Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
1e and 2e are much more different than is generally acknowledged because the XP system is so different. 2e cleaned up 1e - but if you're playing them relatively purely then 1e has the XP for GP rule meaning that it's a game about exploration, heists, and where combat is a failure mode. 2e's default XP rules are XP for killing and XP for acting like a stereotypical member of your class meaning that it's a game about slaughter and acting like stereotypes.
But if you switched then you at the time probably saw it as an improvement because you had either ditched the old XP rules or you kept them.
It was switched to being an optional rule, as contrasted with 1E and earlier, in which treasure was the core and main source of XP.2E also had the GP = XP rule. It's right there in the DMG. That fewer people chose to use it doesn't make it not exist.
This was part of what some folks nickname the Hickman Revolution, the transition from Gygaxian original dungeoneering to much more story and narrative-focused heroic play, exemplified by Dragonlance and Ravenloft. As Peterson showed in the Elusive Shift, in the 70s D&D had two main cultures of play- wargaming and sci-fi fan non-wargamers, the latter of whom cared more about story and drama and heroism and less about maximizing gold pieces and loot. The style some folks label Trad. But pre-1989 D&D made treasure the core and essential goal of adventuring, which always clashed with a mode of play where your Shining Heroes don't really care about money.
2E made the two main sources of XP 1) defeating monsters (quantified with hard charts) and 2) achieving story goals/completing an adventure (ad hoc, but recommended at no greater points than those available for defeating monsters in that adventure). Thus marking within the rules the ascendency of Trad over Classic (using the terms from that Six Cultures of Play article) as the style supported within official D&D.
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