D&D 1E The indispensible 1e

[Lanefan]

Inspired by (and largely plagiarized from) the similar threads on 4e and 3.x:

NO FLAMING OR TROLLING!

With that out of the way, nobody's going to get everything they want in a compromise, gestalt edition like 5e. Therefore, I'm asking 1e (and-or 0e and 2e) enthusiasts what they feel are the key, essential elements of that edition that ought to be ported to 5e, at least in some form. Why do you pick those elements?

Lan-"I'll list my own ideas in a separate post"-efan

 

[MortalPlague]

I only played a little bit of 1E. But for me, I enjoyed the sense of wonder at everything. Magic was weird and powerful, monsters were potent, and exploring ruins and caves felt truly dangerous.

 

[Serendipity]

For one thing, multiclassing! Being able to start as a fighter/magic-user rather than having to wait til such-and-such level, worry about PrCs and "optimize your build" to minimize the amount of suck you'll acquire every time the rest of the party levels. 1e AD&D characters advance slower but they're not any less able or capable for it.
Mostly though, I think I just like the mix-and-match aspect of it.

To give rather a more complete (but not exhaustive) list:
Illusionists, not always ballanced encounters, system shock and ressurection survival rolls, dangerous magic, hitting name level, resource management, parties of any composition and level, lurker aboves, trappers, rot grubs, the slave pits of the undercity, white plume mountain, crashed starships, the potion miscability table, rules to crossover with boot hill and gamma world in the DMG, running away, spiking doors closed, and I could probably list fifty more if I really set my mind to it. Mostly though, an attitude of not taking ourselves or the game quite as seriously and having fun with it.

 

[tlantl]

Not having to add 10 to every die roll to make them work. Negative armor classes might be inconvenient to the mathematically challenged but we never had to add a buffer to any of our rolls, be they attack, AC, saving throws, or skill checks (the few we actually had at the time).

I also liked the low hit point totals for both the player and monsters. Combat was swift thanks to there being a lower number to reduce before death. It also felt more dangerous even at higher levels, death came without warning to even those with full hit points without having to add dozens of additional bonuses to damage. The attack of an assassin or the thief sneaking up on you was almost certain death. AD&D wasn't for the faint hearted. And of course the dreaded save or die attack. People were really afraid of spiders and scorpions when we played.

I think the multi-classing rules were much better than the 3e method, they also made experience points more meaningful. No one ever told players to just level their characters on a whim. (There might have been a couple but I never heard of it.)

Henchmen were essential as the character gained power. The rules for level advancement made it impossible for whole parties to just level up and go. Other things like item creation, spell research, and healing also took characters out of the game for extended periods of time. The player could just take one of his henchmen and continue to play. Eventually henchmen became full characters that players enjoyed as much as their original characters.

Limited spell selection and restrictions on the number of spells a wizard could know kept the number of truly game breaking spells to a minimum. With the DM controlling which spells clerics and magic users were able to use I never had to worry about the wizard out shining anyone.

There's more but I'm tired of typing.

 

[Lanefan]

To carry forward from 1e to 5e:

* Percentile dice rolls - far more granular than a d20. Use them for:
- Resurrection survival rolls: the risk, however slight, of having death be truly permanent (or at the very least a bloody great pain) is an excellent motivation to not die.
- System shock survival rolls: this was the great balancer to polymorph, that you might not survive the change. I've also found it a very useful mechanic in lots of other situations.

* Cleric-turning-undead chart: need to expand it a bit to allow for all the newer undead creatures, but the idea of "roll a d20 against this chart and see what you've done" still beats all the undead-turning systems since.

* High-risk high-reward magic: scry-buff-teleport loses much of its appeal when there's a risk you'll arrive 10' down in solid rock and immediately die. Fireball stops always being the answer when space is confined and it still wants to fill its alloted volume. And so on...

* Magic items that break, sometimes painfully, when mistreated.

* A sense that all rules are guidelines, and open to interpretation.

* Mechanics, as far as possible, kept behind the DM screen. BAB, magic item lists and prices, saving throws - let the DM worry about that stuff.

* Simplicity of character generation at low level and relative simplicity at high level: "character build" as a mechanical concept did not exist, a character was "built" through what it did in the game and how it was roleplayed in the doing of it.

* Wild magic.

* Reference to real-life pantheons, cultures, etc. I want to play a Thor Cleric, not a Priest of Belar(TM).

* Hirelings, henches, and associate adventurers.

* A design robust enough such that variable party size, and variable levels within the party, doesn't shatter it.

There's more, but that'll do for a start...

Lan-"oh, and donkeyhorses"-efan

 

[HardcoreDandDGirl]

I am totally a 2e girl. I love almost everything about it. I will totally agree with not thac0, and I understand that saves will be different. I really want to go back to weapon specialization, and system shock. I also want to see spells with draw backs (hast ages you a year, and res cost a con pt.).
The biggest part of 2e I want back is magic items, I mean real items that seam weird and alien, and PCs can’t just make or buy them. I want charged items that last only so far (ring of the ram I am looking at you).
I would not mind anti magic fields, and kits, but I won’t hold my breath.

 

[the Jester]

Speed of play.
The possibility of mixed-level parties.
The possibility of any level party fighting a wide range of monster levels.
Random prostitute tables.
Erol Otus (read: Sense of Wonder).
Quick character generation.
A lack of massive numbers inflation.

 

[Shadeydm]

Don't laugh but I would add to the list weapon speed, I felt that it really made the smaller die weapons more attractive to use.

 

[theuglyamerican]

The one thing that really seems worth resurrecting from 1E -- in a module, most likely, rather than core -- was the baseline assumption that you would hire hirelings, some of whom might become henchmen if you treated them nicely, and then when your character was ready to become a playa and settle down, you'd take over the henchman and adventure on with a different character. I loved the sense of continuity that gave, and the sense of living in a world where more than just the PCs were interesting people with their own stories.

 

[WheresMyD20]

The static saving throws. They just work. I wouldn't mind re-categorizing them as Fort/Ref/Will, though.

The 1e saving throws made it relatively easy for high-level characters to save, so save-or-die and other high-powered effects were more viable for high-level spells and monsters.