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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9774006" data-attributes="member: 7052563">The first Best of Dragon volume in particular was my first glimpse of 70’s D&D, as I mostly played B/X and AD&D 1E with fellow teenagers starting around 1985.  None of us knew anything about the original game or even about Holmes Basic, so BoD Vol #1 was a real eye-opener.  I was glad to learn something about the early days, but did not really wish to play “0E” instead of our heavily streamlined AD&D game.In a pre-Internet world, Dragon was the main connection to D&D gaming culture for my group.  The Forum column in particular introduced us to then-current jargon (Monty Haul treasure giveaways, hack-and-slash play, killer DMs, etc), and to the D&D controversies of the day: alignment, demi-human level limits, monster PCs, treatment of hostile captives, “realism” in falling damage or female character STR, etc.  We read editorials from EGG and other TSR staff hectoring us for even contemplating wrongbadfun heresies like dwarf mages, hobgoblin PCs, or non-Vancian spellcasting.  We did not find out that Gygax had been let go until about 1987 because of course TSR was not going to discuss it in the magazine, and we were so far out of the loop that we never even heard the “backstabbed by Lorraine Williams” legend.I really liked that Anti-Paladin NPC class as a genuinely menacing yet ever-so-slightly comical foil for a PC party, with a sort of Snidely Whiplash “magnificent bastard” vibe, instead of the usual painfully serious grimdark RPG villains.  I wonder if it would be possible to maintain that tone for a whole adventure or campaign.  I imagine something like Saturday morning cartoon villains, both played straight as antagonists and deconstructed slightly in the manner of shows like Venture Bros.  Maybe it would grow tiresome as the novelty wore off, but it would be interesting to try. The very last D&D session I ever did with my old group was a farewell one-shot.  We played an Evil-aligned party for the first and only time, just for the heck of it.  The adventure would be looting and pillaging our way through the classic Temple of Elemental Evil, just to see how far we could get and how much havoc we could wreak.  We each quickly rolled up some 10th level Evil PCs and took some appropriate magic gear.  I made an Anti-Paladin with magic plate mail and an Unholy Reaver sword, and my character concept was a mustache-twirling “What if Dick Dastardly from the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but actually charismatic and dangerous?”.  I think somebody else played the Death Master NPC class from one of the other compilation volumes.  It was good fun.</blockquote>

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