TSR Why would anyone WANT to play 1e?

[Mannahnin]

It could equally be that they didn't think real-world infectious diseases had enough (or the right) resonance for many western audiences in the early 00s. Or the simple 'D&D isn't set in the real world' mindset that made them remove Lucerne hammers and include double-bladed swords, etc.

Regardless, while I'm dubious of any grand meaning to the disease charts (any more than whether ST:ToS has Spock suffering from space-measles instead of leukemia or diphtheria), I think it is a reasonable premise -- and significantly more persuasive than a notion that everyone has to read a specific select list of supporting fiction or some other claim. That said, if Maliszewski actually used the term "decadent," I'm going to roll my eyes a little, because, good lord, can't we just say we prefer X over Y without having to imply that Y is somehow indulgent, inferior, condescending, worthy of condescension, or reflecting a state of moral or cultural decline?

If it's any consolation, JMal didn't use that word in the first article of his I found on the topic. I don't know if he used it elsewhere.

I could imagine him using it, though I imagine it'd be at least a bit ironic. He has tended to take a very nostalgic, and sometimes elegiac, tone.

 

[Clint_L]

Okay, why should you play 1e? Well, because it's the OG! Or at least the closest version of the game to the OG that is actually playable by itself. And don't wrorry about all the tables and confusing rules, because nobody played it entirely as written back in the day, including Gary Gygax, so you are expected to house rule and make it your own. We did away with all the species and multi-classing restrictions, radically simplified the initiative system (you'll see) and used new rules from Dragon magazine like they were going out of style. The art is totally awesome, in a sometimes literally amateur way, and often totally NSFW (my first edition Deities and Demigods was a revelation). And Gygax may have the most ponderous writing style you are ever likely to find, but it is uniquely him and I love it.

Edit: however, I will argue until the cows come home that it was nowhere near as deadly as a lot of folks make it out to be these days. I mean, it was in theory, but in practice you went everywhere with a pile of sacrificial henchmen, which is why most of us had main characters that we played for years.