D&D 1E Seriously contemplating an attempt at a retro AD&D

[deganawida]

Be aware that Unearthed Arcana has some flat out changes to base 1e. Different higher level limits and expanded class options for existing demihumans, and some powerful new demihuman options, Grugach elves for instance with their +2 strength bonus, duergar with their immunities invisibility and growth, svirfneblin with immunities and eventually summoning earth elementals as big ones.

Also which slavers? This one is marked 1e on drivethru but is actually 2e.

A0-A4 Against the Slave Lords looks like the 1e modules collected with their original art and an added intro module. For authentic 1e experience I suggest this or the actual 1e individual modules.

I cannot seem to find a PDF of the late 1e slave lord compilation book with different art.

It was the special of A0-A4

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I'm not sure what Gary did to resolve those contradictory surprise special rules. I do think the Krehmeyer article from Dragon 133 is a good effort to work out the math and reconcile those special circumstances. Because the AD&D rulebooks are silent on the subject.

IIRC the Dragon article was also later anointed by TSR as being the official solution. What Gary himself almost certainly did was what he thought was reasonable at any given moment - if it even came up as a problem. This was an issue that came up mostly because of other people's monster designs that used different dice than the d6 for surprise (d8, d10), and the monk that used percentiles (which although Gygax included in 1E wasn't so much Gygax's own design - like much of the 1E combat rules in general). Gygax - again IIUC - tended to run his own game very loosely, using a surprising amount of DM fiat, and not following many of the complicated and detailed combat rules from 1E. In other words, he ran his game more like original D&D, not 1E.

I mostly agree. You might be shocked at how many folks there are (or at least used to be) in old school D&D communities and the early OSR who say they play AD&D RAW or very nearly so. I suspect that may be part of why DMPrata put in the effort. To disabuse some of those folks of their illusions.

Anyone who claims to play their 1E game strictly btb is most assuredly not. There are just way, way too many bits that REQUIRE an interpretation, a house rule, because they are too complicated, too cumbersome, too out of step with the modern style of play, or just plain contradictory. ADDICT is still 6 pages even after you remove all the citations, and as pointed out, still made some interpretations that not everyone agrees with. If nothing else it makes it quite clear that the 1E combat rules as a whole were definitely not playtested (not well enough anyway, IF they were really tested even to a minimally acceptable degree - which seems outrageously unlikely). The section titled "COMBAT" in the DMG is 23 pages - and people STILL argue the details of it vehemently and repeatedly after nearly 50 years. There is no universal and accepted solution. There can't be.

On the other hand, anyone who simply says they TRY to stick to RAW is going to be as close (or closer) as anyone claiming they truly do. Besides, the philosophy in 1E was never about bullying people to stick to the written rules (as WotC would later tend to do, following the same philosophy they established long before D&D with MtG) - it was about sticking to the rules as presented by your DM. Warnings were even given specifically to DM's to NOT put up with players ever trying to quote rules at you. It's true that part of Gygax's motivation in creating 1E was to provide a single set of rules for use IN TOURNAMENTS, but that's because OD&D was unrestrained in leaving expansion and alteration of the game's rules to the DM. Two OD&D DM's running the same adventure in a tournament were sure to be WILDLY different. 1E, despite it's failings in being itself easy-to-sort out and consistent, did at least provide a more unified and detailed approach to the rules that would be needed in tournament play.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A0-A4 Against the Slave Lords looks like the 1e modules collected with their original art and an added intro module. For authentic 1e experience I suggest this or the actual 1e individual modules.

I have this compilation. It's the one I'd go with, for sure.

 

[dagger]

The best part of running 1e, 2e, or even the various Basic editions? Everything, and I mean everything between all of them is compatible.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The best part of running 1e, 2e, or even the various Basic editions? Everything, and I mean everything between all of them is compatible.

And a lot of the OSR/NSR rulesets, too. I ran all the TSR stuff with Castles & Crusades for a number of years and never had to translate anything ahead of time.

 

[deganawida]

Ordered the premium reprints of the PHB, MM, DMG, UA, and Slavers, as well as the World of Greyhawk PDF (really wish there was a PoD option) on the 9th. Currently awaiting printing and then shipping.

Books arrived today. Which one do y’all recommend reading first?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Books arrived today. Which one do y’all recommend reading first?

PHB if you've never read it, followed by the Monster Manual, which will have plenty of surprises for you, I suspect, since a lot of the canon for how D&D monsters work was codified in 2E. 1E still has a lot more flexibility and a number of weirdos you've never heard of. (Everyone loves to roast EGG for valley elves, but how many people remember the existence of grey elves?)

If the World of Greyhawk you got is the folio, I'd read that next, and then go onto Slavers. If it's the full boxed set, I'd read Slavers first.

 

[deganawida]

PHB if you've never read it, followed by the Monster Manual, which will have plenty of surprises for you, I suspect, since a lot of the canon for how D&D monsters work was codified in 2E. 1E still has a lot more flexibility and a number of weirdos you've never heard of. (Everyone loves to roast EGG for valley elves, but how many people remember the existence of grey elves?)

If the World of Greyhawk you got is the folio, I'd read that next, and then go onto Slavers. If it's the full boxed set, I'd read Slavers first.

Was the boxed set, I believe, so will read that last (plus it’s PDF, which is harder for me to absorb for some reason).

 

[Voadam]

Players Handbook first. It will give you a perspective on player viewpoint and mechanical options.

DMG second. It has a bunch of directly useful stuff for running a game and the game ethos and weird esoteric stuff a bunch of which you will probably not use directly but it will give you flavor vibes. It also has stuff about the player's mechanics that are surprises, stuff a player may not know from just reading the PH descriptions until they find out in game such as certain aspects of spells and player abilities.

Your call on whether to reread the PH then given the DMG hidden lore on aspects of the player mechanics in the PH.

The MM came first before either and is fun on its own, but was useful straight away as an OD&D big monster book. For your purposes it can be read at any time, short descriptions for most monsters with many humanoids getting troop type and weapon equipment breakdowns. Enjoy the Trampier art, marvel at the Balor's powerhouse 8 HD, and consider the implications of the orc's lawful evil alignment.

I would go with UA fourth, it gives a lot of neat expansions and unbalanced crazy options and some decent excerpts from Dragon articles on demihumans and their gods. It is not just expansions but also revisions such as on demi human level limits and allowed class options.

Greyhawk then for the world background followed by Slavers for the modules.

Unless you wanted to dive right in with DMing then I would read Slavers first to see the plot and think about it while skimming the PH and DMG and UA to learn the system basics and try to figure out which UA options to allow or not.

 

[rabindranath72]

Books arrived today. Which one do y’all recommend reading first?

PHB followed by DMG (in parallel with the MM). The DMG is your friend. Repeat: the DMG is your friend. For no other reason that the way the game is structured, there's very little, rules-wise, that's player-facing; the PHB won't tell you the rules for combat, for example.