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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 5156827" data-attributes="member: 3586">No idea. That there was a rules editor is known: that person edited out the rule in the PHB that the first 10' of falling was 1d6 damage, the second 10' was 2d6, etc. So, a 20' fall was 3d6 damage and a 30' fall was 6d6 damage, etc. This led to an inconsistency with Unearthed Arcana and the thief-acrobat...It's probably worth noting that for the AD&D project, Gary was working much more as a developer than a designer. The bulk of the design work was in original D&D + supplements + magazine articles; his role was putting it all together into a coherent system. Unfortunately, he worked on the books one at a time, and the system was in flux the entire time: no AC 10 in the Monster Manual, the monk having a thief's to-hit chances in the PHB and then a cleric's in the DMG...Of course, Gary's judgement as a developer wasn't the best: he'd include rules (such as the weapon vs armour rules) because his friends wanted them, not because they added anything to the game.These days, when I look at the 1e DMG, I see a rushed product. I see something that needed more attention before it was released - and someone who could stand up to Gary and say "these initiative rules make no sense" (and realise that they didn't). The DMG shows too many signs of "let's gather all the bits and pieces from Chainmail, OD&D and Supplements and edit them together" rather than the redesign the game deserved.The game got that when Tom Moldvay and David "Zeb" Cook did their edition of the Basic and Expert game: finally, an elegant version of D&D with the tortured mechanics stripped out and replaced by something that worked. David Cook got the same chance to do the same thing to AD&D when 2nd edition came along, and he did so: the resulting set of rules is far more clear and elegant than AD&D.Unfortunately - and in my opinion - the clarification of the rules came at the expense of some quirkiness that we would miss. Yes, the division of the Wizard spells into schools is elegant, and allows a lot of easy specialists to be made, but you lost the fascination of the original Illusionist class. Likewise with the Druid.Cheers!</blockquote>

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