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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7314657" data-attributes="member: 82106">Here's a bit of perspective for you. I started playing D&D in 1975, so I have a pretty immediate familiarity with the 'essence' of what D&D started out as. Now, it was many things to many people, and evolved quickly, but OD&D was FAR CLOSER to something like Cortex+ than it was to 3e!!!!You had a class, a race (well, we can argue about if they were separate things, I say they were) and 6 ability scores, plus your 'stuff'. There were NO DEFINED EFFECTS of the ability scores! Go read 'Men & Magic' in original 'wood grain box' OD&D! NOTHING about your Strength mattered mechanically. I think there was a restriction that said Fighting Men needed to have a 9 STR or something, but maybe even that came in GreyHawk, I'm not sure anymore. Ability scores were pure RP attributes. There wasn't a system of 'plot coupons' to 'leverage' them with, so it was a kind of nascent system, but basically you said to the GM "Hey, I have a 15 Strength, I'm going to lift the heavy rock". The GM would say "OK, go for it" and he could roll some dice, or just say you succeed or whatever. Strong guys did 'strong things' because presumably the GM wouldn't let the 9 STR guy lift the rock. 'Class' was really just another descriptor that had a very few mechanics attached to it. The 'Fighting Man' and the 'Cleric' both had the means to engage in combat successfully (Clerics weren't even spell-casters at level 1 in OD&D). There was no difference in combat between any of the 3 classes, except Magic Users couldn't wear armor. All weapons were purely fluff, a dagger was as good as a sword (there was the possibility of using Chainmail's dueling system where that isn't quite true, most people didn't). The Magic User had weaker hit points and armor, so he generally stuck to casting his spell, but the point is there wasn't so much distinction between classes, it was as much a label used for RP as anything else.D&D was NOT fiddly at all. Even core PHB 1e ala 1979 is a reasonably simple game. There's a lot of verbiage to the rules (Gygax), but actually rolling up a character involves very few choices or options. You get to pick weapon proficiencies, and maybe spells (there's actually no hard-and-fast rule on how to do that), roll for gold, and buy some stuff (if the GM starts you out in town). Ability scores have now become mechanically more important, so the game moved more into a 'adjudicate semi-realistic results' vs the earlier possibilities of largely descriptive play, but its still a simple and non-fiddly game. It really isn't until Late 2e that D&D gets quite fiddly.</blockquote>

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