D&D General So your thoughts on this guy

[ryu289]

Is he right about AD&D: Just Because AD&D Did Some Stuff Differently Doesn't Make It Better -…

He tries to talk about it and correct someone else's misinterpretations...but honestly:

Really none of the characters are special. All of the combinations have been done. But who cares if some moronic, attention-starved Twitter pretender thinks they are interesting for posting trash art of yet another genderqueer, blue-skinned tiefling warlock?
Why does this bother you to the point where you think the game is inherently better by simply removing some options and needlessly, arbitrarily restricting others? Don't play with those people. Mock them online. Whatever, just play with the people you like.
Or, are you hoping to find a system that prevents this from happening in the first place? That the system will shield you from people that don't even play? Because I'm guessing, were, say, Critical Role to take up AD&D, the inept narcissists would roll up a similarly cliché ensemble of post-modern circus freaks.

It seems like he thinks everyone makes characters for novelty instead of fun.

 

[MichaelSomething]

The man clearly does not understand AD&D. He actually expects the books to explain the game? HAHAHA!

 

[Stormonu]

This just looks like bait for an edition war.

I played AD&D from around '85 (and B/X before that) until about '89, when I switched to 2E.

No edition is perfect, just play the system that gives you and your players joy. That's it.

 

[Azzy]

Sounds like a lot of trash.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Life's too short to deal with every maroon on the internet.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

The guy you quote is clearly a giant tool.

 

[humble minion]

Just looking at your posting history OP, maybe could you perhaps consider doing less of the 'try to relitigate drama by posting incendiary material from other bits of the internet' thing here? You've made something like 20 posts here, and I think you've done this four or five times.

 

[Clint_L]

Step one: report

Step two: ignore

 

[ECMO3]

Maybe it is because I did not see the rest of the discussion, but I don't even understand what he is trying to say.

FWIW I have played A LOT of AD&D 1E and A LOT of 5E and a substantial amount of both 2E and 3E and I don't really understand this paragraph at all.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

AD&D is my favorite edition, but most assuredly ain't perfect. Neither is 5E, especially when you look under the sleek exterior it hasn't but a fraction of the vibrancy that 1E still exudes. <editionrant>1E AD&D is a handmade, work-in-progress compilation of house rules, made by adult hobbyists for sale to other adults in the same hobby. 5E is a gleaming, oily-slick, somewhat hollow, 800# mecha-gorilla perpetrated upon gamers by a soulless, ruthless, politically-correct marketing cartel bent on nothing less than WHOLE-hobby domination and the last dollar in your wallet, adult or child.</editionrant> I started with Holmes Basic but very swiftly moved to 1E over the 3 years that it took for the initial MM/PH/DMG release.

EVERY 5E game I've played has been under DM's who seem to want 5E to be almost anything other than a standard D&D fantasy world. 5E is drowning in options and is choked with players obsessed with customized character "builds" that have to be managed by software (because they sure as hell aren't going to be able to fill out a character sheet by hand), and spend an entire session doing so. If that work is undermined by the characters actual DEATH it's understandable why a wide perception of 5E is that it's on Easy Mode by default. In 1E if I need to replace a dead PC I can create a completely original one in 5 minutes, and for a character sheet I can fill out a piece of notebook paper by pencil AS WE PLAY, and then happily play that PC for 10 years. I've done just that. Only part of that facility is greater familiarity with AD&D as a system - most if it is that AD&D IS actually SIMPLER. Original 3-booklet D&D was maybe 40-50 pages if it were in the same format as is now standard for RPG books. AD&D's three books was about 450 pages - and Gygax was notoriously verbose, to the point of people assuming that even his statements of the obvious are only taken as indicators of secret, hidden, UNwritten rules which only those who have mastered the deciphering of his grammar can know. 5E is nearly 980 pages. I'll stick with 1E, even if I have to include my own 25 pages of house rules and 50 pages of notations just for spells for a game that's about half the rules, and (in MY experience) actually better game play.

But that's ME, and though 1E AD&D is the tiniest fraction of the RPG landscape and 5E the VAST majority, I shall cling to the tiny detail in the background of the landscape to the last.