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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9882803" data-attributes="member: 6779310">understand that, arguably the singly most influential game, AD&D 1e had sections in the DMG advocating not letting players actually know the system. The PHB lacked a lot of the mechanics in that edition. That game, in print from 1979* was still selling in 1987... after AD&D 2e was released... and while AD&D 2e did put a lot more of the mechanics in the PHB, it still largely was not runnable without the DMG.That set a tone that "players don't need to know the rules - play the GM instead of the rulebook." So, for an influential period players were expected to not learn the rules. Eventually, that started to change, but a lot of AD&D vets are still teaching newbs that they don't need to know the rules, don't waste the money.In 45 years GMing, players with rules copies have always been the minority - the best ratio was about 90% when running D&D 5E; AD&D 2e in Retail Play was about 75%. Nothing else crossed 50% for me. Hell, my first Traveller GM didn't even own a legit copy of the rules at the time.The combination of "Players don't need to know" and "GMs should tweak rules" makes player owned rulebooks a liability for many playstyles of old-school GMs. I was never one of those... tho' my 1981 to 1985 D&D play was BX with AD&D races and a variant multiclassing hybridizing D&D and AD&D.  It was easier to just use a photocopy of my typed up rules variant than explain it. Then i discovered other games and moved to a mindset of "If I have to make major tweaks, I don't need this game..."[HR][/HR]*I know components go back to 1977</blockquote>

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