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Any 1st Ed. AD&Ders Still Out There?

HaHaCharadeHaHaCharade Member Posts: 1,644
edited September 2012 in Off-Topic
I'm talking Unearthed Arcana weidling, Level Limit using, Giant-Class Bonus Ranger, 1st Ed. folks? Just curious. It's all I played in college until later on when we got into 2nd Ed. Still got my 1st Ed Player's Handbook Autographed by Gary Gygax. Heh.

Comments

  • MilochMiloch Member Posts: 863
    Is this the post where we show our age? :P I got a bunch of those books, maybe some are even worth some money (well yours at least, I don't have any autographed by Xygag...)
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    Interesting topic. I was "baptized" into the game under 2nd edition AD&D, although I bought and owned a 1st edition "basic" boxed set. What I remember the most was that all magic-users were elves, and all elves were magic-users. The class was called "elf". And there were only three alignments: lawful, neutral, and chaotic.

    It really did need expanding to be a good rules system. I think Gygax hit his stride with the 2nd edition.
  • HaHaCharadeHaHaCharade Member Posts: 1,644
    Miloch said:

    Is this the post where we show our age? :P I got a bunch of those books, maybe some are even worth some money (well yours at least, I don't have any autographed by Xygag...)

    They still go for pretty cheap on E-Bay, and I'm not sure Gary's signature makes it worth THAT Much more... he pumped out autographs at Gen Con like mad, lol. I'm 30, but I got into a group with old school gamers so that's how it all started.

  • HaHaCharadeHaHaCharade Member Posts: 1,644
    belgarathmth said:

    Interesting topic. I was "baptized" into the game under 2nd edition AD&D, although I bought and owned a 1st edition "basic" boxed set. What I remember the most was that all magic-users were elves, and all elves were magic-users. The class was called "elf". And there were only three alignments: lawful, neutral, and chaotic.

    It really did need expanding to be a good rules system. I think Gygax hit his stride with the 2nd edition.

    Yeah - The difference between AD&D and D&D was the class system. Before that, like you said, race was class more or less. Gygax really wasn't involved too much in AD&D 2nd Ed if I remember correctly. TSR (his company) pretty much got bought out.
  • MilochMiloch Member Posts: 863
    That's D&D you're talking about @belgarathmth. Really old school stuff. Classic stuff. There was Basic, Expert and so on for that, Keep on the Borderlands and all that. Then there was "Advanced" D&D (AD&D) which came out as 1st edition as per the OP, a "different game" where they had a distinction between races and alignments and between law/chaos and good/evil. Then there was 2nd edition as per Baldur's Gate and such, then there was Toy Story and Disneyland after that... er, sorry, different franchise.
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    edited September 2012
    @Miloch, ah, I remember Keep on the Borderlands. That was the first module I ever read, when I was curious about trying to be a DM. (I tried it one time, and my players promptly informed me that I had better step down immediately and just be a player again with them next session - "oh, you're such a *great* player, but, mumble, mumble, rotten DM, mumble, mumble.")

    The module was really just a loose collection of dungeons, with a young red dragon at the end of the last one - 3rd level characters against a dragon. A lot of those pre-printed modules were disasters of balance and monty-haul treasure inflation. That's why most good DM's wrote their own material, and probably still do.

    Did you know that there's a NWN2 mod on the NWN Vault that duplicates the Keep on the Borderlands module almost perfectly? I played it once, and it really was just like playing through the module.
  • MilochMiloch Member Posts: 863
    belgarathmth said:

    Did you know that there's a NWN2 mod on the NWN Vault that duplicates the Keep on the Borderlands module almost perfectly? I played it once, and it really was just like playing through the module.

    I heard of a Keep of Borderlands mod for Temple of Elemental Evil but not NWN2. Will have to check it out someday... possibly gives me a reason to get NWN2 heh.

    Isle of Dread would have been great to see in a game too - it was the first "Expert" module. How cool would it be to go up against dinosaurs? Sort of a "Lost World" feel to it.

    Classic Adventures is working on resurrecting a lot of the older modules, including Castle Amber and Palace of the Silver Princess. It is worth checking out.

    http://www.spellholdstudios.net/ie/ca
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    edited September 2012
    @Miloch, Well, I wouldn't get NWN2 just to play the Keep on the Borderlands mod - the mod is of mediocre quality, at best.

    NWN2 itself though, is worth playing. It has a good, memorable cast of NPC's, and plays a lot like Dragon Age:Origins, or even BG. It has tactical party play like BG, although it's not as good, and has many flaws.

    I would place NWN2 as much better than NWN1, and not quite as good as DA:O. Nothing is as good as BG.
  • AurenRavidelAurenRavidel Member Posts: 139
    HaHaCharade said:

    Still got my 1st Ed Player's Handbook Autographed by Gary Gygax.

    May he rest in peace.

    I started with 1st edition when I was 11 years old. I remember cracking open the books and feeling an instant connection - the game just served as the perfect outlet for my youthful imagination. Played every edition since, but there's nothing quite like that first game.

    Haven't played PnP for quite awhile, unfortunately. I'd be interested to try out Pathfinder, since I've heard good things. I wouldn't turn down the chance to play in a 1st Edition campaign (if it fit my schedule).
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    I still have all my 1e stuff. And there is no red Dragon in the Caves of Chaos (the Dungeon part of the Keep on the Borderlands). The two worst ones there are the temple with all the undead, which has, I think, a Medusa in it (at the end, in a cell, tied up and blinded). And a section with a Minotaur. There is also a part with an Ogre, but most of the monsters in that module are goblins, orcs and some bugbears. Oh, and a cave with centipedes. And another with Gnolls.In fact, I just pulled the module out to check. Yep, no Red Dragon.
  • BelgarathMTHBelgarathMTH Member Posts: 5,653
    Oh, sorry, I must have been thinking of another module.
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    I think you are thinking of B5, Horror on the Hill. That has a red Dragon at the end of it, but you could subdue it and sell it to the two mage sisters who helped you out with magic and whatnot. At least, that's the only B module I remember with a red dragon in it. X1, the Isle of Dread, had a couple of Dragons, but you had to really scour the island for them to find them. I more remember those monsters at the end that looked like something out of a nightmare and lurked in the boiling mud pools. The Kopru.
  • MilochMiloch Member Posts: 863
    You are an old-school scholar @LadyRhian... there is no dragon in B2 Keep on the Borderlands nor even B1 In Search of the Unknown (which takes place oddly in the same exact area as B2 in between the keep and the Caves of Chaos). Don't remember all of Isle of Dread nor dragons there (just dinosaurs) but then I never played through it all. There was at least a gold dragon in X2 Castle Amber but not exactly a foe, though I suppose you could fight her if you were stupid or foolhardy enough to do so at such a low level. I also thought there was a white dragon in B3 Palace of the Silver Princess but I don't recall if you ever met it.
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    edited September 2012
    @Miloch The White Dragon in Palace of the Silver Princess was Imprisoned or asleep or in some other way nullified. It was the mount of a Knight who had come to the castle to marry the Princess of the title. I hear that in the original orange-cover version, he was supposed to be evil, and the white dragon was supposed to be symbol of that, but seeing as how the orange-cover version (of which there are only 72 in existence, rescued from the trash before being pulped), you generally can't buy it for less than about $1000 online, and sometimes much, much higher.

    Anyhow B5, Horror on the Hill, has a very large dungeon with a trapped Red Dragon of... sub-adult? Age at the end of it. I just checked. They don't say it's a sub-adult, but it's 7 hit dice and 22 hit points.
    Post edited by LadyRhian on
  • TyranthraxusTyranthraxus Member Posts: 10
    I started playing D&D at the end of the 2E era. A year later 3E was released, and after that I switched to 3.5 and eventually 4E. But now I switched to 1E (with some elements of Basic/Expert) and I love it. But I have to admit my favourite rules set is 3/3.5
  • AlcidasAlcidas Member Posts: 1
    I started playing AD&D back in 1984 and stopped before the second edition came out. For years, I could just never figure out what all this 2E and 3E stuff was all about because, AD&D was AD&D, it never occurred to me that anyone could want to revise what seemed like a perfect set of rules...
  • MortiannaMortianna Member Posts: 1,356
    @Alcidas I liked the wizard specialization idea, the kits, and some of the new spells of 2nd ed., but that was pretty much it for me. All of it is adaptable to 1st ed. Maybe I'm just a old schooler/retro-gamer, but I thought 3.5 ed. went overboard with all the prestige classes.
  • MilochMiloch Member Posts: 863
    Barbarians and even monks were present and a lot better in 1st edition. Some folks think they didn't appear until 3rd but that is a misconception.
  • JolanthusJolanthus Member Posts: 292
    I miss my ranger being able to cast 1st and 2nd level Mage spells.
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @Jolanthus Yes, That being said, druid spells fit the ranger better. Doesn't anybody else keep the new classes they used to have in Dragon magazine, like the Incantatrix or the Archer. Long before kits... new classes!
  • MortiannaMortianna Member Posts: 1,356
    edited September 2012
    @Jolanthus I had forgotten all about that. It was a good counterbalance to their d8 hit die (after the 2d8 hp (!) at 1st level, of course) and their slower level progression as compared to fighters.
  • JolanthusJolanthus Member Posts: 292
    @LadyRhian true. I though the Mage spells were kinda odd so I role played it as having taken the spell book off a Mage causing trouble in his woods and on the long cold lonely nights in his cabin he would try to learn some of those spells.

    And because of that I wanted to play a multi or duel class Ranger Mage but the rules never allowed for it.
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @Jolanthus Yes, that was a pity.
  • HaHaCharadeHaHaCharade Member Posts: 1,644
    Jolanthus said:

    @LadyRhian true. I though the Mage spells were kinda odd so I role played it as having taken the spell book off a Mage causing trouble in his woods and on the long cold lonely nights in his cabin he would try to learn some of those spells.

    And because of that I wanted to play a multi or duel class Ranger Mage but the rules never allowed for it.

    Wasn't there a supplement in a Dragon Magazine that made some Unearthed Arcana corrections and actually added some multi-class possibilities? I actually think I have a ton of old 1st Ed centric Dragon Mags archived somewhere in PDF form... I seem to recall that's where the published the erata. I *think* Ranger/Thief was added, which of course was incredibly broken given the 1st Edition Giant-Class bonus rangers got... can you imagine a high-level ranger with giant class bonus and backstab multiplier? *Shudder*
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @HaHaCharade I think I hear Munchkin radar pinging all over the planet... Oh, excuse me... did I roll my eyes TOO loudly? ;)
  • HaHaCharadeHaHaCharade Member Posts: 1,644
    LadyRhian said:

    @HaHaCharade I think I hear Munchkin radar pinging all over the planet... Oh, excuse me... did I roll my eyes TOO loudly? ;)

    LOL ah those were the days

  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    @HaHaCrusade Munchkins and Monty Haul games, and the sadistic DM who would screw with you just because he could. I still have all my old Dragon Magazines, back to issue 54 or so, and some scattered ones from earlier. I remember an archer class based on Errol Flynn as Robin Hood, that got major bonuses to any and all bow and arrow use- Muchkins... not just the little people from Oz...
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