The Red Box and especially the Errol Otis artwork are a true nostalgia trip for me. I got my Red Box back in 1983 as I had been introduced to D&D by my good friend but I wanted my own set of books. I actually cut my teeth on AD&D but stepped back to Basic as I could just afford the Red Box and that gave me more than enough to be creating characters and start adventuring with other friends.
Basic just let you quickly create characters, set them up and gather your party before setting forth upon high adventure. And because it was a limited version of the game, it was easier to grasp how the game ran. It just worked.
I haven’t played D&D in 40 years, save for a brief period when my son and I played a bit. What you bring up here that I haven’t read anywhere else is the fun, when I was younger, of reading all the D&D books and manuals. I used to read them as if they were page-turners.
And while I used to play as a kid, the games we played never got up to the level I wanted them to, or at least what was suggested possible by these manuals. I always wondered, where are these long campaigns happening? Where can I find six or seven other people who want to do this for eight hours in a row? I would design my own modules with back stories and diagrams—and don’t get me started on the joys of graph paper, which was terrible in school but great when designing dungeons.
But sometimes it was like a guy who reads and writes a lot about baseball, but never watches a full game.
I felt the same way about Traveler, which I’m not sure is even a thing any more.
I think my favorite version of Old School D&D is the Holmes Basic. It just has so much to work with and doesn't make a huge fuss of the rules as later editions do. Each version of pre-WOTC D&D honestly has great design philosophies that are more and more of lost arts outside of the OSR. Even though 4e was my start in the ttrpg scene, all the old stuff influences every game I run and/or play to this day.
Holmes Basic has so much cool stuff in it and is a very interesting game. It has quirks, like Daggers allowing 2 attacks a round making the ultimate fighter a dagger wielder, but it's a great game.
Of the Hasbro versions of the game, I've come to like 4e the most. It is the most flexible and easiest to run as a DM. All I need is my Monster Manual on a Business Card (3x5 really) and page 42 of the DMG and I can run anything with that system. Once the Essentials line came out and the Elemental and Shadows books, it quickly became a really wonderful game. When they ported it over to Gamma World, they made one of my top 4 super hero rpgs.
4e felt like the last edition to keep with the classic ethos of creating adventures and settings that could be customized for each party, which is another reason why I like it so much. The larger campaign books nowadays feel too static in the sense that they're in for the longhaul whereas smaller modules were more manageable over a weekend of play.
I'm running the Dragonlance book right now and it is so scripted. It's not a bad story, but there is an interesting villain introduced early on who does little in the written adventure. In MY game, however, he's a continual thorn in the side of the PCs and is taking them in a very different direction.
I think one of the major challenges of 5e is that it's hard to balance encounters in an interesting way. It's easy with other editions, even 3e where it takes time but is still logical, because they had more explicit design goals. 1e balance didn't matter because players knew they should run from some fights. 4e is heroic fantasy, but the math is explicit with bounded accuracy and success probabilities. 5e is is also bounded, but it's tiers aren't as obvious to the novice designer.
5e seemed to try and bring back the bare essence of 3e's encounter design and fell a bit short of it. Tips on making 5e encounters more challenging are a genre of DM advice unto their own nowadays.
I adopted 5E and its a great system to jump into. Over time I also discovered that older systems were closer to my heart and that just reading them made me happier than many of the 5E sessions I was participating in. So I am now back in two games a 1E and a 2E of AD&D. I will play 5E if a game came up, but I will not DM anything but AD&D again.
There is so much I like about AD&D and how the restrictions shape the fantasy world building. One is free, of course, to remove any such restrictions as that might affect balance it doesn't affect mechanics. I like 4e and 5e too, but they are based on different kinds of Fantasy. 3e is probably my least favorite in retrospect, even though I bought all the books and ran a 12 year campaign, because it's the most like GURPS and I can just play that if I want.
I have always been heavy RP and I tended to never let rules get in the way of my gaming. So I can't say that was much of a concern to me. So what else is this about? Being so "into it," I never thought much about the genre that these books are a part of. When I view it through that lens and watch its evolution, its easier for me to see why I prefer what I see is the more colorful aspects of the earlier books. If it was only the ruleset, I would have used any number of simpler systems, but for just enjoyment of reading both active and passive, I find the older game more engaging.
I've played in both heavy RP and mechanically heavy games with different groups. I tend to prefer RP heavy games, but having played a lot of Heroquest and wargames over the years I have fun with tactical too.
That aside though, the mechanics of the game shape the world regardless of style of play. The rules, as many who argue against Ben Milton's most recent video on OSR say, matter.
Let's have a look at 1e AD&D.
Humans are the only race that can go unlimited levels and they cannot multi-class. They can "dual class," but that comes with significant drawbacks compared to multi-classing. They are also the only race that can have 18/00 Strength.
Elves can multi-class, but have strict level limits 7th level Cleric (NPCs only), 7th level Fighter (with very high stats), 11th Level Magic User (also high stats), 10th Level Assassin, and Unlimited as Thief. This means that Elves are incapable of learning spells of 6th Level or Higher. Elf Fighters never get 2 attacks a round and only the greatest Elven warriors get 3 every 2 rounds.
Other races share similar restrictions with different areas of focus and this leaves out the unique bonuses of each race.
Those rules can be, and often were, ignored by groups, but to do so changes the world they game takes place in from one where Humans are short lived but capable of rewriting reality and where Elves are long lived but limited in power to something else. That something else, which is often what my groups played, is a world representing an entirely different fantasy world.
The base world of AD&D is akin to Moorcock's Young Kingdoms setting. The old races are fading and humans are on the rise. The Elves (Melniboneans) are in decline and the Young Kingdoms are where it's at. Eliminating level restrictions, or changing them, makes the setting more Tolkienesque. Both are great, but the mechanics help shape those without ever necessitating combat.
The Red Box and especially the Errol Otis artwork are a true nostalgia trip for me. I got my Red Box back in 1983 as I had been introduced to D&D by my good friend but I wanted my own set of books. I actually cut my teeth on AD&D but stepped back to Basic as I could just afford the Red Box and that gave me more than enough to be creating characters and start adventuring with other friends.
Basic just let you quickly create characters, set them up and gather your party before setting forth upon high adventure. And because it was a limited version of the game, it was easier to grasp how the game ran. It just worked.
Erol Otis’s artwork is a large reason I find old D&D inspiring. It is weirder than modern D&D.
Well said!
I haven’t played D&D in 40 years, save for a brief period when my son and I played a bit. What you bring up here that I haven’t read anywhere else is the fun, when I was younger, of reading all the D&D books and manuals. I used to read them as if they were page-turners.
And while I used to play as a kid, the games we played never got up to the level I wanted them to, or at least what was suggested possible by these manuals. I always wondered, where are these long campaigns happening? Where can I find six or seven other people who want to do this for eight hours in a row? I would design my own modules with back stories and diagrams—and don’t get me started on the joys of graph paper, which was terrible in school but great when designing dungeons.
But sometimes it was like a guy who reads and writes a lot about baseball, but never watches a full game.
I felt the same way about Traveler, which I’m not sure is even a thing any more.
Excellent post!
I think my favorite version of Old School D&D is the Holmes Basic. It just has so much to work with and doesn't make a huge fuss of the rules as later editions do. Each version of pre-WOTC D&D honestly has great design philosophies that are more and more of lost arts outside of the OSR. Even though 4e was my start in the ttrpg scene, all the old stuff influences every game I run and/or play to this day.
Holmes Basic has so much cool stuff in it and is a very interesting game. It has quirks, like Daggers allowing 2 attacks a round making the ultimate fighter a dagger wielder, but it's a great game.
Of the Hasbro versions of the game, I've come to like 4e the most. It is the most flexible and easiest to run as a DM. All I need is my Monster Manual on a Business Card (3x5 really) and page 42 of the DMG and I can run anything with that system. Once the Essentials line came out and the Elemental and Shadows books, it quickly became a really wonderful game. When they ported it over to Gamma World, they made one of my top 4 super hero rpgs.
4e felt like the last edition to keep with the classic ethos of creating adventures and settings that could be customized for each party, which is another reason why I like it so much. The larger campaign books nowadays feel too static in the sense that they're in for the longhaul whereas smaller modules were more manageable over a weekend of play.
I'm running the Dragonlance book right now and it is so scripted. It's not a bad story, but there is an interesting villain introduced early on who does little in the written adventure. In MY game, however, he's a continual thorn in the side of the PCs and is taking them in a very different direction.
I think one of the major challenges of 5e is that it's hard to balance encounters in an interesting way. It's easy with other editions, even 3e where it takes time but is still logical, because they had more explicit design goals. 1e balance didn't matter because players knew they should run from some fights. 4e is heroic fantasy, but the math is explicit with bounded accuracy and success probabilities. 5e is is also bounded, but it's tiers aren't as obvious to the novice designer.
5e seemed to try and bring back the bare essence of 3e's encounter design and fell a bit short of it. Tips on making 5e encounters more challenging are a genre of DM advice unto their own nowadays.
I adopted 5E and its a great system to jump into. Over time I also discovered that older systems were closer to my heart and that just reading them made me happier than many of the 5E sessions I was participating in. So I am now back in two games a 1E and a 2E of AD&D. I will play 5E if a game came up, but I will not DM anything but AD&D again.
There is so much I like about AD&D and how the restrictions shape the fantasy world building. One is free, of course, to remove any such restrictions as that might affect balance it doesn't affect mechanics. I like 4e and 5e too, but they are based on different kinds of Fantasy. 3e is probably my least favorite in retrospect, even though I bought all the books and ran a 12 year campaign, because it's the most like GURPS and I can just play that if I want.
I have always been heavy RP and I tended to never let rules get in the way of my gaming. So I can't say that was much of a concern to me. So what else is this about? Being so "into it," I never thought much about the genre that these books are a part of. When I view it through that lens and watch its evolution, its easier for me to see why I prefer what I see is the more colorful aspects of the earlier books. If it was only the ruleset, I would have used any number of simpler systems, but for just enjoyment of reading both active and passive, I find the older game more engaging.
I've played in both heavy RP and mechanically heavy games with different groups. I tend to prefer RP heavy games, but having played a lot of Heroquest and wargames over the years I have fun with tactical too.
That aside though, the mechanics of the game shape the world regardless of style of play. The rules, as many who argue against Ben Milton's most recent video on OSR say, matter.
Let's have a look at 1e AD&D.
Humans are the only race that can go unlimited levels and they cannot multi-class. They can "dual class," but that comes with significant drawbacks compared to multi-classing. They are also the only race that can have 18/00 Strength.
Elves can multi-class, but have strict level limits 7th level Cleric (NPCs only), 7th level Fighter (with very high stats), 11th Level Magic User (also high stats), 10th Level Assassin, and Unlimited as Thief. This means that Elves are incapable of learning spells of 6th Level or Higher. Elf Fighters never get 2 attacks a round and only the greatest Elven warriors get 3 every 2 rounds.
Other races share similar restrictions with different areas of focus and this leaves out the unique bonuses of each race.
Those rules can be, and often were, ignored by groups, but to do so changes the world they game takes place in from one where Humans are short lived but capable of rewriting reality and where Elves are long lived but limited in power to something else. That something else, which is often what my groups played, is a world representing an entirely different fantasy world.
The base world of AD&D is akin to Moorcock's Young Kingdoms setting. The old races are fading and humans are on the rise. The Elves (Melniboneans) are in decline and the Young Kingdoms are where it's at. Eliminating level restrictions, or changing them, makes the setting more Tolkienesque. Both are great, but the mechanics help shape those without ever necessitating combat.