Quote from: Casey777To be fair it's still a 1975 RPG and the magic duels are mainly a note to see the War of Wizards game but still...

Spoiler

and it's also the only non-crippled (i.e. it goes beyond level 3) version of OD&D currently available for sale in both PDF and print.

It is also a very well organised game, plus a fun read as well. I highly recommend buying, reading, looting and even playing it (it is also more attractive for me as a game of weird dungeon crawling than the culture-simulation thing its descendants became).

Quote from: Christmas ApeSee, here I was, about to do my smart-ass dictionary.com "No meaning found for 'apposite'" thing. And lo and behold, it's a real word.

I guess the ape learned something today.

You pick that shit up when you need to pass those grad school exams. For foreigners from non-Romance language countries the language section of the GRE is a killer. English is SO latinized.

It was tough deciding between Basic/Expert D&D and a stripped-down version of d20 (which, for me, would most likely be something as skeletal as Core Elements Toolbox Edition), but ultimately I ended up choosing the former out of nostalgia.  Not that it doesn't work - I used it a few years ago and it worked beautifully - but I get warm fuzzies with it, too.

It's a close call between Basic/Expert and AD&D2.  Initially, I really enjoy the simpler to run Basic/Expert, but then I start wanting more.  I start wanting weapon proficiencies and non-weapon proficiencies and to be able to customize thief skills and stuff.  Every once in a while, I even like to use the Players Option rules to create custom classes.  I don't really like the mandatory detail overkill in D&D3.  AD&D2 let's me add it in a more step by step process.  So, AD&D2 wins.

Heh, interesting. I thought my Basic/Expert vote (mainly out of nostalgia) would be an odd one out. Instead, I discover I'm in a majority. Who'd have thought this closet was so roomy? :chestram:

White box OD&D (with Chainmail and supplements) has been my favorite back to its creation. I like the fact that the books are small, somewhat rules light, and concise. The rules are designed to give a player the basic information needed, and the DM the freedom to adapt and adjust as desired.

As a Castles & Crusades playtester, I think I'd place C&C second on my list. I think that C&C goes a long way toward generating that "old school" feel of the game. There are also some other games out there such as OSRIC and "Basic Fantasy RPG" (not to be confused with the Chaosium rules of a similar name) which are designed to do much the same thing as C&C. For all of these examples, the intent was to take a current version of the SRD and reduce it to the elements that made OD&D so great in the 1970's but with some of the more recent innovations to the game.

Most modern RPGs present themselves as the end-all authority on the game and imply that the rules need to be followed exactly as written. That's fine for tournament play, but for my house campaign I have no interest in someone telling me how to run my game. Also, many of the current game systems are quite rules-heavy, with rules drawn up for nearly every imaginible situation. My feeling is that the designers intend for players to own copies of the core rules plus all of the add-on books in order to have the "complete" game. In the old days we would just have a player grab a die and roll it, with the DM making a quick on-the-fly ruling.

Just my thoughts.

I picked True20 because I knew it would get no love, but really I like anything 3.x/d20 related.

I'm surprised to see so many "Basic/Expert D&D (including Rules Cyclopedia)" votes.  Then again all the material is there now, unlike back in the day when you might have a group with a oddment of D&D and AD&D books kludging systems together.

But which version of the Basic set do you prefer?

I picked 3.X because it's just easier to introduce noobs with. Fuck, I have a 4 year old playing it. Her math isn't up to it, true, but her role-playing isn't too bad.

Any game I can get preshoolers into that I can play happily as well, gets my vote.

I'm not really a fan of D&D anymore, but while 3.x isn't my favorite game system by any means, it's still a hell of an improvement over previous incarnations in almost every way. The hard-coded dependence on miniatures and positional tactics (AoO, etc.) is the only real step backward I see in the latest edition (played 2e for years w/o ever having to think about any of that). Otherwise, a welcome improvement in all areas.

Let's just hope the next edition loosens up the rule system a bit. It's starting to feel confining again, and that's usually a sign that it's time to clean house.

I really loved the 3rd edition changes when they came out, and still like the game a lot. Particularly, there was a great deal more customization options in the new rules than before.

That being said, it's been a long time since I've played 2nd edition AD&D, and sometimes I wonder what I would think of it if I gave it a try now. Would not having feats, attacks of opportunity, and a few other crunchy new additions make the game any smoother to run or prep for? I don't know, but it's an interesting question.

Actually, I played in a 2-night pick-up game of 2e after having played and gotten used to 3e, and it wasn't pretty. I didn't miss AoO's at all (even though we used minis, for once). But everything else was clunky and restrictive by comparison. The archaism and lack of cohesion in the rules was actively distracting to me after having tasted better. Sure, we took that stuff for granted back in the day (or more likely, house-ruled the hell out of it), but times have changed.

Just like it's not fair to judge 2e by today's standards (since it doesn't live up to any of them), it's also not fair to inflict it upon unsuspecting players who have grown accustomed to 21st-century gaming.

I voted for C&C over basic just because I have a C&C game taking place monthly. I wish I could get that group together more.

I voted C&C. At this point of the D&D variants out there it fits me the best.

I prefer the 3.5 system, but with the gaming culture of the 1st edition days.