of AD&D, so it is possible I may have done Holmes prior to playing AD&D complete????

I think I had one of the earliest versions of Holmes (maybe even a prototype?) as my original copy has something no one else has ever said was contained in their (elves could choose to play as a Fighter or Magic-User, where as the Holmes that I've seen since and from what others say was in their copies, the Elf was the standard Elf which was both a fighting man and Magic-User at the same time).

Never used Holmes in conjunction with AD&D though.

 

[Mannahnin]

However, for AD&D, you had to play a mish mash at first. They didn't have the DMG and such stuff, or at least I didn't have it when the PHB came out, so you used the original rules for stuff that you didn't have yet.

I actually played AD&D before I ever played Basic (any version) D&D...or BX or BECMI or RC. (If I remember correctly, it's been a LONG while since I first started). I think I may have had Holmes at some point before I actually had all of AD&D, so it is possible I may have done Holmes prior to playing AD&D complete????

That makes sense with the timeline. Holmes Basic and the original hardcover Monster Manual were both released in 1977, the AD&D 1E PH in 1978, and the DMG in 1979. B/X didn't get released until 1981.

I think I had one of the earliest versions of Holmes (maybe even a prototype?) as my original copy has something no one else has ever said was contained in their (elves could choose to play as a Fighter or Magic-User, where as the Holmes that I've seen since and from what others say was in their copies, the Elf was the standard Elf which was both a fighting man and Magic-User at the same time).

Perhaps you were playing with a group which was already playing OD&D using the 1974 rules, and so retained that concept rather than giving Elves class options and making them always split XP evenly between their classes, like in 1975 Greyhawk?

1977 Holmes Basic says "Elves progress in level as both fighting men and magic-users, but since each game nets them experience in both categories equally, they progress more slowly than other characters." So it requires them to all be F/M-Us like the 1974 rules (doesn't allow for being single- or multi-classed Thieves like Greyhawk does), but makes them always split the XP evenly like Greyhawk.

Zach Howard of Zenopus Archives compiled an exhaustive list for The Acaeum of the differences between the different versions of Holmes, and I don't see any mention of a version which used the 1974 rules for elf advancement rather than splitting the XP evenly.

Basic Diff

 

[Voadam]

Zach Howard of Zenopus Archives compiled an exhaustive list for The Acaeum of the differences between the different versions of Holmes, and I don't see any mention of a version which used the 1974 rules for elf advancement rather than splitting the XP evenly.

Basic Diff

Very interesting, thanks.

Weird how they deleted some art and monster entries and added in others.

 

[GreyLord]

That makes sense with the timeline. Holmes Basic and the original hardcover Monster Manual were both released in 1977, the AD&D 1E PH in 1978, and the DMG in 1979. B/X didn't get released until 1981.


Perhaps you were playing with a group which was already playing OD&D using the 1974 rules, and so retained that concept rather than giving Elves class options and making them always split XP evenly between their classes, like in 1975 Greyhawk?

1977 Holmes Basic says "Elves progress in level as both fighting men and magic-users, but since each game nets them experience in both categories equally, they progress more slowly than other characters." So it requires them to all be F/M-Us like the 1974 rules (doesn't allow for being single- or multi-classed Thieves like Greyhawk does), but makes them always split the XP evenly like Greyhawk.

Zach Howard of Zenopus Archives compiled an exhaustive list for The Acaeum of the differences between the different versions of Holmes, and I don't see any mention of a version which used the 1974 rules for elf advancement rather than splitting the XP evenly.

Basic Diff

That's why I said I think I may have had a proto-type or something. The copy I had a long time ago had the elves deciding what class each time between Fighter and Magic-user.

When I asked about it later, no one seemed to know what I was on about and stated the same thing as you have on your commentary on Holmes. Buying a copy at that point also showed the same thing was standard in the copies out there.

Which means I don't know why the older copy I had said something different, but it was definitely stating something different than what was in most copies.

I actually still have that original copy (Where elves can choose) somewhere in storage, but I'd have to dig around (it's probably in a box at the bottom of a stack of boxes way in the back of the storage facility with my luck) to actually find it.