D&D General How popular is AD&D relative to other OSR games?

[haakon1]

If someone does a poll, include 4 different topics that sometimes are conflated, and at least for me have different answers.

What system are you DMing?

What system are you a player in?

What system are you reading?

When you DM, what systems do you take adventures from?

For me, that’s:
3.5e
5.5e
Mostly 2e
Currently running OSR and 2e adventures. Have used in these campaigns AD&D (1e, Stygian the Best), 2e, 3e, 3.5e, PF1, Harn, System Neutral OSR, and 5e (2014) materials.

Of those, which do I LIKE as systems? Everything except 5x, so yes, I’m “not the target demographic”, a heretic who dislikes “the market has spoken” answer, a nonconformist, whatever you want to call it.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

2) are these con numbers representative of home games, or is AD&D something that folks play more at cons?

Well, for me, the only reason I'm going to play OSR games is for their historical vibe and for nostalgia. So there's little reason for me to play a new OSR game -- I'll just play one of the many good modern forms of fantasy RPG.

Which is why the only OSR campaign I've ever run was AD&D. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a significant contingent who felt similarly: If you're looking for the nostalgia hit, AD&D wins.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

My original D&D group still plays AD&D 1e after 46 years. Not often because of their family and children but they still do. I moved away and when I found a new group was surprised to learn there was AD&D 2e, that is what the group decided to play. Otherwise I would have kept playing AD&D1e with them.

 

[darjr]

Did that blog post lump Dungeon Crawl Classics into 3.5 games?!

It’s absolutely not. It’s an OSR game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Did that blog post lump Dungeon Crawl Classics into 3.5 games?!

It’s absolutely not. It’s an OSR game.

It's under OSR:

Which older editions count as OSR?

Here I could arbitrarily draw the line at 3rd Edition, when DnD got so complicated and full of player options that it became a trad game. But because fruitful cross-pollination can come from pulling cool ideas from newer editions (like my Feats for Shadowdark, if I say so myself) AND because DCC is derived from 3rd edition and yet beloved by OSR folks, I am going to track the relative current popularity of 3e and 4e as part of my OSR game tally. I am also going to track OSR+ games like Mothership that derived from Runequest, because they are spiritual OSR cousins.

It could be written more clearly, though.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I love AD&D. I would run or play AD&D. Are there better OSR games, definitely. Id prefer OSE over AD&D if I wanted tha authentic old school feel. If I wanted a modern but old school Id go Shadowdark.

 

[Bluecrow]

We moved on to 2ed in 1989 and 3rd when it came out. Last year I started two campaigns with ad&d (OSRIC) after 35 years, both campaigns still ongoing.

 

[Mannahnin]

I started digging into OSRIC 3E a bit again this week. It's funny trying to acclimate to the different organization, despite things like initiative and basically all the combat rules being much better explained and more readable.

I would like to play 1E for an extended campaign and/or run a campaign of it some time.

 

[Cruentus]

DM’ing: OSE
Player in: n/a
Reading: Pendragon, Call of Cthulhu, Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, Symbaroum
Take adventures from: everything

We were right in the cusp of Ad&d (1e) when we really got started playing, and played that system the most. I’ve tried to get up the nerve to run it, but then quickly got overwhelmed with all the ‘tweaks’ I’d want to make, so I dropped it.

I’m trying really hard to pick systems that will provide the game I want, rather than try to shoehorn the game into one particular system.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

OK, let me amend my previous statements: I would 100% run a Beyond the Wall campaign. That's a fork off of AD&D and close enough to it that I think it's fair to consider it an AD&D 1.5 game.