Poll: 1E or 2E?

[Particle_Man]

Well my nostalgia-meter would force me to pick 1e over 2e of the two, but you are in a different place from me. The Golden Age of Roleplaying is 12, and all that. Heck, I would still love to try a high level 1st ed game where I play a dual-classed 13th Assassin/14th Illusionist. Never got to play that, and it gnaws at me occasionally, deep inside. Someday...

Right now I am playing 4e *and* Castles and Crusades (go 1 hp Ranger!), so I get my retro fix and my shiny new car!

 

[Korgoth]

Neither 1E or 2E was at all playable; too much arbitrary rubbish in both. If I *HAD* to go back to a 70ies or 80ies game system I'd probably go to Runequest and very heavily house rule it; I'd more likely make a system of my own cobbling together bits from Runequest, Rolemaster and D&D.

Love or hate new editions game mechanics have come a long way in 30 years.

What unmitigated B.S. 1E and 2E weren't playable? Then how did I play them for all those years? How do people still play them?

"Game mechanics have come a long way in the last 30 years." Yeah, they used to be fun.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Neither 1E or 2E was at all playable; too much arbitrary rubbish in both. If I *HAD* to go back to a 70ies or 80ies game system I'd probably go to Runequest and very heavily house rule it; I'd more likely make a system of my own cobbling together bits from Runequest, Rolemaster and D&D.

Love or hate new editions game mechanics have come a long way in 30 years.

This is awesomely out-there Bob. We played 2E for 10 years, and played plenty of games with "more modern" mechanics than it at the same time, and we never had any particular problem with it, so "at all playable"? Uhhhh, it actually was very playable.

We had more of problem with 3E's playbility than 2E, frankly, given that things like the difficulty of designing monsters according to the system genuinely impaired my ability to write adventures, that 3E's obsession with AoOs forced us to think a lot harder and more boringly in combat, and that 3E's PrCs, LAs and multiclassing in general allowed "clearly within the rules" munchkinism on what I would say was a literally unprecedented level for D&D as well as forcing people to pre-plan their characters in a way 2E never had.

So the idea that, in RPGs, "progress" is always an improvement, I'm afraid that's wrong. 3E had a lot of things to offer, but it sure wasn't a straight "gameplay upgrade" from 2E. Nor is 4E a straight "gameplay upgrade" from 3E. It fixes many problems, and introduces a lot of issues and wrinkles of it's own. It's very playable, but then, D&D/AD&D always was.

You need to clearly separate the ideas of having "neat and clean" rules, which thrill some people, and being "playable", because they're quite distinct things. SLA Industries' rules are a lot cleaner and neater than 2E AD&D's, yet I don't think many people would say SLA Industries was "more playable". Quite the contrary.

 

[Korgoth]

Thanks for putting that so well, RE. I was just about to go off my leash.

 

[Stoat]

Buy the 2E player's handbook and use it for character creation, combat and magic. Buy the 1E DMG and use it for everything else.

I started playing in 1989 and mixed 1E, 2E and BECMI pretty freely for 10 years. For the most part, the mechanics are interchangeable.

Do stay away from later 2E splatbooks and supplements. They got weird and broken pretty quick.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I am not a fan of either game. Both were great back then, but improvements have been made.

 

[RFisher]

Which edition for inspiration is definitely 1E.

Precisely. I choose to play B/X. If given a choice between 1e and 2e, I’d be tempted to go 2e only because by simply saying “without optional rules”, I get something mechanically not too far from B/X.

But no matter which edition I’m playing, it’s the oAD&D books that provide me the most inspiration and bits to steal.

 

[Tharkun]

I picked 2nd edition because I started playing that one. No, THACO is NOT difficult it's just basic math.

I've played every edition (IIRC) of D&D other than the white boxed set. Each edition has something to add and something to fix. Some just plain aren't worth the paper they're printed on *cough* *4th edition* *cough* .

 

[diaglo]

since you asked about going old school. i'd run OD&D(1974). which i am doing this sunday.

but of the two choices in the poll. i'd go with 1edADnD (1977 MM,78 PHB,79 DMG ,80 DDG)

 

[Particle_Man]

Some just plain aren't worth the paper they're printed on *cough* *4th edition* *cough* .

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=230454

How come one staff member makes a sticky note saying "no edition wars for a month" and another staff member fires a passive-aggressive shot in an edition war? Are we meant to have a moratorium on edition wars for a month or not?