What details do you miss from older editions?

[Piratecat]

I miss the 1e pummelling/grappling/overbearing rules. But let's face it, who doesn't?

I also miss fireballs the expand to fill the space available, the 2e clerical spheres, and level titles for the classes. Lots of good stuff in the old editions. Lots of good stuff in the newer editions, too.

 

[ph0rk]

If by "dated" you mean that earlier edition art sometimes actually tried to represent what MEDIEVAL amour and weapons looked like, then dated is good! (Okay, Otus's stuff was occasionally pretty wild, to be admitted, but his art had other virtues.)

not if you want to Hook The Kids (TM).

Besides, isn't the realism vs cinematic discussion elsewhere?

I'd argue that the old images (at least in AD&D material) were still a romanticised depiction of actual armaments. The real deal rarely looked 'cool'.

And how does the rather uniform style adopted by current WotC artists suggest that "the fluff of your game can be any way you want"? A VARIETY of different styles would accomplish that task with greater success, IMO.

Imo, it broke the perception that dnd was a classic medieval game only. Yes, the new art is derivative^2, but see above (re: Hook The Kids).

 

[Dark Psion]

The Art, especially the next Larry Elmore print on the cover.

The Settings; Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Birthright. All were very different enviroments, for different moods of play.

The Adventure Modules, Some of them were just fun to read, let alone play.

The Monsterous Compendiums, as above the ecologies of the creatures made them a very fun read and I too prefer the one to a page monsters.

Gary Gygax's Greyhawk and Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms, the 3.5 realms are a bit of a turn off since the realms have been adapted to the rules instead of the other way around and Greyhawk is just MIA.

And I hate to say this, but sometimes, I miss the lack of the internet. Back then there were no errata, variant rangers, or "I got this from a site" arguments.

House rules were the only rules and the DM just had to improvise half the adventure if need be.

 

[MerricB]

One thing I notice is how varied the responses are. I bet that if you put a series of polls up on which of these things you miss and didn't miss, opinion would be very mixed!

"You miss speciality priests? Are you insane?"

Cheers!

 

[Kelleris]

2e psionics. Back then, we could just be honest about psionics being hideously broken, and plan accordingly.

I miss having my 13th-level Conjurer paired with a 5th-level psion in a balanced party... Now in 3.5, the most munchy of my players are all psi- uhm, lovers with exuberance, and I constantly have to keep an eye out for their shenanigans.

Also, the 2e Wizard's Spell Compendium (seriously), and the most ludicrously broken spell ever created, lifeproof. I have memories of a psionicist taking out three umber hulks with his bare hands because of that spell.

 

[MerricB]

2e psionics. Back then, we could just be honest about psionics being hideously broken, and plan accordingly.

I miss 1E psionics more than 2E psionics.

Silly, isn't it.

Cheers!

 

[Kelleris]

Unfortunately, I'm too much of a noob to be familiar with 1e psionics. I've heard it's even worse, though.

 

[MerricB]

Unfortunately, I'm too much of a noob to be familiar with 1e psionics. I've heard it's even worse, though.

It's... interesting.

My 1E character Meliander gained Psionics after he read a Tome of Clear Thought and made the % roll... I think he had detect magic as a psionic ability (which was cool), but if my DM had ever had a psionic creature attack, I would have been toast.

Interestingly, psionic-to-psionic combat took place in Segments instead of Rounds, so 10 turns of psychic combat would happen before your friends could hit the mindflayer once...

Cheers!

 

[schnee]

I miss cool modules like the Tomb of Horrors, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

I miss my Dieties & Demigods with the Cthulhu and Melnibonean mythos... even if Erol Otus was doing some serious drugs and Jeff Dee couldn't draw an anatomically correct midsection to save his life.

I miss fireballs and lightning bolts that could backfire. Added an element of danger and 'omg hold your breath', especially when the DM drew maps on butcher paper rather than a nice clean grid.

Mostly, it's nostalgia for my youth. I wouldn't go back to the confines of the old system for any reason.

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

First off, let me just state that I prefer 3rd to previous editions, severely. Although there are more than a few things I can think of.

-Most importantly, the quantity of the books. The monster manuals from second edition were about the size of bibles. Although part of me likes collecting D&D books, other parts of me hate buying expensive books just to complete my collection of monsters, and having all of the monsters scattered around in various sources. Also look at the content of 1st edition deities and demi-gods vs. 3rd edition. There's no contest.
-Monsters from folklore that are ignored in 3rd for bizarre reasons. Creature Catalogue helps a lot, but I still don't get why Leprechauns, Brownies, and Poltergeists aren't in the Monster Manual
-The TSR logo
-The minimalist look of the 1st edition illustrations. Although I'm a bigger fan of 3rd edition illustrations than most.
-Actual good modules (Although a third edition module invented the lovable Meepo)
-Actual existent modules
-Even though books contained more monsters than they do in 3rd edition, each monster had an ecology and society section. Also, I miss the more Euclidian organization of the monster manuals. 3.5 was a step back (I miss the yellow block stats), although apparently they're reviving the old method from MMIII.
-New editions not coming out every three years and not containing fractions
-Cool settings, like Spelljammer and Al-Quadeem. (I probably misspelled that)
-WOTC, or the absence of, rather.

Yeah, I know, minor things. My list of things I'm glad are gone from earlier editions would be much better