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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PapersAndPaychecks" data-source="post: 3268152" data-attributes="member: 28854">Oh, I see what PS means.  He's referring to Gary Gygax's rather unfortunate and ill-advised "my way or the highway" rant in Dragon 67.This is what Gary actually says:"If one plays the D&D game system, it is possible that material from outside that offered by TSR to be included in the game. Such a game becomes “house rules” poker, so to speak. One then either announces the special rules, or drops them, when players from outside the core group participate in the game."Hoyle has even begun to standardize house rules, and this is similar to what TSR will be doing in the next few years as a special team of designers and editors work on the D&D game system — both to finish it and to make a few needed revisions."The AD&D game system does not allow the injection of extraneous material. That is clearly stated in the rule books." -- No it isn't.  I'll quote what the rule books REALLY say below. --  "It is thus a simple matter: Either one plays the AD&D game, or one plays something else, just as one either plays poker according to Hoyle, or one plays  Western) chess by tournament rules, or one does not. Since the game is the sole property of TSR and its designer, what is official and what is not has meaning if one plays the game. Serious players will only accept official material, for they play the game rather than playing at it, as do those who enjoy “house rules” poker, or who push pawns around the chess board. No power on earth can dictate that gamers not add spurious rules and material to either the D&D or AD&D game systems, but likewise no claim to playing either game can then be made."Such games are not D&D or AD&D games — they are something else, classifiable only under the generic “FRPG” catch-all. To be succinct, whether you play either game or not is your business, but in order to state that you play either, it is obviously necessary to play them with the official rules, as written. Thus, when you get information in these pages which bears the “official” stamp, that means it can immediately be used in game play."  -- E. Gary Gygax, 1983.Unfortunately for Gary, when you look at what the 1e DMG has to say about this, Gary's own words are:"As the creator and ultimate authority in your respective game, this work is written as one Dungeon Master equal to another. Pronouncements there may be, but they are not from "on high" as respects your game."  -- Preface to the 1e DMG, E. Gary Gygax, 1979."The game is the thing, and certain rules can be distorted or disregarded altogether in favor of play.  Know the game systems, and you will know how and when to take upon yourself the ultimate power."  -- Introduction to the 1e DMG, E. Gary Gygax, 1979.So what are we supposed to believe, the rulebook or the Dragon article?"Forget weapon speed factors, I must have been under the influence of a hex when I included them in the bloody rules" -- E. Gary Gygax, 2004.Clearly, 1e is supposed to be houseruled and those who run it are supposed to use their common sense.  There's one single article -- in which Gary clearly lost his temper, and he does do that from time to time -- which mistakenly claims otherwise.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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