What do you miss about AD&D 1e?

[Angel Tarragon]

I was introduced to AD&D through first edition even though second edition was out at the time, which I had no idea of until I went searching to get my own books. That was back in 1991. What do I miss? I miss the brand new feel. The crisp pages of the books. The thrill of discovery. The want to know the unknown. Man, I'll tell you - sometimes I wish I hadn't bought myself a copy of the DMs Guide and Monster Manual. Don't get me worng, I love exploring new venues and options for my PCs and NPC, but I feel so jaded. That is why I try to keep a campaign world that feels 100% new all the time. I only dole out small secrets at each session, why each NPC has its own twist (whatever it may be) and a 'life' of their own. The campaign history is quite rich and unique, but the players are going to be positively shocked when I run the final adventure in my campaign - which I hope won't be for a while.

 

[Particle_Man]

1) The art. I really loved "A Paladin in Hell". It inspired one of my best characters.

2) Illusionists having a group of spells that no one else had.

3) Druids and Clerics having spells that were more different from each other.

4) Half-Elves having reasons to live (access to multi-class combos that no one else had, for one thing).

5) Rangers having bonuses vs. tons of creatures, rather than a few.

I eagerly await Castles and Crusades.

 

[The Grackle]

Cursed magic items.

In AD&D you didn't just pick up a new sword and give it a few test swings, you made sure never to touch until it was properly identified. Otherwise it might start attacking you or change your gender.

Sure there are some cursed items, but they're remnants of a bygone era. The Deck of Many Things is obviously an unnatural fit in 3rd Edition.

Edit: Oh yeah, and flaming oil...

 

[The Grackle]

And of course....no prestige classes!

What about the Thief-Acrobat from Unearthed Arcana? Or the Bard (if I remember correctly Fighter then Thief then Druid then Bard?)

AD&D had a few anomolous prestige-like classes.

 

[teitan]

I miss not having to have 20+ magic items and treasure actually meaning something. I miss slow level progression. I miss Arcana Unearthed, balanced no, but with good roleplayers why do you need balance? I miss wondering what this new fangled Thac0 thing is and discovering it was a simplification of the To Hit charts from the DMG. I miss quick NPC generation and short stat blocks. The classes had a lot of flavour, I mean the Monk, Druid and Assassin were awesome.

Aside from that who actually used level limits or the stupid dual class character rules?

Jason

 

[Sejs]

What do you miss about AD&D 1e?

Boobs.

 

[eris404]

I am surprised at the flood of memories this thread caused. I am female and I started playing D&D when I was about 11, or about 22 years ago. I ran a game in which my younger sister also played, until one day she got angry with me over something not related to gaming (I really can't remember what) and tore up her character sheet. She never played again and that was the last time I played 1E. I didn't play RPGs again until after I had graduated from high school and I didn't play D&D again until after I had graduated from college. By then 2E was in full swing.

I have to admit I don't get the 1E nostaglia. It isn't gone. It's still there and you can still buy stuff, whether as ebooks or on eBay, some of it for very cheap. If you want to talk about it and play it, there are plenty of other people who do, too, as this thread shows. There are even web sites with homebrew material for 1E if someone wants more.

I don't miss anything about 1E, because I still have all my old books. I can (and do) use the DMG for reference, because there were a lot of great lists of stuff (insanities, poisons, herbs, etc.). Almost everyone I game with has their old books, too (the exceptions being the people who just started playing recently). If my group wanted, we could easily pick them up and play, no problem.

But if I miss anything, it's being able to spend that much time with my sister. She has three kids now and lives 200 miles away. The chances of a pick game with her are very, very slim.

 

[Samothdm]

In any case, the fact that "people" might have said it, does not prevent it from being complete and utter rubbish.

Plenty of people play 1st edition (or, in my case, RC D&D) and have a great time.

My point of "you can't go back" referred to the feeling that many of us had discovering something brand new. D&D isn't "new" to any of us any more. For a lot of us (most of us, I would gather), it's been around almost as long as we've been alive. You can only discover that feeling once. Once the initial feeling of discovery is over, it's over.

New editions will come and go, but you can only discover the game once.

Of course you can still play 1E AD&D or Basic or OD&D or whatever and have a great time. But, will it still feel the same as it did when you first did it 15+ years ago? I'd venture to say "no".

And I still stand by my opinion that while 1E was a great game, there was a lot of stuff in there that made no sense. I just presented my points in a sarcastic manner 'cause... well, I'm lazy and it's easier than actually trying to do it in a serious manner.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Wow. We actually made it to 3 pages in this thread before someone decided to crap all over it.

Oh well, it couldn't last forever.

Although the poster's replies were a bit sarcastic and poked fun at some of the rules of 1st ed., how's that different from the more subtle ways of posters voicing their own opinions of the short-comings of 3rd/3.5, such as feats, PrCs, etc.? Is it a matter of tact?

In my opinion, it's hard for threads like these to stay completely away from discussing the perceived short-comings or problems of a particular edition, even if the original topic of the thread deals with looking at a particular edition in a positive light.

Anyways, I first started playing Basic DnD, near the ending run of 1st edition. I believe that when I was going to switch to Advance, 2nd edition had just come out that year. What I miss is that sense of nostalgia, "newness", etc. I had been yearning for a game like DnD ever since I was young, but had no idea where to start. Luckily I had a classmate who introduced me to the game. Haven't looked back since.

 

[fourthmensch]

I miss being 12.

I miss gathering with my friends every Friday for pizza and then playing D&D until Sunday night, every weekend, without fail, deep in 12-year-old-boy funk, stinking up a dark little upstairs room.

I miss the good old cavalier.

I miss social class, believe it or not. Not exactly an elegant system, but one that seemed to add something to my characters. And don't think that my Middle Upper class cavalier didn't take every opportunity to caste aspersions on the parentage of the party's upper lower class rogue.

I miss the Old Grey Box being the final and only word on the universe of the Forgotten Realms. Not that more information isn't good, or that all the designers haven't done an excellent job with it since then... but it did have a kind of charm and simplicity.

There is absolutely nothing about the 1e rules that I miss in the slightest... but there is something to be said for the time when all of this was new. That is why people use words like "soul" to describe it--it has nothing to do with the system, and everything to do with who we were back in the day.