AD&D 1e vs 2e...Go

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Llew ap Hywel

Llew ap Hywel

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So any other site but here I'd never post this (and it's thread one of two) but keeping in mind that no fun is bad wrong fun which do you prefer? 1e or 2e?

So the challenge is not to diss the other game but state why your preference does it for you and what makes it fun to play.
 
Always preferred Greyhawk, what's the best supplements for it in your opinion?
 
AD&D2 (the one I grew up with) had the myriad settings going on for it, including the HR series historical campaigns; and the first few Complete _____ Handbooks allowed for a modicum of customization (via character kits) that was initially quite fun. The Campaign Builder series was very cool, or so I'm told. I'm also a sucker for the lush, colorful art — Parkinson, Elmore, Easley, Caldwell.

AD&D1 (the one I got to know later) had grit and verve and spunk and acid-trippy, borderline impressionist art and Gygaxian orthodoxy in form and content. Assassins and monks and half-orcs and proper demons and devils. Classic tournament modules.
 
I grew up with 2nd Edition, and I much prefer its richness of settings, its clearer and more customizable rules, and its brighter, cleaner feel.
 
I don't know which one to pick, honestly.

1e had Assassins, Monks, Demons & Devils, and all that cool stuff, but 2e had Ravenloft, so it's a toss-up for me.
 
HorusArisen said:
Always preferred Greyhawk, what's the best supplements for it in your opinion?
Click to expand...

For Original D&D, of course, Supplement I: Greyhawk is a must-have. Now, there's two schools of thought on what the best campaign set for 1e AD&D is, the Greyhawk Folio or Boxed edition. <eats mic> DO WHAT IIIIII DOOOOOOOO : get, and use, both. Mix and match.

Other than that, these modules are really real Greyhawk in nature:

S4 Lost Caverns of Tsjoconth, WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (take these two together: they really REALLY detail out an area of the Lortmils, discuss Perrenland quite a bit, etc.)

T1 and/or T1-4. If you're looking to get a party going and learn some about Greyhawk history, both of these modules are great. I'm not crazy about ToEE but it does have a LOT of Greyhawk history in it.

The Rob Kuntz-penned adventures in Greyhawk Adventures are must-haves. They detail Greyhawk campaign stuff that was essentially from Gary's Greyhawk campaign, but by the time GA was written he was out of the company. But it's still quite good.

S2 White Plume Mountain and S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks touch a bit on Greyhawk lore and are good to have.

If you want to advance the timeline, the Greyhawk Gazetteer for 3rd edition has a nice map. You might pick it up.

I'm on the fence about A1-A4. They DO go a lot into detail about the Pomarj and so on but they also "spoil" the "surprise" regarding Drow Elves. If you've been holding back the "secret" of Drow from your group (and, I understand that everyone in the world knows about Drow, but if you're treating the campaign and characters as though Drow elves are merely legendary, A1-4 is a spoiler) then these kind of wreck the surprise as Drow pop up in A3.

I'd start there, and also read Kuntz & Gygax's columns on Greyhawk in Dragon magazine from back in the day.

Not to break my arm patting myself on the back but I wrote a fairly well received series of modules as campaign form that are set in the Howling Hills between Iuz and the Wolf Nomads.
 
I played a lot of 1E back in the day - from around 1983 to 1987 - and only a few sessions of 2E. So, I guess it wins?? I don't really have any preference for either edition these days. I haven't played either since the 80s, and am probably not likely to play them again.

I remember getting invited to one 2E session by some mutual friends, after high school. And during chargen, everyone was breaking out a stack of Complete Book of ... books, and I was bewildered by this. I was left thinking, what happened to D&D?
 
I want 1st edition with an editor and organization. I love the feel of 1st and loathed the feel of 2nd on its initial release. I loathed it so much I've only recently warmed up to 2nd edition and what it has to offer. I like probably most of the settings for 2nd edition but not the meta plots
 
Aesthetically 1e wins, hands-down. "High Gygaxian" prose, assassins, illusionists, half-orcs, devils, and demons. And the art! Trampier, Otus, and even Sutherland ("Paladin in Hell") were awesome.

2e (core) improved some of the rules (e.g., thief abilities) but lost AD&D's "soul". It did have some cools settings (e.g. Planescape!).

These days I'd probably borrow from both, plus my own house rules.
 
It's just hypothetical for me. I think the last time I played AD&D was about '87. I didn't lose interest, but everyone else I knew did, or moved away. By the time I got back into RPGs, 4th edition was just about out, so I missed 2nd completely. I have read through some of the 2e books, and at a glance, I'd say there are things I'd like about it, and others I wouldn't. Rule-wise, I'd probably prefer 2e - it looks to be the same rules, but with some good tweaks, and certainly clearer and better organized. It doesn't seem to have the same charm to me as 1e, though. I like the old art, even as rough as it sometimes was. It also had a more gonzo and arcane feel to it, which I liked a lot. Not sure where that leaves me. Maybe I'd use 2e for the actual rules, and just convert a bunch of 1e materials ...
 
1e certainly has great style, art and atmosphere but it's not enough to offset the refined rules and layout of 2e. I kind of have a fondness for the original 2e books with the blue art as well.
 
1e for ranges in inches, naval combat, siege combat, weapon verses armor table, no sheaf arrows, no elf dominance, lower level limits on demi-humans, longer weapons striking first against chargers. I will note however that the unarmed combat and turn sequence of 2e are better.
 
Oh, I can't believe I forgot the art. When AD&D's art sucked it stank on ice. But when it was great there was (and is) nothing better in fantasy gaming. Trampier, Otus, Dave Sutherland...the holy Trinity of AD&D art!

Heck, I even like some of Jeff Easley's stuff (his "sleeping Drelzna" from S4 is arguably one of the greatest pieces of fantasy RPG art available)
 
Take 1e as your base, splice in the stuff you like from 2e, make your own Crazy, Unholy Abomination of Houseruled D&D like God and Gygax intended, and slap yourself in the face, hard, if you ever say Baatezu or Tanar'ri.

If you had to pick one, that's easy, 1e.
 
2e gave us Planescape, which in turn gave us Faces of Sigil. The single greatest supplement written for any RPG ever. So there's that.

But honestly, I don't seperate the games in my mind. I was introduced to AD&D using the 2nd ed Player's Guide, the 1st ed Dungeon Master's Guide and anything and everything for both games mixed as we pleased. This was back when a new edition meant a revision, not an entirely new game.
 
2e is my favourite because of the settings it had.

Birthright and original box Darksun were right alongside Greyhawk for me.
 
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Why not Both?

I use 2e as my base because I have more experience with it and because I love the Player's Option rules, but I have not had the least bit of trouble putting any and all 1e material I like into it-- so my 2e still has half orcs, assassins, and monks.
 
The general gist of my D&D preferences seem to favor anything that moves away from, well, D&D. So Player's Options and Dark Sun/Al-Qadim/Planescape worked for me.
 
I haven't played or really read the old version in years, but I ran two AD&D2 campaigns a couple years back. My AD&D2 (like any fantasy game I run) was bare-bones, brutal and fairly low-fantasy. While the rules got in the way sometimes, AD&D2 worked fine and we had a lot of fun. In retrospect, the adopted version of "When a star falls" has probably been the best campaign I've run so far.

To some younger players (in their late 20s, early 30s), who have not been properly conditioned to the early game designs, the variety of skill and other checks seemed unjustified. Sometimes you need to roll high, sometimes low, sometimes 2d6, sometimes 1d20, sometimes 1d6 or 1d100 without any apparent logic. Some dared to criticize the game for a poor game design. I had hard time explaining the elegance of it.

Whatever merits the Gygaxian prose or the taste for intricate mechanics have, they do not really help or "elevate" the game at the table these days, I am afraid.
 
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