The incredible austerity of D&D in 1980

glad i could help! CRPGAddict delivers the goods once again. I believe he's said he won't, but I really hope he turns that project into a huge dense, fabulous book someday - it is ludicrously comprehensive while avoiding so many pitfalls of the genre.

Now with interrupted gaming session

https://s10.postimg.org/jpkpociq1/photo_1.jpg

aw mayne

regarding the gygax bio, i started it, found it painful, quickly put it down. i am currently enjoying 'playing at the world' which crpg addict guy cites a lot. there is a lot wrong with it though

i played D&D between 79-82 give or take

the austerity didn't really register

cool interview here with an old friend of mine who worked at ICE for the duration:

http://www.rolemasterblog.com/interview-terry-k-amthor-author-shadow-world-c-e-founder/

Ah, Rolemaster/MERP and those crazy critical hit tables

I'm playing my first ever D&D game next weekend. As a teenager, I briefly and badly DM'd a few games of Paranoia, but this is first ever go as a PC. Any advice? What's a good way to grit your teeth and not feel embarrassed? I want to enjoy it. Also I want the people I'm playing with to have a good time. My partner is joining us and used to play regularly as a teen. She says "figuring out how to play when you're not high" is her main challenge.

be at ease! be curious! keep in mind that your group is a crew! I think when you role-play you're always in part playing yourself so don't worry too much about really "taking on the role," it emerges through your own voice in my limited experience

d&d emphasizes mechanics + particularly combat mechanics but in all roleplaying games inc d&d the most memorable games are not the ones where you win the most but the ones where unexpected things happen. so be unexpected. don't feel limited by what is obvious that you can do. just don't tell the dm what results from your choices (that's his job) or tell the other players what their characters do.

i'd love to get into an rpg but i don't have any friends that want to gm a game and i don't feel up to gm'ing myself. :( i haven't played in one in prob over a decade now. :( :(

Thanks, that's good advice! Basically go with the flow and have fun with it. I'm looking forward to it.

lol i don't even know what some of these races are

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-your-dd-character-rare

i'm kinda shocked human fighter is the most popular! is always seemed like the most boring to me.

Tiefling? Genasi? Wtf is this crap

tiefling i know. they're demonkin. genasi i don't.

I thought Genasi was a racing team.

tiefling : devil = genasi : elemental.

i played an earth genasi fighter in forgotten realms a dog's age ago. i was basically The Thing with a giant hammer, it ruled.

also i am RUNNING a game for the first time in a really long time next weekend... i'm not your DM am i chuck? :P

no matter your role, be incredibly austere. people love when you go old school on them and demand that you follow a sub-sub-rule that prevents them from doing something they want to do

for example, if someone "miraculously" does something that leads to them avoiding certain death, double-check and make sure that every rule was followed. it is better to finish the game alone with integrity than finishing in a shroud of lies with all of your friends intact

strive for the classic 'okay, you're walking through the woods . . . now you're lying on the ground and you're dead'

I've started playing again... my wife and daughter, wife's cousin, two of my wife's tutoring students and a neighbor have been playing for a couple of years now and I joined in a few months ago. For the game DM'ed by my daughter, I created a 5L warlock who I attempt to channel William Burroughs to play. He plane-hops like crazy thanks to the Great Old One who owns his services and works him like a rented mule, so another iteration of him plays 2 years older and at 11th level for the games DM'ed by the neighbor. (The Great Old One is actually Mark Zuckerberg, who is checking out other worlds and other planes of existence with an eye toward invasion and conquest.)

After all that complicated stuff, for a different game I'm developing a simple 1st-level dragonborn monk who grew up in basically a hippie commune/monastery devoted to the proposition of racial diversity instead of racial purity. It turns out that half-dragonborn pregnancies are too dangerous for the mother, so he's leaving home, setting out in the world to preach diversity and anti-racism and punch the shit out of bad guys. He has a little of Geof Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy in him, I admit.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-uncanny-resurrection-of-dungeons-and-dragons

im scared to read that

it's pretty good so far! not done yet.

wow, that is some lazy bullshit

does it venture any comparisons with vinyl records

haha sort of, one of the themes is that people now play D&D to escape from the internet, i.e. returning to an earlier analog era.

but I'll take a positive D&D article, even if it is lazy.

I had no idea the 2014 books were selling so well.

article is fine imo

I have been pondering how to get into D&D, possibly with my oldest (about to turn 10) for awhile now

or get back into, I guess I should say

So I had my first game this weekend and it was super fun, your advice above was appreciated.

My group are all late learners (even our DM) so I'm sure our game would've looked clumsy and spartan to a regular player, but we're getting there.

I'm very tempted to try DM-ing in the future, after a few campaigns. Not to tragically de-romanticize it, but it kind of reminded me of doing a work presentation - you have to make sure everyone gets equal time to speak, motivate a bunch of people with different learning styles, have the right handouts...

article was over-long but the part about autistic players was interesting

my books from the early 80s are at my dad's house but i can totally conjure up the way the pages smelled

kinda disappointed that the specific AD&D editions I used to have seem sort of hard to find these days

I think the fifth edition is supposed to be more-or-less compatible with the 2nd edition supplements... although if you play a very rules-lite version, I guess you could use any fantasy RPG and just rip off the story.

it appears that i have first editions of the monster manual, monster manual 2, player's handbook, dungeon master's guide and fiend folio. plus the 1981 version of deities & demigods, from which the moorcock and cthulhu characters of the 1980 version were removed

The first edition Monster Manual notably included topless portrayals of some of its female monsters, including the succubus, Type V demons, lamia, and sylph.

indeed

I def was familiar with and used earlier editions but the ones I actually owned and got the most use out of were these:
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F2warpstoneptune.files.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F11%2Fdm-guide-1983.jpg&f=1
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lyberty.com%2Fencyc%2Farticles%2Fimages%2Fphb_v1_10th_s.jpg&f=1

it appears that i have first editions of the monster manual, monster manual 2, player's handbook, dungeon master's guide and fiend folio.

hello, sleeve from 1982!

I have some fantastic copies of the Monster Manuals that I found at used bookstores which had all the illustrations carefully colored in with colored pencils by the original owner.

it's not hard to find 1e ad&d stuff on ebay, and generally cheaper than the new books

i recently bought a bunch of 5e stuff and i have like 10 interested players but getting even half of the crew together at the same time is proving impossible ... sigh, adult life

mine were the ones with the cruder, better cover illos (DMG = big red devil, PH = big orange idol, MM = overground + underground tech pen ensemble. The ones I have now are the ones Shakey posted and lord I hate the graphics.

Even 2nd ed is a little rules heavy for me. When I DM there's no goddamn encumbrance and no morale checks and no running out of arrows.

i recently bought a bunch of 5e stuff and i have like 10 interested players but getting even half of the crew together at the same time is proving impossible ... sigh, adult life

OTM, I know about 20 ppl who would like to play but scheduling is fucking impossible

When I DM there's no goddamn encumbrance and no morale checks and no running out of arrows.

OTMFM

re: scheduling... yeah, see also "band practice" for us olds

it doesn't help that a play session tends to last about 8 hours (because we are adults and so tangential)

The ones I have now are the ones Shakey posted and lord I hate the graphic

I might be persuaded to take these off yr hands...

re: scheduling if I do get this going it will be primarily my family and maybe like one or two other people so that should simplify things

(I def have an in-law who is down for this at family events, so that's good)

When I DM there's no goddamn encumbrance

was always curious if *anyone* played with this, because what a nightmare

bags of holding all around

pack animals

but yeah encumbrance, morale fuck that shit

not so sure about the infinite arrows thing though

Arrows is just cause I'm lazy tbh

I suppose you can just assume everyone picks up all their spent/shot arrows afterwards - problem solved!