My Group had an Epiphany!

[Henry]

Does anyone have any suggestions for someone who (like me) is really bothered by this? Does anyone know if someone has done a rewrite of the classes to balance them across 20/36 levels?

To be honest, it might be as simple as letting Thieves get backstab more often, and giving them some kind of "distraction" or "trick" that they can perform on the things that it wouldn't make sense to backstab, such as undead and golems, maybe to the tune of some kind of penalty or turn loss for the enemy if they fail a saving throw. For magic-users, it might be letting them get a single spell back with 1 or 2 hours of preparation.

So far, when people try to fix these, we end up with something like the 3e or 4e rogue or wizard, which defeats the purpose of "simple and direct" and "fits in a single paragraph," which is part of the appeal of these books.

 

[RFisher]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Darrell.

Classic D&D really is just as much fun today as it was then. I find it a real shame that it isn’t still on the department store shelves next to Monopoly, Risk, et al.

I just find it ironic that saying a simpler ruleset can enhance enjoyment, and then in the next sentence say that adding some more rules might help

(^_^)

I’m glad I have my RC on my shelf, but I don’t bring it to the table.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I gotta admit, having recently regained ownership of my Basic/Expert books, I'd run them again in a heartbeat. I think it would be an absolute blast to run these as an adult, rather than the rather erm... what's the right word?... less than mature ten year old I was way back when.

Maybe a one shot is what the doctor ordered.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I fully endorse this idea of going back to basics ( ) on a regular basis. I am long, long overdue for a return to RC D&D but am filling that need by running one of my 4E games in Mystara (aka the Known World).

I can think of at least one player who would be terribly unhappy with RC D&D - but it would be good for him to not min/max every freaking character. 3d6 in order.l

 

[Darrin Drader]

Ols school is fun, fast, and full of flavor. I switched to 3E because I like the extra options that are available from every position in the game (be that playing a character or behind the DM screen), but there's a great deal of fun in that old stuff that you just don't see in D&D anymore.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

I still believe there has been nothing quite like the old Moldvay and Mentzer Basic D&D books for being able to just break them out and get a game started among people who have never gamed before. There's something simple, direct, and so far unreproducible about those little 64-page books, and I don't believe it's the nostalgia talking.

Thank you. You not only hit the nail on the head, you freakin' decapitated it.

 

[El Mahdi]

Depending on the group and thier needs and goals, a simpler ruleset can enhance enjoyment. There is never a guarantee that any ruleset will enhance enjoyment of the game. Can is not equal to does.

I mentioned the Rules Cyclopedia simply because it is the holy grail of gaming books.

Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree with what you said at all, I was just pointing out the irony in how you said it.

I know that I usually prefer a very heavy, complicated, simulationist set of rules. However, there are times I just want to have fun, and not have to think so hard in order to do it. Perfect example, I love the Pirates game from WizKids. There's definitely no way that could be described as a rules heavy, simulationist game. But, it certainly is fun (someone else here on ENWorld described it as "plastic crack" - that's not too far from the truth). Besides, if it was simulationist, obviously the USS Constitution would be invulnerable, not just merely tough.

I can appreciate the OP's feelings about their earlier edition game. Every once in a while something will happen in a game that feels just like that first time I played D&D, irregardless of the system being used at the time. I don't necessarily think it's about nostalgia either, I think it's just pure fun. After all is said and done, I think that's why most of us play this game.

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Like most people in Germany i started gaming with The Dark Eye. I´ve never met anyone on a messageboard or in real life who has ever considered of going back to oTDE. I know people that still play 3rd edition, but you cannot compare that to going back like the OP, that game was already full of crunch.

Lots of people are replaying the old adventures, but the original system is, well, dead. Interesting thing, this difference.

 

[Korgoth]

Like most people in Germany i started gaming with The Dark Eye. I´ve never met anyone on a messageboard or in real life who has ever considered of going back to oTDE. I know people that still play 3rd edition, but you cannot compare that to going back like the OP, that game was already full of crunch.

Lots of people are replaying the old adventures, but the original system is, well, dead. Interesting thing, this difference.

I find a certain alchemy of genius in the original D&D editions (especially OD&D and Classic). They are like an exquisitely balanced meal - some of this, and some of that, with a complementarity where one thing brings out the flavor of another... but each stands on its own so that you can remove or modify something to suit your own taste without destroying the whole.

I find the latter editions to suffer from the "salt problem". It's as if a chef said to himself "Salt tastes good. If I put in 10 times as much salt, this food will taste 10 times as good." Now that's not meant to offend anybody... I'm just saying that they're not to my taste, and that is because they draw selectively upon the older elements and ramp them up until they take the forefront. I just don't find the resulting concoction to my liking.

There is of course ample room for exploring both old school and new school gaming. My own taste is so decidedly to the former that I don't do much of the latter anymore.

I've never had any experience with The Dark Eye. But the original D&D stuff has a genius that makes it worth going back to, or discovering for the first time if you've never tried it.

 

[Baron Opal]

Does anyone have any suggestions for someone who (like me) is really bothered by this? Does anyone know if someone has done a rewrite of the classes to balance them across 20/36 levels?

I'm kind of working on something like this where I'm taking OD&D, adapting the classes of the RC, running across 12 levels, adapting saves from Iron Heroes and finally adding in a couple of things I like. My manuscript, sans spells, is pretty close to done at 10 hand-written pages. Simple, direct and versatile have been my watchwords as ultimatly this project is for a game for my 7 y.o. son and his friends.

I find a certain alchemy of genius in the original D&D editions (especially OD&D and Classic). They are like an exquisitely balanced meal - some of this, and some of that, with a complementarity where one thing brings out the flavor of another... but each stands on its own so that you can remove or modify something to suit your own taste without destroying the whole.

It's pretty neat when you think that the ruleset spawned such divergent settings as Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Tekumel and Arduin. IIRC, while some of those may have existed as fiction before OD&D, they were the first published settings.