If WotC decided to revitalize and support AD&D, would you play/buy it?

[Orius]

I have the three core 2e rulebooks.

I have the 2e Tome of Magic.

I have all four Player's Option books (counting High Level Campaigns as one of the 4).

I have the entire Encyclopedia Magica, Wizard's Spell Compendium, and Priest's Spell Compendium.

I have nearly all the PHB splats, Arms & Equipment, Monster Mythology and a few other DMG splats.

I have all four MC Annuals, as well as the Mystara and three Planescape MC for supplimental monster sources.

That's not counting the issues of Dragon from 1995 to 2000.

With all that, what more could WotC really offer me for the AD&D rules that I don't already have? Maybe stuff like adventures/modules (which I never really bought much of in the first place). I have enough material that I probably wouldn't need to buy more. Possibly they might release some splats here or there that I'd be interested in, but really 1e, 2e, and 3e all seemed to have gotten to the point where there was little more to add to the game when they reached the end of their respective runs.

And honestly, I like the 3e ruleset better. I generally prefer the flavor from late 2e rather than the stuff that's been entering the game since the 3.5 revision, but it's not too hard to mix the rules of 3e and flavor of 2e.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Wanted to say...'My collection is bigger than your's. Nah, nah!".

But...I won't.

I have the three core 2e rulebooks.

I have the 2e Tome of Magic.

I have all four Player's Option books (counting High Level Campaigns as one of the 4).

I have the entire Encyclopedia Magica, Wizard's Spell Compendium, and Priest's Spell Compendium.

I have nearly all the PHB splats, Arms & Equipment, Monster Mythology and a few other DMG splats.

I have all four MC Annuals, as well as the Mystara and three Planescape MC for supplimental monster sources.

That's not counting the issues of Dragon from 1995 to 2000.

With all that, what more could WotC really offer me for the AD&D rules that I don't already have? Maybe stuff like adventures/modules (which I never really bought much of in the first place). I have enough material that I probably wouldn't need to buy more. Possibly they might release some splats here or there that I'd be interested in, but really 1e, 2e, and 3e all seemed to have gotten to the point where there was little more to add to the game when they reached the end of their respective runs.

And honestly, I like the 3e ruleset better. I generally prefer the flavor from late 2e rather than the stuff that's been entering the game since the 3.5 revision, but it's not too hard to mix the rules of 3e and flavor of 2e.

 

[Ariosto]

I know there are many people as firmly attached to 2E as others are to other editions, but my impression is that more people find themselves more satisfied with "basically" Basic or 1E or 3E -- with particularly favored bits and pieces from the 2E line mixed in.

For my part, OSRIC delivers what I like about 2E: clarity and ease of reference, from the writing and organization to the layout. (I also much prefer the graphic design of 4E to that of 3E.) Even rules have in some cases had gaps filled or been streamlined. That goes beyond what I expected from early statements of intent to preserve fidelity right down to ambiguity -- but I am not complaining!

Keeping a wide berth of potential legal issues necessitated some changes. Others reflected what Mr. Gygax himself in later years said about what he would have changed in hindsight (but not so much the expanded Second Edition that he had in mind).

Most of all, though, I see a lot of love of the game, respect and wisdom. It's a conservative edition, certainly -- but, in the event, not purely "preservationist". It's not a mere replica of an archaic museum piece, but rather an artifact of a living game culture.

WotC had, and passed up, its opportunity to do that. I doubt that it would do it enough better to take the place not only of OSRIC, but of the other "retro-clones". (Labyrinth Lord, for instance, has a companion volume aimed at emulating a mixed Basic/ Advanced approach that seems to have remained pretty popular since "back in the day".)

 

[darkseraphim]

I would support it if it was a respectful return to the original roots, instead of just corporate lip service.

For example if the project were offered to Frank Mentzer with input from Rob Kuntz, with invitations to Jim Ward, Tim Kask etc. to participate to the extent they wanted to, and "remember when" or "then and now" reminiscences from old school writers, staffers and artists, then I think it would be great.

If it was just Hackmaster 2.0 though I wouldn't care for it.

 

[Chainsaw]

Playing ODD now, could easily be playing ADD as well - don't need WotC support and would be worried any renewed interest would come at the cost of the guys who've given so generously over the last few years.

 

[Greg K]

No, I would not. I left prior to 3e and returned with the release of 3e for a reason. While I may prefer some elements of pre-3e (e.g., cleric spheres, slower leveling, and kits (in theory)) , I would rather house rule those elements into 3e using some of the options from the 3.0 DMG, Unearthed Arcana and a couple of third party supplements, because 3e implemented 90% of the changes I wanted with 3e And, while there were a few changes that I wanted and did not get (i.e, removing level drain and toning down spellcasters) and a few changes that I did not want (e.g, XP to cast spells, XP to create magic items), the number of house rules required to alter the system to my enjoyment would be far less with 3e than with pre-3e editions.

 

[Set]

While there is a crapload of stuff I would love to see brought back from 2nd edition (pretty much the entire Al-Qadim setting, for instance, as well as Kara-Tur), I'd rather see it converted to 3rd edition (or whatever).

2nd edition was great in the day, but 3rd edition was a marked improvement, and I wouldn't want to go back.

 

[Remathilis]

While everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion, it blows my mind when people dismiss the changes 2nd edition made as "wrong" or "horrible". There are plenty of things about the 2e Core Rules* that improved upon 1e's hot-mess.

* Streamlined Initiative
* Bards and Rangers (and later Monks) that adhere to the same rules as all the other classes abide by.
* Specialist Mages and Specialty Priests
* Tougher Dragons
* Thief Skill Customization & Weapon Specialization
* Null-and-voiding huge chunks of Unearthed Arcana

Of course, they did get some things wrong (nerfing illusionists and misplacing druid spells, but many of those were fixed in later supplements) but on the whole 2e did a lot of good solid and meaningful changes to 1e's sometimes haphazard, chaotic mess without losing some of the "core truths" of the original (a revision moreso than a reinvention).

* I won't get into the unfortunate things they left in (like dual-classing), nor the broken additional things that came in later supplements.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Yeah...there will be always a difference of opinions.

Like the word 'Tomato' can be said differently.

While everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion, it blows my mind when people dismiss the changes 2nd edition made as "wrong" or "horrible". There are plenty of things about the 2e Core Rules* that improved upon 1e's hot-mess.

* Streamlined Initiative
* Bards and Rangers (and later Monks) that adhere to the same rules as all the other classes abide by.
* Specialist Mages and Specialty Priests
* Tougher Dragons
* Thief Skill Customization & Weapon Specialization
* Null-and-voiding huge chunks of Unearthed Arcana

Of course, they did get some things wrong (nerfing illusionists and misplacing druid spells, but many of those were fixed in later supplements) but on the whole 2e did a lot of good solid and meaningful changes to 1e's sometimes haphazard, chaotic mess without losing some of the "core truths" of the original (a revision moreso than a reinvention).

* I won't get into the unfortunate things they left in (like dual-classing), nor the broken additional things that came in later supplements.

 

[Reynard]

It's not WotC but it is interesting.