Top Ten Reasons AD&D Is Fun

[Remathilis]

These things are in fact made of awesome, and every one easily adaptable to 1E.

Yeah, and I can play[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0u507abpVM"] Street Fighter on my NES[/ame], but it is still better for the system it was made for.

 

[Lanefan]

Finding the balance can be tough, though. If you completely throw out XP for gp's and just go with monster XP, the party has to kill something on the order of 500 orcs just for everyone to reach second level, which motivates players to hunt down and kill everything they come across (which can be just as problematic as having them look everything they come across).

Plus, greed is fun to punish! If there's XP in gold, that giant ruby eye in the statue becomes a lot more tempting, and the traps and curses that protect it become a lot more fun to set up.

Oh, believe me...they're not a whit less greedy playing it this way. I ran Keep on the Borderlands to start my new campaign and the list of non-magical mundane gear they brought out was staggering! And so were they, until they thought to bring a cart out from town...

Over time, I've tweaked the advancement charts - particularly at mid-high levels - trying to arrange it so a given character will (or should) bump about once every adventure-and-a-half on average at low level and about every 2 adventures at higher levels. Result: the ExP numbers required for a given level are somewhat lower (a lot lower, at high levels) than the 1e PH has, but advancement is still a *lot* slower than the ExP-for-g.p. model would provide. Corollary result: the sweet spot lasts longer.

Lanefan

 

[Wormwood]

1) Gygaxian Prose:

I enjoy reading Gygax, but what I *prefer* is clarity and organization. The AD&D books are sorely lacking in that department.

2) An evolution, not revolution:

Perhaps, but again I find the current version of the game is a direct response to decades of experience and feedback---with a guided goal towards fun and ease of play.

3) Layers of Rules:

With the result that no two tables played the same game-. These days, I find that my groups enjoy being able to play a game as-is, without being forced to modify the system just to get the game we wanted in the first place.

4) Treasure=XP:

Overcoming Challenges=XP can easily accomplish the same result as Treasure=XP (clever players can still be motivated find non-combat solutions to overcoming challenges), while still providing a superior framework for adventuring.

5) Lower hit points:

Interesting point. However, as D&D now provides a large array of interesting combat actions, it only makes sense that combat lasts long enough to actually use them. That said, I'm sure I'm not the only DM who find themselves cutting combats short once the 'attrition point' is reached.

6) Uncertainty:

Seen too many wipes, gimped characters and wasted evenings because of old D&D's 'roll for everything' philosophy.

7) The Simulation-Game Tightrope:

"People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like"

8) Forward Compatibility:

It's reasonably easy to file off the mechanics and use newer elements of D&D with older editions. Fair enough.

9) The Fan Community:

I see no appreciable difference between D&D fan communities.

10) The OGL and OSRIC:

And that's great! But the fact the some people are writing new modules for it hardly makes AD&D *more fun* than other editions.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Finding the balance can be tough, though. If you completely throw out XP for gp's and just go with monster XP, the party has to kill something on the order of 500 orcs just for everyone to reach second level, which motivates players to hunt down and kill everything they come across (which can be just as problematic as having them look everything they come across).

Plus, greed is fun to punish! If there's XP in gold, that giant ruby eye in the statue becomes a lot more tempting, and the traps and curses that protect it become a lot more fun to set up.

Agreed, although when I was first running 1e I also dropped Xp for gold.

RCFG uses XP for GP on the scale of 10 GP = 1 XP, with the caveat that the GP have to be squandered (i.e., not used to build your character up). Have a party, give to charity, refuse to accept the reward -- all are worth XP.


RC