"old-school" observation

beeber · March 04, 2007, 10:28:47 AM

feeling a bit of nostalgia i picked up two old issues of dragon mag. on ebay (64 & 67). while perusing their contents i remembered something i missed in d&d: weapon restrictions by class. sure, there are the simple/martial/exotic breakdowns in 3.x, but i miss the actual lists. something archaic about the whole thing.

i wonder, if i got to actually play ad&d (1st ed.) again i would enjoy it, wot with all the tables, rules wonkiness and all.

RPGPundit · March 04, 2007, 11:07:59 AM

well, given that I've been running a pretty successful D&D RC game for the last while, and in that one we have all the weapons restrictions by class, it seems to be pretty much fine. Not letting Clerics use swords, or Thieves use Two-handed Swords, well, it pretty much takes nothing away from the game and adds more definition to those roles.

RPGPundit

joewolz · March 04, 2007, 11:11:37 AM

You could go play it. Lots of people do and have fun with it.

Personally, I like rules to be a little more streamlined, which is why I like Castles & Crusades. I love me the old mods, too, which is why I'm running Queen of the SPiders with C&C.

It's awesome.

beeber · March 04, 2007, 11:26:45 AM

maybe i'll run something (in ad&d) with my old group during the summer, between classes. i don't think they ever switched to 3.x.

as far as streamlined rules go, tables etc. aside, i don't know anyone who played d&d "rules as written." there was always tweaks or house-rules back in the day.

mmm, maybe digging out "lost temple of tharizdun" and going to town on it would do me good.

i think i'm going through a gamer's midlife crisis or something.

Pseudoephedrine · March 04, 2007, 07:38:30 PM

I really like the "Weapon Group" optional rules in Unearthed Arcana. It allows you to have wizards who use swords and thieves who use axes if you really want them, but with compensating disadvantages in other fields. I've been pushing my group to adopt them for a while now, but nobody really wants to bite.

beejazz · March 04, 2007, 10:33:53 PM

Quote from: PseudoephedrineI really like the "Weapon Group" optional rules in Unearthed Arcana. It allows you to have wizards who use swords and thieves who use axes if you really want them, but with compensating disadvantages in other fields. I've been pushing my group to adopt them for a while now, but nobody really wants to bite.

Yeah... that rule was pretty sweet. Especially when the fighters took [exotic] and three other weapon groups and started pwning like hell.

Monster Manuel · March 05, 2007, 03:55:10 AM

I liked a lot of the ways weapons were handled back in older editions. I loved weapon speed, and don't buy Sean K. Reynolds' reasoning on why they aren't in 3.X.

Christmas Ape · March 05, 2007, 08:07:45 AM

I simply don't buy weapon restrictions by class. Penalties? Excellent. Forbidden from using? Abso-fucking-lutely ridiculous. On par with assuming everyone stands in place for the one minute combat round, then makes one strike on their initiative. Well-meaning rules (in this case niche protection in combat) applied to absurd in-world effect.

And weapon speed has always struck me as better for determining iterative attacks than initiative. When I thought I could make d20 into something I wanted to run, that was my line of thinking.

jrients · March 05, 2007, 08:49:24 AM

Quote from: Monster ManuelI liked a lot of the ways weapons were handled back in older editions. I loved weapon speed, and don't buy Sean K. Reynolds' reasoning on why they aren't in 3.X.

Most of Reynolds' complaints were neatly solved by the Attack Priority system from Dragon #71, which allowed fast weapons multiple attacks AND brought weapon length into play. The only downside was that every weapon and monster attack needed a new stat, the AP rating. It wasn't hard to calculate, though. I've often thought that if I was going to tackle 1st edition again I'd use that article.

Monster Manuel · March 05, 2007, 08:51:55 AM

Quote from: jrientsMost of Reynolds' complaints were neatly solved by the Attack Priority system from Dragon #71, which allowed fast weapons multiple attacks AND brought weapon length into play.

Dragon #71 is a bit before my time as a gamer, but I'd love to see that article. I started playing on the cusp of 2e, so I spent about 6 months running 1e.