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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flying Toaster" data-source="post: 9738711" data-attributes="member: 7052563">Some reasons to not play 1E:Ability Score AnarchyThe attribute system was an absolute mess.  EGG actually recommended four generous methods to roll up characters, which were necessary because bonuses were only available for very high scores.  This created a perverse incentive to get 18% STR for all martials and 18 INT for all mages no matter what (wouldn’t want to be the dullard who can’t learn Fireball or Lightning Bolt!).  If your thief had 17 or 18 CON you got +3 or +4 HP, right?  Silly rogue, hit points are for fighters!  Non-warriors were capped at +2 because reasons.  There was no standardization of ability score effects, so you always needed to check the PHB in case you remembered them wrong.  If I ever run an old style game I would use the nice smooth ability curve of B/X, with all abilities working the same way, and bonuses and minuses capped at +/-3.  Decent bonuses were much more available in B/X, which relieved the pressure to get super high scores.Class ChaosSeveral 1E classes were almost untenable if the DM interpreted the rules too harshly.  Rangers and paladins had weird behavior restrictions which could get you busted down to fighter if you broke the rules even once, without even a chance for a dramatic redemption quest.  The UA barbarian and cavalier had superpowers that undercut the other martials (especially EGG’s precious fighter) and were “balanced” by infuriating behavior rules.  Barbarians were not allowed to associate with mages and were supposed to destroy magic items whenever possible (!), and cavaliers had a Lawful Suicidal code of chivalry that required them to scorn peasants and pick fights they could not win.  Clerics and druids had weird armor and weapon restrictions, and no way to theme their abilities to match in-game religions.  Mages depended not only on finding decent spells, but on rolling well on INT checks to see if they could even learn them.  Illusionists had to contend with powerful monsters that were often completely immune to illusion magic.  If an arcane caster lost their spellbook(s) they would probably have to retire from play because replacement was just too costly.  Thieves had very poor chances to succeed at their class abilities, and some DMs treated all failures as catastrophic.Demi-Human Level Limits & Class RestrictionsEGG claimed that these were necessary for game balance, but at low to mid levels demi-humans were just better than humans until they hit a wall and became worse, so not balanced at any level.  The real reason was in fact an unsuccessful attempt to strongarm players into playing humans, EGG’s favorite.Level Drain LunacyWastes your time in the game AND in real life!  Also not thematic at all.  People have homebrewed whole tables full of much better effects that are scary but not rage-inducing.Weapon WackinessIf your class allowed long swords, any other choice of weapon was a mistake because so many magic swords were long swords.  Swords in general did much more damage to Large size creatures, while other weapons generally did less.  So many obscure French polearms.  Crossbows and slings should have done more damage.</blockquote>

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