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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8253739" data-attributes="member: 82106">Right, I certainly played a lot during the transition period. At that time we saw the Monster Manual as simply a deluxe encyclopedia of cleaned up monster descriptions replacing the horrible table-based format (with multiple addenda) of the original rules (and IIRC Holmes had also a similar format, though he might have cribbed from Gary). The 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' text that was on the cover didn't really mean anything to us, it was just an 'advanced' book (IE better than the old books). The Player's Handbook made it a lot more clear that AD&D was a kind of 'new version' of D&D, but we simply took it at face value as a canonicalization of rules that already existed. 1e really is NOT that different from classic D&D in rules structure. Especially if you don't have the DMG! So it was certainly true that we just (as far as I can remember) continued to roll 3d6 in order, or do whatever we were already doing. Honestly, I never saw a group that consistently used anything but Method 1 either. Even before the DMG this method had already been floating around. We may even have used it ourselves, although I seem to recall that we just rolled 4d6d1 IN ORDER, and the DMG method where you got to arrange the numbers was kind of a revelation because it meant you got to PICK YOUR CHARACTER CLASS whereas before you pretty much got what you rolled (IE high DEX, you're a thief, maybe a fighter, high WIS your a cleric, etc.). Sometimes you'd get stuck picking a non-optimal class because "that's what we need today", but with choosing the order of stats, that was the biggy, because now you put the high number in STR or CON and even if your numbers were kind of crappy, at least you probably had SOME sort of bonus someplace, or could pick a favorite race, or something.The DMG really did revolutionize play a bunch. Mostly it doesn't do anything radically new, but the combat system was MUCH better explained (it is still cryptic, but the old rules were utterly obtuse). Also the whole structure of how a campaign was imagined to be played was presented, even if most of us ignored a lot of it.</blockquote>

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