TSR Why would anyone WANT to play 1e?

[Voadam]

I figure it falls victim to the general ghoulishness of gamifying a real disease that real people suffer and die from - like malaria which infects over 200 million and kills about 600,000 people a year. I think there are places that can be a bit touchy to tread on.

I don't think that was quite it, I think for D&D they just wanted it to be more fantasical. They included a bunch of real world diseases in d20 Modern right in the core book and in the d20 Modern SRD so it was there to be used in gaming and it was easy to add into D&D if you wanted.

 

[Pamphylian]

It was Anthony Huso's blog (and modules) that got me interested in AD&D - I had sort of ignored 1e, coming from a background of 5e and some OSR B/X variants, envisioning it as kind of clunky and arcane. Huso seems to play a rather (but not entirely) RAW version, and makes a lot of the arcana seem quite appealing. From this post:

AD&D was not designed to be a linear story and certainly not a short story. AD&D is designed to account for years, decades, even centuries of game time. The characters are meant to come and go. Some will die young. Others will rise to unbelievable heights. Some will grow old and die. Some will have children who take up the old man's sword.

It is not just the combat and the systems that are different about 1st Ed gaming. It is the approach. This is tactical survival. Win some, lose some. Characters come and go.

Begin small. Begin humble. Characters will achieve greatness over time, allowing you (as DM) to create more of the world between games. Instead of reading my blog, or someone else's blog, read the Dungeon Master's Guide. Go to the source. Devour it. Relish it. It is ungainly. But it is a masterwork.

• Begin on Page 7 of the DMG at the Preface.
• Ignore the claim of the Introduction that this book is simple and straightforward. That is a lie.
• Skip ahead to page 28 and look at the hirelings on offer. Wait what? I can hire an alchemist? A spy? The list is long and should help you understand the scope this game is attempting to simulate. This game is not about a band of heroic characters. It is about an entire world that, through player choice and creativity can be interacted with to bring about stunning events and outcomes. Outcomes that you will not plan ahead of time, but discover through play.
• Read on page 38 about Time In The Campaign. It will help you understand why it is important and once again underscore the scope of this system.
• Now skip to page 86 and read about The Campaign. Setting Things In Motion. Climate and Ecology.
• Move on to page 90 and read about Economics. Muse over Monster Populations and Placement. Read Placement of Monetary Treasure. Placement of Magic Items. Read Territory Development by Player Characters on page 93.
• Look at the sample dungeon on page 94 thru 96.
• Read The First Dungeon Adventure on page 96.
• The concept of a Lead Character is somewhat outdated but read the adventure that unfolds on pages 97 thru 100. By doing so you will come to understand that even a spider is a terror in AD&D and the adventure is perilous, tense, and (despite being a ton of fun) serious business.
• Magical Research is covered in DMG page 114 but I have expounded on this concept here at the Blue Bard.
• Take time to actually read and digest the magical items found in the Dungeon Master's Guide (pages 125 thru 169). You will come to learn a great deal about mechanics, about how very little comes for free, about how there are almost always caveats and trade-offs. Why? Because if you have a wand that is 100% spectacular, what's the point of finding another wand? Discovery, exploration, hunger, mystery and threats. These are central to the ongoing game. This sword or that sword should be a question Players ask themselves and perhaps the best answer you can hope for them to reach is, "Well, it depends..."

The scope of the game and its subsystems and the balance of high risk and high reward are hard not to be enchanted by. If you look up a magic item in the 5e DMG and put it next to it's counterpart in the 1e DMG, the comparison is rarely flattering to the 5e version, especially in the realms of flavor and impact. Take the Staff of Withering: 5e's staff does an extra 2d10 necrotic damage and gives an hour Disadvantage on STR/CON saves. Ho hum. AD&D's ages the target 10 years and causes a random limb to shrivel and become useless. I know which one speaks to my heart. I know which one would give my players feelings of power or of terror, depending on who was wielding it. And reading through the AD&D DMG and Monster Manual, there are hundreds of little things like this, that cumulatively say this a game with stakes, consequence, flavor, and the guidance to support a world of fractal detail.