D&D 1E How about a little love for AD&D 1E

[Musing Mage]

On the topic of the 1e Identify spell, it's important to understand the full context of the game... All of those fiddly hoops for such a small chance of success may seem like a pain, but in a game where the DM isn't supposed to just give information on magic items, and players are expected to experiment and through trial and error, or pay through the nose to hire a sage to ID stuff back in town... the value of having even a small chance to perform a field identification mid-adventure for a fraction of the normal sage price is very, very useful. Especially as the magic user advances in level. A 7th level magic user can make a bunch of Identify scrolls before the adventure and be ready for an instant ID during the adventure.

Stuff like this most assuredly adds flavour to the game, and something special is lost when everything is made super convenient for players.

1e is king for this aspect alone.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Why was 1e the best? The art. Thanks to Jim Holloway, the art represented how the games actually went. Which was not always well . PCs were not all portrayed as heroic beauties or hunks.

 

[JAMUMU]

I think that more than anything, 1e was the edition of (A)D&D that was always actively trying to kill your characters, in really horrible ways. Which made any form of progress or achievement so much more worth it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Mad love to the first RPG i ever encountered and to the magical, mysterious writing style that hooked me into the worlds of fantasy. I'd run it now, if any of my players let me. But they don't.

Mysterious is a great way to describe the game. The shambolic style of organization, the deliberately archaic language, made the books beautifully impenetrable. Later editions could be easier to understand, but 1e has a sense of wonder that lives on to this day.

sad stench kow noises

 

[ValamirCleaver]

Why was 1e the best? The art. Thanks to Jim Holloway, the art represented how the games actually went.

Jim Holloway

Remembering Jim Holloway|Goodman Games

goodman-games.com

The Art of Jim Holloway

www.facebook.com

Spoiler: Jim Holloway art

 

[Marc Radle]

I think some of my absolute fondest gaming memories come from back in the AD&D days.

 

[Marc Radle]

Jim Holloway

Remembering Jim Holloway|Goodman Games

goodman-games.com

The Art of Jim Holloway

www.facebook.com

Spoiler: Jim Holloway art

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Oh man, I LOVED Jim Holloway’s art so much!!

 

[fuindordm]

I'm still a big fan of 1e even though I'm usually playing 5e, for many reasons:

• The books feel like they're describing a world with quirks, not a generic rule system this is supposed to model any fantasy story. Why is illusionist the only MU "specialty"? No one knows because almost no one understands the "theory" of magic! Why are psionic powers a death sentence for most PCs? Because you are dipping your toe into an ocean of power, and the native monsters are simply much better at it.
• After your PC is created, there is very limited scope for min/maxing. "skill rolls" generally fall into 2 categories: difficult but optional (e.g. even with a failed Move Silently roll you can still achieve surprise) or highly reliable (climbing, disguise, druid lore). A more consistent skill system would be nice but is not really essential for the default scope of the game.
• The different classes support significantly different ways of approaching the game and resolving challenges--they are not just frameworks for spamming basic attacks dressed up in different ribbons and character art.
• The emphasis on exploration, tactics, and combat avoidance.

On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about the rule evolutions proposed in Unearthed Arcana and later books. I often spend time theorycrafting a houseruled version of 1e when I should be working on my 5e campaign.

 

[LoganRan]

Oh man, I LOVED Jim Holloway’s art so much!!

Same here.

Holloway was my favorite D&D artist due to his realistic imagery with a touch of macabre humor while Erol Otus and his crazy fever-dream gonzo style was a very close second.

 

[LoganRan]

I'm still a big fan of 1e even though I'm usually playing 5e, for many reasons:

• The books feel like they're describing a world with quirks, not a generic rule system this is supposed to model any fantasy story. Why is illusionist the only MU "specialty"? No one knows because almost no one understands the "theory" of magic! Why are psionic powers a death sentence for most PCs? Because you are dipping your toe into an ocean of power, and the native monsters are simply much better at it.
• After your PC is created, there is very limited scope for min/maxing. "skill rolls" generally fall into 2 categories: difficult but optional (e.g. even with a failed Move Silently roll you can still achieve surprise) or highly reliable (climbing, disguise, druid lore). A more consistent skill system would be nice but is not really essential for the default scope of the game.
• The different classes support significantly different ways of approaching the game and resolving challenges--they are not just frameworks for spamming basic attacks dressed up in different ribbons and character art.
• The emphasis on exploration, tactics, and combat avoidance.

On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about the rule evolutions proposed in Unearthed Arcana and later books. I often spend time theorycrafting a houseruled version of 1e when I should be working on my 5e campaign.

Your last point about the focus of the game being on exploration is the single thing I have missed most in WotC versions of D&D. The appeal of fantasy gaming for me has always been about finding out what is over that hill, behind that giant brass door or just what the heck will happen when I pry that giant ruby out of the demon statue. Modern D&D seems to mostly be about jumping from one combat encounter to the next with the occasional social encounter mixed in to appease the "real" role-players in the group.

My favorite adventure of all time is White Plume Mountain which many folks decry as a "funhouse" dungeon but it is precisely the bizarre amalgamation of crazy environments and exploration challenges that appeals to me. I miss the days when the point of the adventure was just to explore crazy subsurface labyrinths at your own pace not roll along the railway tracks to experience the author's "story".

Edit: Your note about Unearthed Arcana was spot on IMO. That was the beginning of the end as far as I was concerned. It was all downhill from there.