1st edition AD&D Reprints - my thoughts

[TheMetal1]

I managed to pick up the 3 AD&D Reprints and have finished up reading through the Players Handbook (save the spell entries). It has been decades since I last used it, so quite a trip down memory lane.

Some interesting observations.

1. Round Segments. While we used rounds and some what used turns - Segments were not used. This means we never used segments in spell casting or initiative.
2. Spell Components. Saw them in the entries, but never used them in our games - nor did we care about the somatic or verbal components.
3. Fighter Attacks. I heard inklings of it being a D&D thing, but never saw it anywhere. Now I get it, as I saw the "Fighters', Paladins', & Rangers' Attacks Per Melee Round Table. We didn't use this table that I recall, but what was particularly interesting was the Note: This excludes melee combat with monsters (q.v.) of less than one hit die (d8) and non-exceptional (0-level) humans and semi-humans, i.e. all creatures with less than one eight-sided hit die. All of these creatures entitle a fighter to attack once for each of his or her experience levels. In C&C there is the combat dominance which at 4th Level you get an extra attack on 1 HD (d6 or smaller) creature. I wondered where this came from, and now I know.
4. Distance. From what I gather, it appears that 10' is the standard mapping increment as opposed to 5'.
5. Shields. This is another thing where, when playing in my early days a shield conferred a straight up +1 AC bonus. When I read the C&C rules, I saw that Shields got the +1 bonus, but then it went on to describe the different sizes would allow limit the times that it could be used in a round when being attacked, i.e. a small shield gave you +1 AC bonus to 1 attack, so if you got attacked 3 times in a round, that AC bonus only applied to one attack. Thought that was just a C&C Detail and now realize it was indeed an AD&D Rule we just never used.
6. Armor Class. Read the combat entry for this, and was surprised at the detail given for example of the Dwarf vs. 7 Hobgoblins. The Dexterity bonus to AC was lost on 4 Hobgoblin attacks because it was made from behind.
7. Combat. It was interesting to see nearly nothing said on the mechanics of combat. This was surprising to say the least - no mention of rolling a d20, etc. Further, the weapons entries were interesting, as length, space required, and speed factor were all listed, but it was something we never used. Nor did we ever use the Damage of weapons based on size.

Over all a good read, with a few typos, but a great trip down memory lane. There is more and as I think of it, I'll post it. The more I ponder this, the more I realize that we as kids simply blended the rules of the basic set with AD&D, creating our own unspoken house rules. All of which was a good thing.

At some point, I'd really like to try to run AD&D rules as written. Likely situation will come up that will have to be house-ruled, but that's all part of the fun.

[Lord Dynel]

Segments were awesome. Maybe I was nuts. I liked them a lot. I liked weapon speed also, but I didn't come to appreciate it until much later. A lot of stuff you mentioned made the gave the game a lot more verisimlitude, in my opinion. Some people handwaved some of the things you mentioned but I think many of those are what captured the magic of the game, at least for me.

Yes, good memories. I think my wife got them for me for Christmas. I don't know for sure yet, though. I have plenty of the originals, but I want to sit down and read these particular copies when I get them.

[Arduin]

I agree L Dynel. Relative weapon speed was great. I still use that idea today for grossly mismatched weapons.

[redwullf]

TheMetal1 really hit on some of the things that have made C&C and Labyrinth Lord so popular. They have that "1st Edition feel" the way most of us played it. Like the OP, we didn't bother with weapon speeds, segments, etc. The modern equivalents to our beloved 1st edition play the same way...that's the appeal.

[finarvyn]

TheMetal1 really hit on some of the things that have made C&C and Labyrinth Lord so popular. They have that "1st Edition feel" the way most of us played it.

Agreed. In the older editions things just didn't have the "full of rules" feel as much as newer games. C&C tends to roll back the clock to those days, where the game flowed well and wasn't burdened with a heavy rulebook.

[captain_blood]

I might look through the reprints, but I had to build my collection of 1st edition books the hard way. I didn't start gaming until these were already out of print. It took many con and used book store trips to find books in good condition at an acceptable price. Needless to say those gems are still treated with kid gloves. As for rules we tried to using as many as we could in different combos to see what we liked. My favorite was weapon v armor type. A cleric with a flail could normally make a fighter in plate his gimp in a strict melee with that optional rule.

[Treebore]

I played 1E AD&D for several months earlier this year. We did not use weapon speeds or weapon versus armor, but we did everything else by the book. I enjoyed the game just as much this year as I did back when I first played it from 1985 to 1989. Only reason we quit playing is everyone else wanted to go back to playing Castles and Crusades. I was fine with continuing or switching, so switch we did.

[Breakdaddy]

We used segments with weapon speed factors and casting times. It was a lot of fun as I recall, but in retrospect I cant determine whether it really added anything to the combat. Still, I would use segments if I ever ran an AD&D game again.

[Ancalagon]

I might look through the reprints, but I had to build my collection of 1st edition books the hard way. I didn't start gaming until these were already out of print. It took many con and used book store trips to find books in good condition at an acceptable price. Needless to say those gems are still treated with kid gloves. As for rules we tried to using as many as we could in different combos to see what we liked. My favorite was weapon v armor type. A cleric with a flail could normally make a fighter in plate his gimp in a strict melee with that optional rule.

Greetings, captain_blood. May your zombies remain intact!