Keldryn
Adventurer
Deuce Traveler said:I know I'm a minority here, but I prefer the Mentzer sets. Maybe because those were the sets that I played first, and stayed with due to the simplicity (missing ADnD 1st edition and almost missing the 2nd edition). I liked the option for weapon specialization, siege warfare, rules for immortals and artifacts because I felt that I could use these to further the role-playing experience. The siege warfare encouraged me to involve my characters in the politics in nation states, since I eventually would want them to raise or lead armies against enemy countries and become members of the nobility. The other options required great quests, and every character wanted to be a weapon specialist for example. Therefore, most had to track down the greatest teachers around and try to convince those teachers to instruct them. The rules were still so flexible that I felt that I could stat the teachers or siege weapons or nations however I wished. Great fun.
I prefer the Mentzer sets as well -- but probably also for the reason that those were the sets that I started with too. Even after switching over to AD&D 1e, I still kept many elements of the B-X-CM-M rules in the game, as well as the "Known World" game setting.
It just felt more imaginative and exciting than did AD&D, although a big part of that is probably that it was those D&D sets that first introduced me to the game and not AD&D. Plus, the Elmore and Easley artwork in those books defined the look of the game to me, and I thought that the artwork in the AD&D hardcovers and modules, as well as the artwork in the 1981 Basic/Expert books, looked like it was drawn by a grade schooler. I know a lot of people here love the work of Erol Otus, but I always thought it was kind of crappy and ugly -- my vision of what D&D looked like was defined by the artwork (interior and cover) of Elmore, Easley, and Caldwell.
I thought the progression from Basic to Expert to Companion was (and still is) fairly smooth and not overly complicated. It was the Master rules set that started adding the more complicated stuff -- weapon mastery, Wish and other 9th-level spells, siege engines, and such.
1st level Clerics with no spells kind of sucked though.
