Poll: 1E or 2E?

[Lanefan]

If anyone ever gets such a yen, come to a North Carolina Gameday. I've been running 1E Events for those on and off for about 3 years now.

It's the "North Carolina" part that gets in the way of that...nothing against North Carolina itself, but it's just a bit far away...

As for the original question: I'll just keep doing what I'm already doing, which is running 1e with some of the odd stuff chopped out and bits of 2e and 3e (and soon 4e, most likely) and other things tacked on.

2e on its own never did it for me. If I had to run one or the other as written, it'd be 1e.

Lanefan

 

[Orius]

For that reason, I'll now add a "sub-question" to the thread: How do people feel about the Rules Cyclopedia? I have it but have never read it. Is that a good option to consider?

Rules Cyclopedia is pretty good, but it's the Basic D&D rules, and not AD&D. So you're looking at stuff like only 3 alignments and no seperate races and classes. However, I believe it does have rules for converting to and from AD&D. Otherwise, the pre-3e stuff is mostly very similar and it's easy to mix the different games together.

 

[jdrakeh]

After some more thought, if I had to choose between AD&D 1e and AD&D 2e, I'd use the revised PHB and DMG from AD&D 2e (black covers) with the Fiend Folio and Monster Manuals of AD&D 1e.

 

[Gladius Legis]

2e with 1e classes (UA included), which are very easy to plug in.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

I gotta go with 1E AD&D (seeing as how OD&D aint on the list), mainly because that's what I played/ran for over 20 years.

 

[RFisher]

I did choose classic D&D. Specifically, the 1981 Basic and Expert rules.

If I had to run a version of AD&D...hmm...

I think I could stand running core 2e without the optional rules. (That means only the main four classes, no NWPs, etc.) Well, I might allow one or two of the optional classes. I'd be tempted to use the optional rule for demihumans needed more XP in place of a level cap.

If I wanted to go further, I might use the ability score adjustments from classic D&D, the 1e druid and illusionist.

But classic B/X D&D is good enough for me.

 

[rounser]

1E does the best adventures.
2E does the best campaign settings.
3E does the best character creation.
4E does the best combat rules.

I'm hoping 5E will do the best "D&D exploration", because apart from combat (aka killing things and taking their stuff), I think exploration is what D&D's bread and butter is: Finding new places and monsters to kill and take their stuff, whilst avoiding traps and foiling puzzles...all the while mapping and discovering the world.

You could just say, "that's the DM's job", but there are innumerable ways that the game could make the DM's job much, much easier in this respect, I believe. A return something vaguely like the infamous "wandering prostitute"* tables of the 1E DMG, perhaps, but completely overhauled into something actually useful to running a game on the fly.

*: I don't mean that actual table, that's just a memory jog because people tend to remember that one for some reason.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Definitely 1E. It was my favorite version of D&D to date. Sure the rules might not be as polished as later editions, but the fluff rocked. It had a sense of depth to it not matched by any of the later editions. And I loved Gygax's prose style.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I'm hoping 5E will do the best "D&D exploration", because apart from combat (aka killing things and taking their stuff), I think exploration is what D&D's bread and butter is: Finding new places and monsters to kill and take their stuff, whilst avoiding traps and foiling puzzles...all the while mapping and discovering the world.

QFT

Exploration has always been my favorite part of the game. Anything that can improve on it would be very welcome.

 

[Cat Moon]

2nd Edition. I grew up on gaming with the release of the 2nd Edition PHB.