My group are avid 3.5 and Pathfinder players, and we keep crawling back to the system.
That said, a good friend of mine has some old D&D books, what I believe are the old 2E Players Handbook, a Monster Manual and FR setting, a module or two and possibly the GM guide.
Now, I've tried to thumb through the books and throw together a character and have just found them absolutely impenetrable. I'd love to run one of the classic modules such as ToEE, Against the Giants or Keep on the Borderlands, but have no idea how to get a grip on the system.
What would you reccomend for a whippersnapper like me trying to get abreast of the old system? How does it compare to Pathfinder? What about running a game with it? What are some of the pitfalls a brand new group should avoid? How compatible are the different editions? What's the simplest iteration of the rules I could run with? ... and lastly are their any online resources I could use?
I've plenty of questions, but we'll see where this thread takes me, as I'm not even certain I've posted this in the right place. :P
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Nothing specific about old school gaming, but The Alexandrian has a lot of good tips in general.
Best I can say is, work on your description. Describe everything. Talk out everything. Try to handwave as little as possible, and use die rolls to enhance and inform the description, not bypass it. The more you describe and have the players describe, the less you make it feel like a video game.
Nothing specific about old school gaming, but The Alexandrian has a lot of good tips in general.
Best I can say is, work on your description. Describe everything. Talk out everything. Try to handwave as little as possible, and use die rolls to enhance and inform the description, not bypass it. The more you describe and have the players describe, the less you make it feel like a video game.
Man, I've been linking people to this article for months. Why did I not think to look around here some more?
Thanks a lot.
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*with the sound of creaking bones, the audible grunts of a painfully slow walk, and the unforgettable aroma of Ben-Gay, in walks an "old tymer"...*
Hiya.
...ok, I'm not *that* old, but I did start in '80. :) What follows is a perspective from an old grognard. This is NOT meant to start any kind of flame war or "my version can beat up your version". As I said, just an olde guard here typing out my somewhat disjointed blatherings about the halcyon days of RPG's...y'know, back when playing a half-orc was "way out there" in terms of the exotic. So...
The 2nd edition AD&D system was right "in between", oddly enough, the ideals of 1e and 3e.
With 3e, the game focused heavily on what the CHARACTERS could do. Tasks are overcome with dice rolls, feat look ups, and rules minutia on what stacks with what and if there's any synergy bonus, etc. There are specific "absolute values" for much of the rules; you can jump X feet based on X DC. If you get X result on your Diplomacy check, your opponent moves up X reaction levels. If you have Feat Y, you can do Y...if you don't, you can't do Y. That kind of thing.
With 1e, the game focused heavily on what the PLAYERS could do. Tasks were overcome with thinking, role-playing and then the DM taking that and the characters general class/race/background into consideration, and either outright saying "Yes, that works", "No, that doesn't work", or, more often, comming up with a statistical chance and letting the dice fall where they may. Skills? Nope. Closest thing we had were an *optional* "Secondary Skills" found in the DMG where the player randomly rolled d100 to see what he/she grew up learning (Blacksmithing, Clothier, Scribe, etc.) No actual "skills", just a general background knowledge of what someone doing that particular job would likely know. And, before you ask, a characters "Primary Skills" would be what he can do as his Class (Fighter, Thief, etc.).
With 2e, the game was kind of at a cross roads. It still had a LOT of player driving forces, but it was starting to develop more and more rules and dice convetions for propabilities. We had more detailed 'proficiencies', taken from and expanded the 1e Dungeon Masters Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide. We had the introduction of 'kits', that further defined specifics on what the CHARACTER could do (or do more easily). Initiative was more detailed as well; no longer was it a simple d6 vs. d6 roll...it was d10 +/- adjustments due to weapon type, vision, environment, etc. Spells were starting to get more defined as to what they could/couldn't do or be used for, and the role of a characters race started to play less into role-playing aspects and more into modifiers to stuff.
Now, what is the point of this little observation on my part? Well, you asked what to expect from 2e. You can expect less "game rule specifics" than you are used to in 3e. There are no specific rules, for example, on exactly how far you can jump. There are also Level Limits and Class/Race limits. You can't play a Dwarven magic-user, for example. You and your DM can come up with whatever reasoning you want on that, but the most common is that dwarves are not magical creatures (in fact, they get a bonus vs. magic saves and have a chance for magic items to just *not work* when they try to use them), so they can't learn to be magic users. Another BIG thing...the game play assumes that YOU, the *player* are the one trying to figure things out and descern information. You won't be making "diplomacy checks" to try and convince the goblin bandits not to kill you all and take your stuff...*you*, the player, will be doing all the talking, bribing, or whatever else you can think of. How successful this is will be up to your words, tact, appropriatness of bribes or whatever, and then the *DM* (not you) will likely make a roll. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. The DM plays a MUCH larger role in the game. If you have a sucky DM, you *will* have a sucky game. If you have an awesome DM, you *will* have an awesome game. As there are less "fiddly rules" than 3e, the competance of your DM and your fellow players will play prominently into your enjoyment and success.
Hope that helps, but I figured it would be better to give you the low-down, from my experience, as to the "feel and expectations" of the game than any rules stuff.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
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My group are avid 3.5 and Pathfinder players, and we keep crawling back to the system.
That said, a good friend of mine has some old D&D books, what I believe are the old 2E Players Handbook, a Monster Manual and FR setting, a module or two and possibly the GM guide.
Now, I've tried to thumb through the books and throw together a character and have just found them absolutely impenetrable. I'd love to run one of the classic modules such as ToEE, Against the Giants or Keep on the Borderlands, but have no idea how to get a grip on the system.
What would you reccomend for a whippersnapper like me trying to get abreast of the old system? How does it compare to Pathfinder? What about running a game with it? What are some of the pitfalls a brand new group should avoid? How compatible are the different editions? What's the simplest iteration of the rules I could run with? ... and lastly are their any online resources I could use?
I've plenty of questions, but we'll see where this thread takes me, as I'm not even certain I've posted this in the right place. :P
I need to know more specifically what books you have and exactly what walls you are running into. There are plenty of us that can walk you through each concept/system so don't worry - it will all be explained.
If it's the to-hit/THAC0 system or some other system question or system expectations let us know. The game also does operate on a different philosophy with more focus on playing the adventure vs. playing the character.
There is also more emphasis on player decision vs. player power. Using the Keep on the Borderlands as an example (which is pretty much a simple hack and slash) I can illustrate some differences.
Even though KotB is a Basic module it can easily be run using 1st or 2nd ed rules. Running it in 1st or 2nd ed the players would need to focus on planing vs. raw power (balanced against CR expectations). See, the issue with the older editions is that they didn't adhere strictly to a protective CR system. So you could have some easy encounters and in area nearby there can be some very tough creatures for the characters level. The older editions didn't care or were not structured with CR budgets or balance.
That doesn't mean that at level 1 you would be fighting Fire Giants, but at the same time if you activated an enemy complex you could easily bring several foes on your head with no restraint based on how "fair" it was, or with respect to level appropriate challenges that were expected to you X amount of resources per encounter.
The best way to look at it is that the old material had encounters which were sometimes tough, or just unfair (if you made mistakes or failed to plan this was often fatal).
For new players the biggest pitfall is not covering all your bases as a team. In 3rd ed you have non-cleric healers, wands of CLWs, etc. In 1st and 2nd you need a cleric in your group if you want to live. Also a solid number of fighters with a Rogue and Wizard. So usually a 5 man team should have a Fighter, alternate Fighter (Pally, Ranger or some fighter multi-classed) a Cleric (Priest), and a Rogue and Wizard. Everyone has a job to do and each team member MUST contribute to have success. Clerics heal and do group support spells (off/def), Rogue does recon and should be used to have the party get a jump on the enemy (as much as possible, very dangerous job) plus he has the most tricks (in 1st and 2nd), and the wizard is the universal tool (no pun intended) and problem solver. He is super fragile and his powers are weak at low level, but his occasional spell can change the tide of a fight or factor into dealing with a problem. Resource management is huge in this game - less spells and less powers/tricks to bail the players out of bad situation. No emphasis on character optimization, more focus on team play and survival plus getting through series of adventures vs. advancing your character - several mods could be played over the course of the sweet spot from around 4th to 9th level and it was conceivable to play a whole module and not gain a level (again, depends on edition).
Anyway, need to get to sleep, if you have specific questions post them - also double check that all your material is 2nd ed (1989). I am not sure what resources you have available besides the info you listed (which was a bit vague).
Hope it helps.
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My group are avid 3.5 and Pathfinder players, and we keep crawling back to the system.
That said, a good friend of mine has some old D&D books, what I believe are the old 2E Players Handbook, a Monster Manual and FR setting, a module or two and possibly the GM guide.
Now, I've tried to thumb through the books and throw together a character and have just found them absolutely impenetrable. I'd love to run one of the classic modules such as ToEE, Against the Giants or Keep on the Borderlands, but have no idea how to get a grip on the system.
What would you reccomend for a whippersnapper like me trying to get abreast of the old system? How does it compare to Pathfinder? What about running a game with it? What are some of the pitfalls a brand new group should avoid? How compatible are the different editions? What's the simplest iteration of the rules I could run with? ... and lastly are their any online resources I could use?
I've plenty of questions, but we'll see where this thread takes me, as I'm not even certain I've posted this in the right place. :P
How far back do you want to go for Keep on the Borderlands? D&D Rules Cyclopedia?
I'd give you the book list if I could get the bastard to bloody well check them. They're sitting two paces from his computer and he wont so much as read the spines. :P
From what I understand he has the AD&D 2e players handbook, monster manual, forgotten realms players guide and oriental adventures, as well as possibly a Dungeon Master's Guide and a "Demonweb Pits" module, I'm not certain which.
From what I understand he has the Player's Handbook,
Hrm, okay. I definately need a crash course on the system, or rather an idea of what needs to be read to understand it. I understood the THAC0 system last time I took up this challenge, but the 2E players handbook seemed to be a mess of rules. Weapon speeds, the lack of a turn-system (how does a combat play out?), the proficiencies... even just building up a character. I was having a lot of trouble. Where should I start? Or alternatively, if I can get my hands on the original AD&D, would that be any simpler?
As for modules, I'm gonna try get my hands on something Gygax penned. Against the Giants, perhaps? What would you kind folks reccomend?
I'll have some proper questions once I can borrow the books off of him, but this should be a start.
Edit: Having done a bit of research, I'd be interested in peoples take on the GDQ series...
It looks like a long slog, and I've got a long backcatalogue of paizo AP's to run, but if my players like the system (or even if they dont) I'd be happy to run that, too.
How far back do you want to go for Keep on the Borderlands? D&D Rules Cyclopedia?
I'm honestly not fussed. I've no idea what modules belong to what edition, and the lines between the editions themselves are pretty blurry. I'm in dire need of a history lesson, by the sounds of things.
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I'm honestly not fussed. I've no idea what modules belong to what edition, and the lines between the editions themselves are pretty blurry. I'm in dire need of a history lesson, by the sounds of things.How far back do you want to go for Keep on the Borderlands? D&D Rules Cyclopedia?
Well back around 1980 D&D diverged into AD&D and BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia D&D. This results in the Gygax AD&D version and the Mentzer D&D boxed sets.
The Mentzer version of the Game System is greatly reduced in complexity.
THACO (To Hit Armor Class Zero)
AC (natural 9) reduced by armor types, and dexterity bonuses...
Leather Armour (AC7), Chainmail (AC5) ,Plate Mail (AC3)...
HP (HD per level: d4 - Thief, Halfling, Wizard; d6 - Elf, Cleric; d8 - Fighter, Dwarf, and Monster Hit Dice)
ML (Morale is a measure against which 2d6 are rolled to test if the Monster/NPC breaks and runs from combat)
My opinion:
If you just want to run an old module, get it, read it, modify it and play it using the 3E/3.5/Pathfinder rules you already know. You just need to adjust the encounters and maybe a few spells and skill uses. The overall plot should be useful in any edition.
That's my option because learning a new system is prolly going to get more time than modifying the encounters.
If you want to play Advanced D&D 2nd Edition you need to read the whole book, except maybe spells. If you want to play something different than a module you also need to read the 2E DMG.
Some rules are scattered all along the book, which is a real PITA, but there are less rules.
You have to understand that 2ndEd combat is abstract in many ways, specially movement, similar to True20 or Mutant&Masterminds but older and even more abstract. You roll initiative each round, the weapon used gives you a modifier to initiative (iirc spells are cast later and ranged weapons shoot first). You can move a lot (1 minute rounds), there aren't 5' steps or Attacks of Oportunity. However once you get engaged with an enemy you can only flee or move to attack a distant enemy suffering some penalties. There are many differences so you have to read all the rules.
If you want to DM you own campaign in 2ndEd you have two choices: a) hard work and testing in order to make balanced encounters. b) assume that you are gonna kill a player character each week and quickly choose monsters as you wish.
As others said before there isn't CR or good encounter-making rules in 2nd Ed. Every monster has got an xp value... but this xp value is usually wrong, it isn't based in the actual tested power of the monster but a simple table that isn't fair at all. In other words: It is common to find monsters of 500xp that are more powerfull than 2000 xp monsters, just the same problem with moderm games CRs, but way worse.
If you want to play Advanced D&D 2nd Edition you need to read the whole book, except maybe spells.
Yes, that's what I was afraid of. :P
Thanks for the advice.
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I'd give you the book list if I could get the bastard to bloody well check them. They're sitting two paces from his computer and he wont so much as read the spines. :P
From what I understand he has the AD&D 2e players handbook, monster manual, forgotten realms players guide and oriental adventures, as well as possibly a Dungeon Master's Guide and a "Demonweb Pits" module, I'm not certain which.
From what I understand he has the Player's Handbook,
Hrm, okay. I definately need a crash course on the system, or rather an idea of what needs to be read to understand it. I understood the THAC0 system last time I took up this challenge, but the 2E players handbook seemed to be a mess of rules. Weapon speeds, the lack of a turn-system (how does a combat play out?), the proficiencies... even just building up a character. I was having a lot of trouble. Where should I start? Or alternatively, if I can get my hands on the original AD&D, would that be any simpler?
As for modules, I'm gonna try get my hands on something Gygax penned. Against the Giants, perhaps? What would you kind folks reccomend?
I'll have some proper questions once I can borrow the books off of him, but this should be a start.
Edit: Having done a bit of research, I'd be interested in peoples take on the GDQ series...
It looks like a long slog, and I've got a long backcatalogue of paizo AP's to run, but if my players like the system (or even if they dont) I'd be happy to run that, too.
So you know:
G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief Levels 8–12G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl Levels 8–12
G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King Levels 8–12
D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth Levels 9-14
D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa Levels 9-14
D3 Vault of the Drow Levels 10–14
Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits Levels 10–14
Because of the high levels many people used these as starter games
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity Levels 4–7
A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade Levels 4–7
A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords Levels 4–7
A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords Levels 4–7
All the older modules also assumed more prep work by the GM. KotB a level 1–3 module being a prime example. Whats the name of the Keep? Hundreds of NPC's listed but not a single one named. Whats the kingdom it is on the border of? Lots of blank spaces in the areas back story. Whats to the left of the map?
Another Grognard here. I'll try and answer all your questions.
Before I do that, I want to mention something. I could be wrong, but if my memory is correct, you are mixing editions in your list of books. You mentioned the 2nd Edition PHB. Monster Manual was 1st Edition, the 2nd Edition had the Monstrous Compendiums. The Forgotten Realms could be either 1st Edition (Boxed set) or 2nd Edition (hadcover book). Temple of Elemental Evil was 1st Edition. Keep on the Borderlands was Basic. I'm not sure about Against the Giants. However, I suppose some of these could have been printed in multiple editions.
What would you reccomend for a whippersnapper like me trying to get abreast of the old system?
I've played every edition of D&D since the early 80s. I'm not wanting to start an editions war, but my opinion is that the editions got BETTER as time passed, with the exception of 4e. My favorite edition happens to be Pathfinder. If you want to try some older stuff, I recommend 3rd edition. If you want something with more of a difference to Pathfinder than 3rd Edition, try 2nd edition.
How does it compare to Pathfinder?
It's like comparing apples and oranges. Comparing Basic or 4e to Pathfinder is more like comparing apples to pickles. That is to say, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Pathfinder are all more closely related than Basic, 4e, and Pathfinder; but even so, they are different products with different flavors.
What about running a game with it?
Go for it.
What are some of the pitfalls a brand new group should avoid? How compatible are the different editions?
The editions are not compatable. As to the "pitfalls", I guess it depends on what you mean by that.
BASIC:
Yellowdingo mentioned the highlights of Basic. There were a couple of other options for armor, like shields and a "suit" of armor (introduced in the Master's set), but Yellowdingo's description is pretty accurate in describing the general aspect of the game. Character options were VERY limited (for instance, there were only 3 alignments), so the game necessarily depended more on a player's inginuity to solve things and a player's roleplaying to stand apart from other characters of the same race (or class if human).
1st Edition:
1st edition was very deadly to player characters, compared to the other editions of the game. There were lots of save-or-die effects. Lots of near-impossible deathtraps that player's found themselves in. Lots of severe penalties for doing mundane things like opening a door. Lots of fights against monsters, or groups of monsters, that were too powerful for the party level. Did I mention it was deadly?
Also, 1st Edition's initiative system was a little crazy. The basic rule was to roll a D6 for each TEAM (PCs and monsters), lowest TEAM goes first. But there were exceptions for high Dex, exceptions for being a ranger, exceptions for your race, exceptions for spellcasting, exceptions for missle attacks, and exceptions for polearms (if I remember correctly). There may have even been exceptions for the exceptions.
2nd Edition:
This is actually the edition I played the most, even counting Pathfinder, 3rd, 3.5, and 4e. Pming mentioned the kits and improvement to initiative. I just want to add to that, that I actually miss weapon speeds and the old style casting times. Both were optional rules (2nd edition had lots of optional rules), but they added a ballance to the weapons and spells that I think is missing in current editions. Essentially, if your weapon speed was 5, it took you 5 initiative segments, in addition to your initiative roll, to make an attack. The bigger, more damaging weapons (two-handed sword) were a lot slower than the smaller, less-damaging weapons (dagger).
Likewise, as a general rule (there were exceptions), a spell's casting time was going to be in the neighborhood if its spell level, so it took more time to conjure a fireball than it did to sling a magic missle. People complained that 2nd edition wizards were all-powerful, but if your wizard took damage before he finished casting, he lost the spell. No concentration checks. No chance to keep the spell for a future round. It was gone. I should also mention that wizards couldn't move when casting, meaning they lost their DEX bonus to AC.
Finally. I mentioned that weapon speeds and castng times were optional rules. other optional rules included non-weapon proficiencies, kits, encumberance, individual initiative, jogging and running, and spell components, just to name a few.
What's the simplest iteration of the rules I could run with?
No question. Basic. However, let me add that if you progress past level 36 (Basic's levels went up that high), the game REALLY changes. After level 36, you can become an immortal. You can design your body, even down to how many limbs you have. You also get new (as in completely different) powers and abilities. In short, its an entirely different game after level 36.
are their any online resources I could use?
That I'm not sure about. wikipedia???
I currently play Pathfinder, but I have played editions of D&D going back to 1981, including a lot of 1e and 2e. While those two are different editions, most of the differences between the two are relatively small. As a result, modules from one are almost always easily usable with the other.
Since it's the 2nd edition PH you have, I'll focus mainly on differences between that and the 3e/PF stuff you know.
One major difference between the two is the availability of magic items. Modules have loads of them in classic AD&D, but PCs have a much harder time making them or easily choosing them to build their character. 2e specifically discourages trade in magic items and doesn't even include prices for them in the DMG (something the 1e DMG does). The rules for making magic items are more based on DM fiat and characters can't even really start trying to do it until they can make scrolls at 7th level. 3e, with the magic item creation feats and creation system, changed the assumptions of many players. Instead of being cool stuff to find or build quests on, pipe dreams to wistfully think about and beg DMs for, magic items became seen by some players as a point-based character ability building system. It's still possible to play 3e/PF in a 1e/2e mode in this respect, but it's hard to re-educate players to stop thinking of specific items as entitlements.
When it comes to mechanical play, combat is surprisingly not all that much different. The idea of move and attack actions is there in an earlier form and less well defined. But one major difference is initiative is determined on a round by round basis. It becomes one of the most rolled tasks in the game. This has the effect of some players managing to get actions in a row, but not being able to count on that. Casting spells, if you add casting times to initiative rolls (which I do recommend) becomes a more daunting prospect since spells become easier to disrupt.
Making attacks uses the THAC0 rating. That's your ability to hit the AC0, which is the midrange of armor classes. Generally, it's about the best AC a character without magic gear can get. You roll a d20, subtract that result from your THAC0, and that's the AC you hit. This is a bit clunky for casual players (3e is definitely more user friendly in this regard), but it worked OK at the time. The reason they used this mechanic is an artifact of how armor was rated when D&D debuted. They used a wargaming mechanic drawn from a civil war naval wargame in which the best armor was something like Class 1, next best was Class 2, and so on. D&D kept that idea with good armor having a lower number. Unfortunately, they also added magical enhancements that ended up getting ACs better than Armor Class 1 and into negative numbers we went. It's weird to look back on it now, but it was simply something you learned to deal with. It's easy enough to swing around the other way like 3e did.
One other difference to point out - particularly if you're interested in running 1e adventures: in 1e characters gained most of their XPs from treasure, not overcoming monsters. 2e shifted most XP gain to monsters and story awards, but it's important to realize in 1e adventures. They have lots of treasure, as a result, to make sure PCs gained the XPs they needed to advance at a reasonable rate. So what do PCs do with all that treasure? With little ability to buy or craft magic items, players invested in strongholds to some extent, but the bulk of the money in 1e went toward paying for training costs. You needed to spend gobs and gobs of cash to level-up in 1e - approximately 1500 gp/level/week of training and the number of weeks of training you needed depended on how well the DM thought you played your character. It was fairly common to see PCs stuck at a level because they couldn't afford to pay to level up, if you followed those rules fairly closely. Training was relegated to being an optional rule in 2e, so 2e characters may feel awfully rich compared to their 1e counterparts if using 1e modules. Ultimately, that's a pretty minor thing, particularly if they can't readily buy any old magic item they want.
2e AD&D, and 1e, are definitely good games. I enjoyed them immensely. If it hadn't been for PF being so good, I might have considered playing more 2e - an edition I have fond memories for (for the most part - didn't much like the 2e ranger, 1e's was much better).
If you want to play Advanced D&D 2nd Edition you need to read the whole book, except maybe spells.Yes, that's what I was afraid of. :P
Thanks for the advice.
Now the good news: Most pages of the PH are for spells, and the book isn't that big.
Ah, the magic items can be found in the DMG iirc.
One thing I would like to mention if you decide to run a retro game.
Be very careful of the spells. Save or die spells were much more common in the earlier editions than in third or later.
You only got HP up to 9th or 10th level and you only received the benefits of a high constitution if you were a fighter type, everyone gets con bonuses but only fighters get a +3 or +4 bonus for having a 17 or 18 con.
Wizards start out very, very weak but by the time they hit 7th or higher levels it's pretty much their world.
Which reminds me of the staggered exp charts. Thieves go up amazingly fast because they get exp in a 1 to 1 ratio for every gold piece worth of stuff they steal. a 10 platinum piece pouch just earned the thief 100 exp. Wizards get exp for every spell they cast to overcome a problem. Plus when they get higher levels they gain exp for making magic items, which is much, much harder.
these are just a few things I remember, hope it helps.
First off, I do want to say you can go back and play the old school games even if you've spent a lot of time playing 3E and later. Back in January I ran part of the old B11 King's Festival module using Rules Cyclopedia rules (with some house rules for skills) and had a great time of it.
My quick thoughts on how older editions differ, a lot of which has been said above.
The game is less tactical. There isn't such a default assumption that you have this battle grid. If you decide to you can easily just draw scenes and dungeons on graph paper and describe how things happen. Mostly in the old days we used miniatures for showing our marching order. It can tend to make scenes more descriptive and cinematic but can lead to disagreements on who was standing where and if they did or did not get caught in the radius of a spell.
Each edition had different initiative rules but all of them were based on an initiative roll each round. Since you'll seem likely to play 2nd edition, that one used a d10 where lower number was better and things like weapon speeds and spell casting times added segments to your die roll to determine when you went.
AC goes down, lower is better - As said above you used THAC0 or looked up your to hit numbers on charts. Not complicated, but not as immediately intuitive either.
Saving Throws were different. Unlike 3E where you have three types based on whether the attack targets your body/endurance, your mind/spirit or your ability to dodge out of the way, saving throws were against specific types of attacks - spells, or wands, or poisons, or death rays, etc. It took some creative DMing to figure what to save against when it didn't fit neatly into one of the categories. Also, your saving throws were based on tables for your class and often didn't improve for several levels at a time.
As has been said, in those games the adventures often were more about testing player skill than character skills. Most fighters were 90% identical other than the weapons and other gear they had. How they differed was in how they were played.
There were a lot of different systems. Unlike 3E and later, it wasn't a safe assumption that you rolled a d20 and wanted to get a high number. In 2E, attacks were d20 roll high, non-weapon proficiencies were d20 roll low, init was d10 roll low, thief skills were percentile roll low, an elf's chance to spot secret doors was like 1-2 on a d6 and so on.
The same six ability scores existed but the modifiers differed by ability. It was really hard to get a strength score that gave you a great chance to hit or do extra damage. AD&D also had this goofy percentile strength if you had 18 STR, assuming you were like a fighter. Only the older basic game had a fixed 15 gives you +2 sort of thing going for it.
Characters are squishier - lower hit points to start, constitution bonuses to hit points stopped when you reached "name level", you died when you reached 0 hit points if you didn't use some optional rules and so on. I think we pretty much always started our PCs with max hit points at first level but that was a house rule. There were also more save versus death type effects in the game as has been mentioned. The good news? Characters, especially first level, were a lot faster to make even without a computer since you had so few options.
Classes had less features and there were often dead levels where the character gained little other than maybe a few hit points or a new spell or two. This is more of an issue with a long campaign than a one shot and one of the things I feel the later editions helped with, making it more fun to level up.
There were different XP charts per class. Some classes went up in level quicker. This was a way of them balancing out the powers of the classes since there was a lot of disparity between 1st level and 15th level. The fighter was top dog at level 1 but the wizard was great at 15.
The game set various class/race level limits. In part this was to prevent some characters from being over powerful, or offsetting the fact that an elf at level one was basically a fighter and a magic-user rolled together with cool elf abilities on top of it. In basic D&D, dwarves could only go to level 12, elves 10 and halflings 8.
The old school way definitely was a bit easier for the DM who liked to come up with on the spot solutions and kind of wing it. Simpler monster stat blocks. Less exception based abilities to worry about with the PCs. Each critter had all you needed to play it covered in the book without needing to do a lot of cross referencing. Not a lot of checking of other books to see what a given feat or spell or spell-like ability does (and area of monster design I think 4E did a great job with). It is pretty hard to gauge balance and it takes some practice but you can get the hang of it.
That's all I have for now.
L
Some of the first editon modules Gygax created were some of the best I've ever played. Wish some of these old classic modules would come back in print.
The 2nd edition Player's Handbook is only 124 pages worth of rules and the rest is spells. Not very much at all but I do suggest taking notes of certain more obscure rules while reading otherwise much will be forgotton. The book has rules scattered throughout, and not the most organized format so I do suggest reading all 124 pages of the book.
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One thing that I've noticed is your adventures are largely 1e (First Edition AD&D), which means you're going to want access to that ruleset. I would recommend checking out Labyrinth Lord, a "retro-clone" that organizes and cleans up the 1e rules. I'd also recommend picking up the Advanced Edition Companion, which will give you more options for play.
Also, if you enjoy the Alexandrian, here's a number of other high-quality "old school" blogs:
The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope
Have fun!
Never played with rolling init every round...once at the start of combat and that was it.
1E was more heavily biased towards Melees. Other classes simply did not get the benefits of higher ability scores, or could not wear the armor. They also could not buff their way into awesome strength.
Thus, the most any other class could hope for was an 18 str, for +1/+2. Only the fighter-types could use Girdles of Giant Strength.
The primary way for a wizard to gain xp was to find spellbooks. At 100 gp/spell level, 1 xp/gp, spellbooks were worth HUGE xp to wizards. Find the book of an enemy wizard, get more spells AND more xp? Wizards shot up in levels.
Only theives shot up faster. heh.
Wizards squishy meant they had to stay to their role. Getting into melee was a BAD idea. They had sucky hit points and crappy armor.
No making or buying loot. You got what the DM gave you. You couldn't buy loot, either...no magic stores, and making it was completely an elective, and cost you a point of Constitution!
It was a completely different style of play. Multi-classing was basically the only way one class could take over the role of another, there was very little 'bleed' in class roles. Monsters were much weaker overall, Christmas Tree Magic was nowhere near as important. A 10th level fighter could reliably hope to take on an Ancient Red Dragon and have a excellent chance of killing it solo.
Spellcasters were far more vulnerable in 1E, which didn't detract from their power if they got spells off.
==Aelryinth