Snarf, I gotta ask you something since you seem to know your stuff far better than I ever could. Were all the changes to the fundamental math in AD&D of the game also a part of the regular editing process? The XP tables are far more demanding (especially after name levels), the bonuses progress differently, Clerics get spells at 1st level and so on... I know some stuff is actually basically identical between OD&D and AD&D (Druid's XP tables are surprisingly similar, for instance), but other things are changed quite considerably to the degree that I don't know if a 3rd level OD&D/Basic Fighter and a 3rd-level AD&D Fighter would be on the same power level. Would this be akin to the buffs some classes are probably going to get in OneD&D?
So, I'd answer this in two parts.
In a lot of way, I always think it's best to think of OD&D not as a complete gaming set, but more of a toolkit that let you create a game, and one that was always evolving. Playing it with just the LBBs (the original boxed set) is nearly impossible. In a certain way, there was no "single" OD&D, but rather a moving target of rules added through the supplements, 3PP, and Strategic Review / Dragon that combined with home campaigns to form OD&D. When people refer to OD&D today, they are usually talking about a version of it similar to what Holmes presented in Basic.
In that sense, it was evolving over time- so, for example, the LBB classes all had the same hit points and all weapons did the same damage. It wasn't until the first supplement that classes received different hit points and different weapons would do different (variable) damage.
Grognard interjection- And it's all been downhill since variable weapon damage was introduced!!!!
Anyway, from that perspective, AD&D can be thought of not as "changes to the fundamental math" but simply Gygax wanting to get everything together and codify it. Some things were changed a little, but it mostly stayed the same. Again, it was about codification. At the time, despite his hobbyist roots, he had a strong commercial interest in making D&D a single thing.
As to the second part ... I don't necessarily think that this is the same as OneD&D.
But .... I do think that WoTC might be interested in standardization (aka, codification) of certain aspects of the game to make it even more VTT friendly.
Went better than Greenest....
