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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5039506" data-attributes="member: 80487">The core material in AD&D1 was from D&D. That was a lot less radical than designing whole new games for 3e and 4e!Play of D&D thus informed the revision that was AD&D. I don't know to what extent PHB and DMG material got tested in tournaments (or elsewhere) prior to publication, or what (if anything) player feedback on the preview combat tables published in magazines had to do with final developments.I am sure that too few fresh eyes examined the typeset books before full production, though. The organization (or lack thereof) of the DMG, combined with its sheer volume, made it difficult to digest enough quickly to catch errors and inconsistencies. As well, the amount of clarification and elaboration -- by comparison with which, the old game seemed unfinished -- made such a profound immediate impression that it was hard to find fault.There's a telling difference between game cultures in the responses, I think. D&Ders in 1979 were well accustomed to filling in gaps on their own, and to changing or ignoring whatever baffled, or otherwise did not suit, them. They were already playing the D&D game -- so the AD&D manuals were less Canon than Commentary. Where AD&D presented problems was chiefly in new material; one could (and might be predisposed to) plug in old material, or ignore what had not even been there to ignore before.I wonder about the subsequent influence of developments in computers, at least on different generations of gamers. From Nintendo's rejuvenation of the console video game field to the present, both that and the more general personal computer field have clearly had had direct influence -- in many ways -- far wider than that of D&D (or perhaps any non-digital game, for that matter).The relationships are a bit different even in that field than in the heyday of the Atari 5200 and Commodore 64. Meanwhile, the tabletop historical wargames that informed so many D&D players in the 1970s (especially the hex-and-counter variety) have become largely obscure.</blockquote>

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