Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition

OK, Reading - I've done a LOT of Reading of late (and not just the Historical Research of I've been doing recently either).

I was re-reading my AD&D books last night, looking to planning some new games and I've come to a conclusion - I really REALLY don't think I am ever actually going to "buy into" D&D Next.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part I've really enjoyed what I've seen . . . . .

BUT (there's always a big BUT in these sort of Blog Posts don't you think) I adore AD&D 1st Ed to an almost irrational degree, and as a consequence I am more than happy with the way it plays/runs/feels.

I am actually in love with running AD&D (call me sad if you want, tbh I don't give a crap) - and (naturally) my players are happy when I'm happy (well, happy when they don't screw up during a Dungeon LoL).

So - nope, I'm not going to change ever I don't think. I'll still run Castles & Crusades - its a brilliant game, perfect for newbies and those who prefer a "rules lite" RPG experience. But my Heart will ALWAYS belong to AD&D 1st Edition.

This isn't just borne out of growing suspicions over D&D next (HOWEVER after reading and re-reading it there's actually a lot of 4E "badness" in the document that has (unfortunately) simply been re-tooled and/or re-named, but if you read it again and pay close enough attention to the wording (I.E. the way these rules work) these "things" are still in there (a Bonus of 1,000 XP to those people who've spotted them too).

D&D Next Playtest

As I agreed to Wizards NDA I cannot give specifics regarding the most recent D&D Next playtest notes - but an NDA doesn't cover my "feelings" about what I've seen so far.

So, without "letting the Cat out of the Bag" here goes -

All in all, I've been left feeling quite optimistic.

So far I am pretty impressed with what I see. Everyone who knows me is aware I wasn't the biggest fan of 3.X in the world - and even though it's SIMILAR in places, but also a lot more in depth and less arbitrary that 3.X was.

I was also really quite impressed at how little of 4E is present within this playtest "sample" - and the whole feel of the way it's presented is very much like a "Classic" Fantasy Roleplaying Game.

There are advantages and disadvantages to everything I've read so far (including one would imagine character generation - though there are only pre-created character examples) but I've tried to focus on the best aspects of what I have read so far.

Although I am still not 100% convinced, it was quite a pleasant surprise!

Lord of the Nerds

Gary Gygax has been a big influence on me growing up, from an early aged Teen receivng a White Box copy of Dungeons and Dragons to reading his fiction - Gary's legacy has always been important to me.

I was delighted when his daughter Heidi mentioned on Facebook that she had a relatively unknown article about her Dad entitled "Lord of the Nerds" as a scan saved to PDF!

I asked Heidi if it would be OK to host the article on my D&D Blog, and she graciously agreed.

Actually, its a little better than she first inferred - it's even got some hand written notes by her mother too.

So, enjoy!

Lord of the Nerds