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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greg K" data-source="post: 8331931" data-attributes="member: 5038">I have not voted. I had been aware of OD&D for years before playing it*. It was my initial introduction to the game despite my first play experience being with Holmes in the late 70s (before switching to AD&D shortly after). I also came across a copy of OD&D in the 90s at the university bookstore. However, I, finally, played it for the first time a few years ago.The father of a co-worker was running OD&D at a "school" for home-schooled kids of junior high and high school  age where I taught some enrichment courses. He had started playing in the mid-seventies in Pasadena, CA with people at Cal-Tech and invited me to sit in for sessions when my schedule allowed. He was using the original three brown books and, if I recall correctly, specific elements from Greyhawk (the Thief and variable weapon damage)I only played a few periodic sessions, but the experience playing with him was different than other D&D games in which I had participated.  When it came to situations with yes/no possibilities (e.g. are there noticeable tracks? is there a town or village nearby? etc.) , he often rolled a die to determine the answer rather than making a decision outright.  He also used several homebrew races of his own creations which is not something I had encountered in pre-3e D&D.  Homebrew monsters? Yes. Modifications to combat? yes. Additional attributes like Perception? Yes. Allowing wizards to have bonus spells based on Intelligence? yes.  I just never encountered a DM (myself included) that created their own races or classes for editions prior to 3e. The DMs I have known had always taken new races and classes from Dragon Magazine a  third party book such as The Compleat Adventurerer (Bard Games) or Witches (Mayfair games), or TSRs 2e Complete Book of Humanoids (or whatever it was called).In some ways, there felt to be a freedom in how the game was played with OD&D (or, maybe, it was just the DM), but I also missed the unified mechanics of WOTC D&D and the 3e skill system. Knowing what I do about OD&D, I probably would not want to run it and would use S&W or B/X.  However, as a DM, I  prefer 3.0 (max level 10-12) using the core books, Unearthed Arcana, some third party supplements, and a few of my own house rules.  Based on a reading of 5e, I think that I would also prefer it using the free basic rules (max level 10-12), the DMG, a few elements from the SRD and PHB, some additional third party supplements, and a few personal house rules.* My first encounter with OD&D was in sixth grade. Some of the older high school kids, whom were like big brothers, invited myself and some other kids to try a new game. As we were about to create characters, I was called by my parents for dinner. As we were eating, i was told that we were moving in a few days. Years later, I saw the white box in the university bookstore, but I had been playing AD&D for about fifteen years and did not think to buy it as a collector's item.</blockquote>

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