Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Old School

I started playing 2nd Edition D&D in the mid-90's. I was in 3rd grade and my new best friend, Chad Stump, told me about this awesome game that his brother was teaching him to play, D&D. Well we started by looking through the books and playing D&D with our action figures. Soon though, we were rolling dice and saving princesses (because that's what heroes do). Since that time I'm branched out. I played 3.0/3.5, Pathfinder, and 4th Edition. I've branched out and played other systems (Unisystem and Call of Cthulhu being two of my favorites).

I wasn't around when brave heroes first entered the Caves of Chaos or took the fight to the Slave Lords. I was four or five when 2nd came out. I always see these OSR (think I'm using the right abreviation) debates on blogs and I don't understand them. Play what you like and let others play what they like.

Still there is a part of me that is a bit nostalgic for the simpler D&D times when I was a kid. I know you can't go back (and Hell I never was even there in this case), but I've recently stated picking up some Basic D&D and 1st Edition stuff. I get most of it at Half-Price Books (there are 5 in and around Columbus Ohio) and haven't paid more than six bucks for any of it.

This is the pride of my collection:



I've also picked up these books:
Fantastic Treasures II (Role Aids)
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords
Greyhawk Adventures
Castle Greyhawk (the tongue in cheek Castle adventure, I picked it up just for the name and I did get a few laughs I suppose)

I also have d-Infinity issues 0-2. These multiplatform game supplements are fantastic. They have Labyrinth Lord/Mutant Future material (which can be used with Basic D&D), Pathfinder, 3.5, 4th Edition, and other gaming material. If you haven't checked d-Infinity out, do it now.

1 comment:

  1. D-Infinity definitely looks pretty neat, and I will have to check it out. I've been playing 4e for a while but also got my start at a young age with AD&D. However, having looked through my old black books, I'm not sure that game was actually any simpler than 4e! 4e has a unified core mechanic for every action, where previous editions had all manner of different rolls for different actions. Character generation and combat is more complicated due to more options, but resolving character actions is always the same: roll a d20, add modifier, try to hit target number. I've been trying to work out a 4e hack to make it more old-school. It can be done!

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