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Author Topic: AD&D 1e  (Read 13826 times)

bayonetbrant

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Reply #15 on: December 15, 2020, 03:12:09 PM
However, I think Mentzer’s box sets in particular the red and blue boxes are one of if not the best products ever made to teach D&D. The limited choices initially in the red box for spells, equipment, monsters and simple “optional” rules are great for new or younger gamers.
I agree with this completely.  :)

Also I’m a D&D nerd and I like having all the various rules and books for reading and idea generation.
I somehow agree with this even more ;D

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Martok

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Reply #16 on: December 15, 2020, 07:38:32 PM
Also I’m a D&D nerd and I like having all the various rules and books for reading and idea generation.
I somehow agree with this even more ;D

I have yet to meet a D&D fan who *doesn't* feel this way.  :D 



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Bison

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Reply #17 on: December 15, 2020, 10:51:26 PM
Ok, I am really happy with the POD books so far. I hope they hold up well over the long term. The real plus is I can put my Unearthed Arcana original book up and use my POD version without having to worry if the binding falls apart.

*I have not included Unearthed Arcana rules into my campaign yet. I am not sure I like the Cavalier and Barbarian class balance versus the original class design or weapon specialization.*



Bison

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Reply #18 on: March 11, 2022, 05:59:39 PM
I received my latest POD from dmsguild.com. Slight damage to the corner of one of the books during shipping but otherwise the print quality is fantastic. I really hope Wizards makes more of the early D&D products available for POD. I admit I would totally pay for reprints of Dragon and Dungeon magazines too. Highly recommend the service for anyone who enjoys having books rather than digital things at the table.

Return to the Borderlands. It's actually a 2e AD&D module but requires almost no work to use with 1e AD&D rules.

Return of the Slave Lords. I missed out on the whole reprint of books a decade ago. However, I got this softcover reprint for a very affordable cost.



bayonetbrant

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Reply #19 on: March 12, 2022, 06:48:40 PM
EDIT: never mind, they found someone.  (Ironically, someone else I know!)


https://twitter.com/XOofXOs/status/1502440272826933251

« Last Edit: March 12, 2022, 06:51:35 PM by bayonetbrant »

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Bison

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Reply #20 on: March 12, 2022, 06:55:08 PM
Dragon Lance is an interesting setting. There was a period in TSR's history when their developers were really exploring unique settings. Then came Forgotten Realms and most everything else got left behind.



Double Deuce

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Reply #21 on: March 12, 2022, 10:18:00 PM
Dragon Lance is an interesting setting. There was a period in TSR's history when their developers were really exploring unique settings. Then came Forgotten Realms and most everything else got left behind.

I was never a fan of the Dragonlance setting overall BUT, I did like the bringing in of the Draconians. I reskinned them for many 5e campaigns.



Metaldog

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Reply #22 on: March 13, 2022, 03:06:13 AM
Dragon Lance is an interesting setting. There was a period in TSR's history when their developers were really exploring unique settings. Then came Forgotten Realms and most everything else got left behind.

Absolutely adored Dragonlance!  Never played the campaign modules, although I think I have the first three or four of them. 

I hear what you're saying about Forgotten Realms.  Ed Greenwood had a hit with all the stuff he was feeding Dragon mag.  The more they printed, the more I wanted to know.  I thought it was an excellent setting in the first FR box set they put out.  Still enough places to adventure in without a lot of set in stone history to contend with.  Then Salvatore and D'Rizzt blew up and the TSR book department went into overdrive with stories from Faerun.  THAT'S when it seemed like they stopped with the 'unique settings.'  At least to me.


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Bison

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Reply #23 on: March 13, 2022, 11:11:01 AM
I run my campaigns in Greyhawk.
Dragon Lance is an interesting setting. There was a period in TSR's history when their developers were really exploring unique settings. Then came Forgotten Realms and most everything else got left behind.

I was never a fan of the Dragonlance setting overall BUT, I did like the bringing in of the Draconians. I reskinned them for many 5e campaigns.

Draconians! I totally forgot about them. How are you distinguishing them from dragonborn?



Bison

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Reply #24 on: March 13, 2022, 11:23:20 AM

Absolutely adored Dragonlance!  Never played the campaign modules, although I think I have the first three or four of them. 

I hear what you're saying about Forgotten Realms.  Ed Greenwood had a hit with all the stuff he was feeding Dragon mag.  The more they printed, the more I wanted to know.  I thought it was an excellent setting in the first FR box set they put out.  Still enough places to adventure in without a lot of set in stone history to contend with.  Then Salvatore and D'Rizzt blew up and the TSR book department went into overdrive with stories from Faerun.  THAT'S when it seemed like they stopped with the 'unique settings.'  At least to me.

I run my campaign in Greyhawk but do borrow material from other campaign settings. When TSR was transitioning from 1e to 2e is the period I recall having the greatest output of new campaign settings. Ravenloft, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Planescape...

There is no question you are correct D'Rizzt and company shifted the primary focus to Forgotten Realms. Wizards did try to move away from it in later additions as the default setting developing ones like Ebberron. Now they still develop for some old settings like Ravenloft and develop new ones set in the Magic the Gathering IP. However, I think you make a great point about the early campaign settings being more of a blank slate at least for 1e.



bayonetbrant

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Reply #25 on: March 13, 2022, 12:12:11 PM
Dragonlance was an attempt to create a dragon-centric setting, as none of the other current ones at that time had dragons front and center.

Forgotten Realms was deemed necessary for them to sideline Greyhawk and get out of paying any more royalties to Gygax than they had to.  They kept publishing the already– or nearly–done Greyhawk stuff to fulfill some contractual obligations (and to insulate themselves from any Gygax lawsuits of "you guys are just doing it to keep me from getting paid")
They didn't want to port over Mystara as they were afraid that too many AD&D players would see it as the "basic" setting and not go for it.

Ravenloft was just an outgrowth of the gothic horror idea that was never really intended to grow like that; it wasn't planned beyond that first module.

Dark Sun & Birthright were trying to experiment with some new concepts, and Spelljammer was a ham-handed attempt to knit them together.

Eberron was created from a contest, where WotC was looking for a new world to make the centerpiece of the 3e launch.  They specifically wanted something different than the "usual" but still could contain all the canonical races / classes (which really limited the "different").  So they basically got a reskinned Earthdawn.

But as MD noted, FR got more/better novel support, especially since they assigned a bunch of their better writers to that world, and that really helped it blow up.

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Bison

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Reply #26 on: March 13, 2022, 12:21:32 PM
Good breakdown.

I always preferred the more sword and sorcery setting of Greyhawk to the high fantasy setting of Forgotten Realms. I think it's due to the concept I have that magic is mysterious and a bit scary to the normal population compared to the current D&D setting where everyone and everything is magical.



Metaldog

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Reply #27 on: March 13, 2022, 01:45:40 PM
I had one of the Greyhawk box sets (since misplaced or taken) and I loved the setting, too.  Gygax did a great job setting up his backstory and it all seemed to make a great amount of sense.  Once they started fading that, I had hoped Mystara would be next, right alongside FR.  But, I think brant has the right of it, too many players maybe would have looked at it as the 'basic' setting.

What I really liked about 1st Ed. was that there was no mention of ANY setting in the PHB or the DMG.  Yeah, there was a list of books & myths that had inspired Gygax and co., but, they were pushing you to imagine a world rather than push a premade, official, TSR world.  And I liked that.  Of course, once I found out what kind of a PITA building everything from scratch was, I sure was glad to see somebody had done the work for me ;)

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bayonetbrant

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Reply #28 on: March 13, 2022, 02:26:22 PM
Not only that, but a lot of the modules that were later retcon'ed into Greyhawk were originally a bunch of standalones created for convention tournament play

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Bison

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Reply #29 on: March 13, 2022, 04:02:09 PM
I still own the World of Greyhawk box set. It has one of the greatest world maps ever produced. I got a POD of World of Greyhawk which is an earlier version of the box set. It has much more world information like season names, holidays, money, brief descriptions of a lot of the geography, politics, and kingdom structures.

The hardcover Greyhawk Adventures book is a bit odd in some regards because it was compiled and written by James Ward and not Gary. Also, it was one of the last books published as TSR was phasing out 1e for 2e so it tries to do a little from columns A and B.