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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Type2demon" data-source="post: 1747161" data-attributes="member: 23759">Little white box with 3 small brown books....hmmm this one really showed the Wargammer background. lots of tables for everything and a very sketchy group of rules. Yet still, no one had seen anything like it before...It had a very revolutionary feel to it. It was a huge transition from the board games that most people played at the time.Very open ended feel with lots of room for individual interpretation of the rules. It seems to have had more incentive to role play and less "special" powers to encourage Min-Maxers.1E had a very Robert E. Howard/ Conan feel to it.This is the Edition that I grew up on. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for it because it kept me and my friends out of trouble through high school. The feel for 1e was not set just by the core 3 books, but heavily influenced by Dragon magazine and Judges Guild Material. 1E was dominated by the Greyhawk setting and the game was in a lot of struggle to identify itself. Cumbersome rules were circumvented by thousands of different house rules. The argument of the day was also realism vs playability. The word Monty Haul was coined to descibe a DM who practically gave away treasure and magic at every turn. 1e players often felt like rebels due to a social trend for religious fanatics who posed as experts on cult activities accused role playing gamers of being involved in Satanic cult activities, witchcraft or being brainwashed into commiting suicide and other such dribble. Many authorities took this seriously at the time (1981 - 1984) and D&D books were banned from some schools. It was not unheard of to hear of a kid who had his books burned by his parents to protect him from Satan.Once the televangelist craze fell apart, most of this tappered off.The feel of AD&D changed midway through its life due to changes in TSR's structure. 1.5e (unofficial title) started about when Unearthed Arcana was released... Gygax was gearing up for 2E. But when he had a change in his personal life and his Ex-wife got TSR in the divorce things took a nose dive.Gygax no longer had influence on the remainder of 2e... other stuff such as Complete Dungeoneers handbook. Many people complained about physical intergrity of books printed after MM1 (the first 3 AD&D books were printed by Random House and had bindings made to last a lifetime.... later books are already falling apart).The feel of AD&D 1e changed from one of wonder and exploration at the first half of its life to one of dscord and lack of focus. House rules were used more than official rules then.When 2e staggered to life it had so many errors that the PH and DMG were reissued in a revised edition about 1 year later. This was a time of corprate greed and people started calling TSR "T$R". This was due to huge number of "Complete ____ Handbooks" and other scattered publications that were issued to cover items that were previously contained in the core books in 1e. There was a very crappy MM that was issued as a ring binder notebook with updates for new monsters that could be purchased $$. T$R also took a very unfriendly stance against the internet community and tried to strong arm anyone who had a D&D related site and tried to force a copyright on anything from Dwarves to Drow. This pissed a lot of people off and led to a lot of piracy of T$R products out of spite.   I spent time playing Gamma World 4e, Mega Traveller and Shadowrun during this time.2e was heaven for munchkins and min-maxers.3e feels more like an episode of Xena, Warrior Princess, less serious than earlier editions but more streamlined.I have a love-hate relationship with 3e. I love that Wizards put the game back on track, but hate that it now feels like MAGIC the role playing game. Feats and skills work just the way different MAGIC cards boost other cards. I love that the old THAC0 tables were scrapped for the D20 combat system. I hate the fact that it is almost impossible to play without miniatures.I think that 3e despite its failings, is what 2e should have been.</blockquote>

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