AD&D

[Gleipnir]

I just bought the reprint of AD&D first edition and I was wondering if anybody could tell me how it plays. Do you think I could set a up a group in this day and age to play this very interesting system? Or should I rather try out second edition?

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Why not D&D 5?

[Gleipnir]

Why not D&D 5?

Is it out? Is it good? Haven't checked it out.

But the classic AD&D books have got a certain feel to them. They actually seem arcane and mysterious.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

Why not D&D 5?

Is it out? Is it good? 

 

 

It's out, and it's the best official D&D edition so far. I think I still prefer Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dungeon Crawl Classics and Hackmaster, though.

[Bryy]

 

 

Why not D&D 5?

Is it out? Is it good? 

 

 

It's out, and it's the best official D&D edition so far. I think I still prefer Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dungeon Crawl Classics and Hackmaster, though.

 

I honestly didn't know D&D 5 was even on the table. Then this morning, it's out.

 

How is it?

 

4 was trite.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

How is it?

 

 

Retro in all the good ways. Not without kinks, though. There's a free basic ruleset you guys can download and see for yourselves.

[Tsuga C]

I just bought the reprint of AD&D first edition and I was wondering if anybody could tell me how it plays. Do you think I could set a up a group in this day and age to play this very interesting system? Or should I rather try out second edition?

AD&D and 2nd Ed. both suffer from a lack of feats/skills with which players may customize their characters and this, I suspect, may be a bit off-putting for players used to more flexibility. I started with the Basic boxed set (Keep on the Borderlands, anyone?) and quickly moved on to AD&D. It was grand fun back in the day, but I wouldn't want to go back to it for an extended campaign.

 

I must say that I rather prefer the less videogamish feel of AD&D over the modern incarnations, however.

[Nonek]

First edition is eminently playable, simple and fun. Second edition is basically a gathering of all the various optional rules that were added to AD&D from supplemental books like Unearthed Arcana and the Complete Dungeoneers Survival guide. The two are interchangable really, and if you play one then the other is not such a stretch.

 

There are some very nice adventures and settings for both editions, over time you will grow aware of more and more of flaws in the system, but as a beginners entry point there's very little that can match the sheer fun and dynamism of first edition.

 

However that said once i've finished my current Rogue Trader campaign i'm thinking of trying out fifth edition, see how it's evolved.

 

Addendum: Personally my tip for a good setting would be Greyhawk City in Gygax' Flannaess, the sourcebook is excellent and the city really does spring off the page with possibility and vitality.

[nikolokolus]

I cut my RP teeth back in junior high with the AD&D 1st ed. rules, so it will always hold a special place in my heart, but looking at the rules, now it's not a ruleset I could recommend to somebody wanting to play it "as-written." It's totally playable, but what I realized much later on is that we didn't actually play it by the book; in practice we actually played B/X with the AD&D monsters and classes bolted on.

 

If you want AD&D "feels" with a much better organized ruleset, I can't say enough good things about Swords & Wizardry Complete from Frog God Games. The full-art PDF is completely free from their website, so you can take a look at that and play from it without having to splurge for a hardback (their hardbacks are awesome quality FWIW).

 

All that said, I've been utterly enjoying Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG for about a year now and it's got all of the D&D I need in it, so I'd recommend that too.

[Monte Carlo]

1st Ed AD&D came out of the mess of home-brewed OD&D that clashed at cons.

 

It's brilliant and frustrating at the same time, and Gary Gygax's prose sort of thunders through it, undermining the Rule Zero ethos that underpins D&D as a whole.

 

My advice - use 1st Ed as a template. Everyone else I knew from those days did. Rule Zero what you don't like, write down your house rules and stick to them. For example, I remember playing in a completely alignment-free campaign. In another we jettisoned the race / level restrictions.

 

But as a simple, elegant, back-to-the-dungeon system it's great. All the new-old-skool clones are really facsimiles of the 1st Ed game.

 

Eventually I moved onto hardcore Gloranthan RuneQuest as I liked the bronze age vibe and tactical combat. But 1E AD&D will always be my first hot girlfriend of games, the one you always remember fondly.

[Keyrock]

I grew up on AD&D 2nd Ed., which is basically 1st ed. with much of the optional stuff thrown in.  I like the system a lot but it does have its drawbacks, the biggest of which is that character classes are rather rigid and narrow.  There's a very specific optimal build for each class and any other build will almost always be at a good bit of disadvantage.

Edited August 21, 2014 by Keyrock

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I was involved and active within the lengthy playtest of D&D 5. I'd have to say, it's a great edition. It has the flavor of 1st & 2nd, with a sufficient freedom of customization and logical consistency from 3rd edition. It plays a great deal faster than 3rd edition too. While it's not quite perfect, it's an excellent game and any imperfections can easily be homebrewed out/in. Highly recommended.

 

Is it better than the competition though? Numenera has one of the easiest, quick, and enjoyable systems I've ever seen. Fate is still brilliant, and Pathfinder is still the best version of 3rd edition, albiet very crunchy and slow as compared to Numenera, Fate, and D&D 5th. Overall, I would say that D&D 5th is probably a mid-point between each of those games in terms of speed, ease, and flavor. From a table-top perspective though, I think it's overall probably the best edition of D&D yet.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Is it better than the competition though? Numenera has one of the easiest, quick, and enjoyable systems I've ever seen. Fate is still brilliant, and Pathfinder is still the best version of 3rd edition, albiet very crunchy and slow as compared to Numenera, Fate, and D&D 5th. Overall, I would say that D&D 5th is probably a mid-point between each of those games in terms of speed, ease, and flavor. From a table-top perspective though, I think it's overall probably the best edition of D&D yet.

 

I'd personally rank it above both Pathfinder and Numenera (Monte Cook's horrible caster-fetishism has a strong negative impact on class balance, which is a pet peeve of mine), even though the latter's core system is way more elegant. As for Fate, apples and oranges, really.

[PrimeJunta]

AD&D? Mechanically it's ghastly. A collection of unrelated systems flying in loose formation, with incredibly frustrating and restricting kinks, gargantuan exploits, and entirely arbitrary limitations put in to try to keep them even a little under control. You need to do a lot of counterintuitive arithmetic in your head, class progression is almost completely on-rails, and it's hugely lacking in resolution mechanics for everything other than combat, which is a clunky, wonky, slow, unbalanced mess.

 

Content-wise it is brilliant, wonderful, huge; like stepping through a portal into an alternate universe where you'll find everything from realms where gods stride with mortals, terrifyingly powerful magicians have reduced an entire world to dust and bones and still struggle over the remains, mysterious lands where genies rule the deserts, sambouks ply the azure seas, and clerics raise armies under the banners of their respective ethoi.

 

Source: 20-odd years of DM'ing the stuff and loving every minute of it. Still wouldn't go back though.

[Erez]

I love AD&D it was much easier for me to relate to the AD&D rules in comparison to the more advance versions which came afterwards.

I could imagine how a character would look and feel like just by reading into their stats and that's something I cannot due with more modern D&D versions.

[nikolokolus]

I love AD&D it was much easier for me to relate to the AD&D rules in comparison to the more advance versions which came afterwards.

I could imagine how a character would look and feel like just by reading into their stats and that's something I cannot due with more modern D&D versions.

 

I broke down and bought the fifth edition just yesterday. After a quick read-through and making a couple of characters, I think it's a lot closer to that AD&D aesthetic than I thought it could get. Technically it's a lot more like AD&D 2nd ed. than 1st, but you can at least trace the lineage again.

 

The best thing I can say about it so far is that for the first time in a very long time, I read a D&D book and it made me feel like playing the game.

Edited September 3, 2014 by nikolokolus

[ManifestedISO]

Are you guys in different parts of the world ... I was wondering how homogeneous the printing content was, for the new Player's Handbook. For instance, there are quotes in character creation from different D&D novels, used to describe racial characteristics and whatnot.  

[nikolokolus]

There's only one version and no translations so far as I know ...

[Bluetoe]

1st Ed AD&D came out of the mess of home-brewed OD&D that clashed at cons.

 

It's brilliant and frustrating at the same time, and Gary Gygax's prose sort of thunders through it, undermining the Rule Zero ethos that underpins D&D as a whole.

 

My advice - use 1st Ed as a template. Everyone else I knew from those days did. Rule Zero what you don't like, write down your house rules and stick to them. For example, I remember playing in a completely alignment-free campaign. In another we jettisoned the race / level restrictions.

 

But as a simple, elegant, back-to-the-dungeon system it's great. All the new-old-skool clones are really facsimiles of the 1st Ed game.

 

Eventually I moved onto hardcore Gloranthan RuneQuest as I liked the bronze age vibe and tactical combat. But 1E AD&D will always be my first hot girlfriend of games, the one you always remember fondly.

^^^This, lol !!! Those old books were so magical themselves: PHB thieves picking a gem out of the fiery brzaer holding Demon statue's eye :D. Started a lifelong addiction to fantasy gaming. Try Pathfinder, I know I've been itching to. I just found another group locally, 3.5 version, best revision so far, though I haven't seen 5.0 yet...

[Bluetoe]

I cut my RP teeth back in junior high with the AD&D 1st ed. rules, so it will always hold a special place in my heart, but looking at the rules, now it's not a ruleset I could recommend to somebody wanting to play it "as-written." It's totally playable, but what I realized much later on is that we didn't actually play it by the book; in practice we actually played B/X with the AD&D monsters and classes bolted on.

 

If you want AD&D "feels" with a much better organized ruleset, I can't say enough good things about Swords & Wizardry Complete from Frog God Games. The full-art PDF is completely free from their website, so you can take a look at that and play from it without having to splurge for a hardback (their hardbacks are awesome quality FWIW).

 

All that said, I've been utterly enjoying Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG for about a year now and it's got all of the D&D I need in it, so I'd recommend that too.

Groo the Wanderer! FTW lol