diaglo said:
Original D&D (1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just a poor imitation of the real thing.
So true, so very true... and so balanced too...<cough>...
It was great just having 7 basic classes/races, and the limits of the hit points made higher level adventuring just as fun and dangerous as 'lower' levels. I think the highest time you rolled for hit points was at 9th level, although you kept advancing and getting better THAC0. So basically you were listed as a 9 HD creature, no matter the level.
And there were no skills, except for thieves, as you just did ability checks to see if you could do things. And wizards were powerful, manly men of magical might, and item creation was a dangerous task. Elves could cast in armor and were held back from advancing too far. And you rolled your stats, 3d6. That was it unless you cheated.
Enemies were powerful and unless you were careful you got creamed a lot. Dragons were thoughtful prowlers, dungeons made sense, and there was no 'unconcious' state from 0 to -10; at 0 you died. You rolled for HP at first level too.
Then again wizards were a bit overpowered once they reached 15th-20th level compared to the rest of the PCs. But living past the 5th level was a tough feat for a wizard.
Overall it was tougher. The game was a lot less defined by rules, and because of that you didn't have 'lawyering' in a game as it was much more open to how the DM would rule events. Nowadays you have the continued heroization of the PCs, and although the critters are tougher too, the PCs are harder to kill for doing obscenely stupid things, like charging into the next room simply to take advantage of the current buff spells.