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Message: <blockquote data-quote="teitan" data-source="post: 7959534" data-attributes="member: 3457">I’ve said it in your previous surveys, I started with the LBB and a PHB. We used a smattering of 2e Monstrous Compendiums to supplement our LBB monster selection but I didn’t upgrade to 2e Until 91. Our first 2e product was the FR Monstrous Compendium with the loose leaf pages. What a rotten idea that was. Didn’t last very long thankfully. We got a DMG that summer and used a 1e PHB for a couple more months. so what did 2e get right? Well for me anyway? Right off the top the customizable thieves skills were a step in the right direction of making thieves more useful at low levels. Weapon specialization helped fighters a lot. The layout was superior and the font was a lot easier to read. Changes to initiative and the adoption of THAC0 as core were also a big boost to the game in my opinion. It really was a clean up of 1e in those areas. Specialist wizards replacing Illusionist was a near genius move that was a little uneven as some specialist wizards were obviously inferior. I am/was a big art guy and I love Erol Otus but man the art in 2e was just blam! I know I had a DMG first. I remember the Orc painting like it is in front of me with the gnarly pig noses and green skin. Horned helmet looking right out of the page at you. The guy who usually DMed was very inspired by the painting of the swordwoman in the short shorts and leather jerkin and white bandana and I ran a campaign on our off days from the main game with him and another guy where he made a character based on her. My Orcs were very much the pig faced orcs of that painting and my goblins were very much along those lines.what did 2e get wrong? Optional rules that weren’t so optional for one. Having two different skill systems in Thieves being percentile based and NWP being ability checks with a modifier. And then making some of those combat oriented. Specialty Priests were a good idea in theory but the minimal guidance made it difficult to get a good idea on how to implement it. Legends & Lore went a long way to helping as did the Forgotten Realms Adventures book. Kitsalso started out as a cool way to customize your character but suffered from not going far enough or going too far and required the use of NWP. NWP were the biggest flaw to be 100% honest because they allowed players to circumvent other classes based on which NWP they picked they could outclass a thief in some of their niche abilities. Not cool.also one of the big flaws was the attempt to turn D&D into a generic fantasy tool kit. As cool as the settings were some of them the AD&D system was a poor fit and other games did the same style setting better.would I play 2e again? Honestly? Maybe. I miss the freewheeling play style but 5e can do that really well. So can 1e and Swords & Wizardry. I definitely wouldn’t buy the revised books though. The art made 2e so great.</blockquote>

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