Original D&D

[Foen]

I first cut my teeth on Basic D&D (a purple box, I think, before the red box came out) and I wondered if anyone uses FG to play this?

I'm aware of Osric covering AD&D (back when there was only one edition so you didn't have to state which edition you were playing), but is there something similar for the non-Advanced game?

Cheers

Stuart

[sirosis34]

We use the old original rules in our campaign. I've just worked around the d20 ruleset that comes with FG2 but would love to find a old school or AD&D ruleset. Good to see another oldschool D&D fan here!

[joeru]

Heh, I bought the rules just for kicks yesterday, man it's nostalgic reading 'em.

You can buy them as PDFs from DriveThruRPG (https://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=44&filters=0_0_1330) dirt cheap, either as separate sets or as a cyclopedia that collects most/all of the rules. They're scanned with no OCR'ing though, so it's a bit of a bummer.

That being said, I don't know of a ruleset existing (although I think bobthebuilder plays it with FG). Would love to play, so might have to come up with something.

EDIT: Just figured I'd point out that Paizo (https://paizo.com/store/games/roleplayingGames/d/dungeonsDragons/roleplayingGames/wizardsOfTheCoast/classicDAndD)'s prices are lower.

[Foen]

Paizo's D&D Cyclopedia has OCR - at least the PDF has selectable text. I don't know about the others.

Stuart

[bobthebuilder]

I DM Classic D&D using Fantasy Grounds II, am in need of players.

My Calendar Entry
Classic D&D adventures with the Basic D&D rules - not AD&D/ D&D 3.5. Players new to D&D are welcome. Sessions will run once per week on Friday or Saturday at 8:00 p.m. (GMT+10), which is 10:00 a.m. GMT+0. You can explore a vast and dangerous continent which has dungeons and monsters, villages and NPCs. Gain treasure, fight monsters, or whatever goals you wish - this game is very open-ended fast-paced and action-oriented and will include some Classic D&D modules. To join send me a private message to `bobthebuilder.'

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/?id=49

Mystara --Isle of Dread; exploration; Classic TSR modules. (The best adventure modules ever written are the only ones I use).

----------------
The beauty of the old system is that the game moves lightning-fast. Heaps of treasure too.
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Anyone who wants to join PM me including 1) your experience (or lack of) with D&D, and 2) your location (city, for timezone purposes), 3) preferred play day (Friday or Saturday). Familiarity with Basic D&D preferred but not essential.

[joeru]

I'm aware of Osric covering AD&D (back when there was only one edition so you didn't have to state which edition you were playing), but is there something similar for the non-Advanced game?

Cheers

Stuart

Did some digging around and found these:

https://www.basicfantasy.org/main.html

https://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.htm

EDIT: Also came across this class creator for Basic D&D:

https://www.tridrpg.org/characters/newclass.php

:D

[Tokuriku]

Bob, will you play with voice or chat?
I'm in Japan right now and I'm interested in your game.
I don't know how steady I can be as a player but if I start, it would be after checking that availability. With the Japanese apartments being the size they are, voice can indispose a lot of people real fast so I unfortunately need to use chat even though I'm pro voice...

[Foen]

BTW, just found out the OCR in the Cyclopedia is ... err ... patchy to say the least. Don't buy the PDF if you hoped you could select meaningful text.

Foen

[bobthebuilder]

Bob, will you play with voice or chat?
I'm in Japan right now and I'm interested in your game.
I don't know how steady I can be as a player but if I start, it would be after checking that availability. With the Japanese apartments being the size they are, voice can indispose a lot of people real fast so I unfortunately need to use chat even though I'm pro voice...

Kenshin,

The game will be run by chat. I sent you a private message.

[mr_h]

I know someone once had a original D&D Ruleset, but I've been unable to locate it :(


Also, that basic fantasy rpg looks good. One of these days I have to get around to playing it.

[Foen]

Labyrinth Lord looks like just the ticket, thanks!

Stuart

[Wargamer777]

I've still got my original BASIC orange and EXPERT blue rule books.

I might have to jump in on this... :D

[Xorn]

I've still got my original BASIC orange and EXPERT blue rule books.

I might have to jump in on this... :D

Incidentally here's the naming conventions:

OD&D - Typically refers to the Mentzer edition of D&D when used, packaged in colored boxes for Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal levels of play. By die-hard D&D historians, OD&D refers to the edition before this, starting from the pamphlets and extending to the three paper-book edition.

BECMI - Refers to Mentzer's edition, an acronym from the levels of play. The Rules 'Cyclopedia is a hardcover book containing everything from all five sets. It is made of win, also, and is the only book you will ever need to play BECMI till you die. With a smile on your face.

AD&D (or 1E) - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the hardcover books which separated race and class, and vastly expanded combat. Note that AD&D can also refer to all editions from 1E forward, specifically the key differences from BECMI (race and class separation).

2E - The dark ages of D&D, when TSR was doing what they could to overcomplicate it and drive it into the ground.

3E (or 3.X) - Refers to the 3rd Edition days, including the re-release of 3.5, which was never considered a new era. The rebirth of D&D, but showed that when you bring in the guys that balanced the math for Magic: the Gathering, they can get a little carried away.

4E (or "The Death of D&D") - The newest edition of D&D, which is generally accepted as taking a step back towards OD&D/BECMI, while trying to retain the increased options of AD&D. "The Death of D&D" is the always the reference to the current edition of D&D.

[Foen]

OK, first step was successful, I've got the green light from Goblinoid Games to produce a community ruleset. Don't hold your breath just yet though, I have a certain horror genre ruleset to finish and the Rolemaster project too.

Foen

[bobthebuilder]

4E (or "The Death of D&D") - The newest edition of D&D, which is generally accepted as taking a step back towards OD&D/BECMI, while trying to retain the increased options of AD&D. "The Death of D&D" is the always the reference to the current edition of D&D.

The Death
I'm not sure I would say it's "The Death of D&D" edition, but I will say it's the worst edition of D&D to run as a Dungeon Master. It tries to look simple but is an extremely complex game (to me this is a bit disingenuous: rules written to give the appearance of simplicity but in actual fact provide a ridiculous convoluted range of options; for instance: in combat the ability to perform multiple maneouvers each with often multiple and varying effects, which just gets stupid when you've got 4-6 players).

Sort of a Return
I agree that 4E is definitely a return to OD&D/BECMI. However it is unlike Classic D&D in that they took damage and combat too far, to the extreme in fact, so that now even the Wizard does nothing but damage, which is stupid, since this is not what the wizard was made for in Dungeons & Dragons. Hence, every class simply becomes a clone: dealing damage in different ways. Before, the wizard at low level had almost ZERO SPELLS THAT DID DAMAGE. The wizard would defeat foes by casting spells that confused foes in some way, or put monsters to sleep, or tied bandits up. This lack of flexibiity is a big problem - an entire game with rules focused almost exclusively on combat and dealing damage with virtually NO RULE that encourages and rewards players for solving thngs in other ways - that is, in original or unique ways: hence the beauty of original rules, so flexible and easy to adjust for one's taste. Since the rules are simpler it also makes changing things easy, compared to the monstrosity of 4E. Before, to play the game and understand the rules was to adjust in one's favour, to give to players the experience that they want ---now, everything has to come from a book, it's hard to do something unless it's in the book ( = restriction), which tries to cover every realistic possibility (which it never can) and thus always leaves gaps, which DMs try to adjudicate through a maze of consistent but overblown rules.

They did take original D&D monsters and put them in 4E, they did copy (rip right out) a number of original D&D rules such as a slight emphasis on rewarding players for doing Quests, but it's still not similar enough, easy enough, good enough, to compensate for the disastrous 3.5 as if 4E was somehow supposed to be an advance, which it could be but only in a minor way. Another thing is how the 4E designers seemed constantly to bash the 3.5 rules, "they had this before and it really made XYX a pain for [players] [DMs], so now we changed it to this." [Rhetorical Question to Wotc]: "if 3.5 was really that bad then why the heck did you bother to publish it?" [/Rhetorical Question to Wotc]. Of course it wasn't that bad, but they must have felt they had to bash something in order to make 4E seem "good," look "better."

[tenkar]

OK, first step was successful, I've got the green light from Goblinoid Games to produce a community ruleset. Don't hold your breath just yet though, I have a certain horror genre ruleset to finish and the Rolemaster project too.

Foen

Damn, just found this thread... awesome news!

No worries, I'm patient... I don't plan on starting a new game until after the holidays ;)