Kickin' it old school -- are you game?

[Saeviomagy]

Yes, but the orginal D&D game is complete in less than 100 pages.

If you want to go down that road, pick up the D&D adventure game (less than 100 pages)

Or the OD&D rules cyclopoedia (significantly more).

 

[jdrakeh]

If you want to go down that road, pick up the D&D adventure game (less than 100 pages). Or the OD&D rules cyclopoedia (significantly more).

I only mentioned the page count of Basic D&D because the poster I responded to was ranting about how three 100+ page core books didn't have more rules [bloat] than older versions of D&D. Which is true in some cases (its about on par with 1e AD&D in terms of content bulk), but not in others (it uses far more rules to achieve pretty much the same thing that Basic D&D did in under 100 pages). Your argument above has no bearing on what I stated, really.

 

[tetsujin28]

My question: do any of you play AD&D 1e and/or OD&D (ie Diaglo-edition )? If not, would you be open to it? Just curious.

I play both OD&D and BD&D on occasion. But I think the whole "roll vs. role" and "rules bloat" thing is nonsense. AD&D 1 and 2e were insanely complicated games. They were baroque.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

One funny thing: in 3/3.5 whenever our group interacts with NPCs we simply shrug and say, "I'll make a Diplomacy check." In AD&D 1e the DM is making us (gasp) role-play. It's been cool, very cool.

Just had to note that this is not a failing of 3E as such, but a too-willing submission of creativity and imagination to RULES. It has long been my assertion that while 3E is the best version of D&D it isn't perfect, and its biggest imperfection is exacerbated by an over-promotion of rules-lawyerism by Wotc and insufficient exhortation of alternatives to ALWAYS having the official-rules-answer. 3E CAN BE a crutch.

Moving on...

My question: do any of you play AD&D 1e and/or OD&D (ie Diaglo-edition )? If not, would you be open to it? Just curious.

I play 3.5, but I am willing to play ANY version of D&D at any time. AD&D-1E would be my second choice, 2E would certainly be my last choice - but I'd still play.

 

[Green Griffon]

I play 2e but id try 1e dnd or ODND any day

 

[krunchyfrogg]

I like 1st edition, and grew up on OD&D (we just called it D&D back then, as opposed to AD&D).

It's the group and experience that is fun, not the system.

 

[Johnnie Freedom!]

Surely you realize there is not one "right way" to play an RPG.

Depends what "right" means. If by "right", you mean, "What your group enjoys," Then no, there is no "right" way. If you and your group pour lime Jello on each other and rub each other's tummies and call it "playing D&D", then more power to ya.

On the other hand, if by "right" you mean, "What is accepted as reasonable and correct within the parameters of the game" then of course there are many ways to play that aren't right.

Rolling a bowling ball instead of a d20, for example, would be (gasp) the "wrong" way to make a saving throw.

[Having once again saved the world from the muddled mush of relativism, Johnnie Freedom! flies away . . .]

 

[Frostmarrow]

Indeed. Many of the older games didn't involve a lot of 'role' playing until adventuers started to go "beyond the dungeon", which necessarily isn't a very popular element as many adventuers, especially those from Goodman for example, have a "back to the dungeon' feel, along with o thers like World's Largest Dungeon and to a point, Shackled City.

Some people enjoy the combat aspects.

Some people enjoy the human social elements as opposed to trying to pretend to be a 1,000 year old elf.

Other people like to tinker with the mechanics.

Role playing is but one aspect of the game and should not be held as the holy grail of it.

Indeed, but if that's the case neither should combat - so were's the Battle-skill?

-17, W00-h00 we won again!

 

[Zelligars Apprentice]

Yes, but the orginal D&D game is complete in less than 100 pages. If you want to do comparisons, all other versions of the game have far more rules - nearly none of which are necessary, merely preferred by most people (which is what the OP meant by 'bloat', I imagine).

For the record, I was comparing First Edition ADVANCED D&D with Third Edition D&D. I made no statement comparing ORIGINAL D&D with Third Edition.

And I still want to know how you do a nested quote here.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Indeed, but if that's the case neither should combat - so were's the Battle-skill?

-17, W00-h00 we won again!

The battle skill would be things like bab, weapon focus, weapon specialization, selection and choice of weapons. Or did I mis read the question?

For those who want more social etiquette in their D&D game, the Queintessentail Samurai has some interesting court rules that might be more to your liking, and Shadows of Yesterday also uses some contested rolls to showcase the different ways social skills cna be used beyond one die roll.