Joined: Sept 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 1,214 Location: Melbourne, Australia Karma: 195
What are the Key Add-ons of each Edition? « Thread Started on Jan 18, 2012, 7:32am »
I'm putting together a post for WotC's 5E forum, and it would be good to be able to correctly state what features came out of each edition. However, memory is not always perfect -- mine leastwise -- and I played some editions only briefly (especially B/X, 2e and 4e).
So I shall cast out the question to your formidable collective knowledge. What was added on to each successive edition?
OD&D had all the basic goodies. What did the others bring to the party..? Holmes (9 alignments, dexterity based initiative, 3rd level cap), B/X, BECMI, (race as class) AD&D (half-orcs, assassin, illusionist, cavalier, barbarian, THAC0, many of the "classic" spells, proficiencies, attacks/round, the one minute "round"), 2E, (kits) 3.0/3.5E, (OGL. Unified XP, unified ability adjustments, 3 saves, ascending AC, feats, d20 skill system, stacking multi-classing, rationalised spell levels) 4E, (powers, defenses, ability growth, massive HPs)
I'm putting together a post for WotC's 5E forum, and it would be good to be able to correctly state what features came out of each edition. However, memory is not always perfect -- mine leastwise -- and I played some editions only briefly (especially B/X, 2e and 4e).
So I shall cast out the question to your formidable collective knowledge. What was added on to each successive edition?
OD&D had all the basic goodies. What did the others bring to the party..? Holmes (9 alignments, dexterity based initiative, 3rd level cap),
I know some people speak of Holmes as an edition. It's not, really. It was conceived as a way to draw people into the game (OD&D) with a cleaner presentation. Also, as published, it directed those who bought it to the then-upcoming AD&D manuals (MM, PHB, and DMG), which were released gradually.
As to specifics, Holmes has five, not nine alignments (LG, CG, N, LE, CE), although this scheme (i.e. of having both Good and Evil versions of Law and Chaos) has already been trotted out by Gygax in 1976 in Strategic Review. Also, it does not have a third level cap. Rather, it only details levels up to third, directing the reader to the existing supplements and the upcoming AD&D books for more details.
Quote:
B/X, BECMI, (race as class)
B/X saw itself as the representation of the original rules (so much so that X contained information on what to do if your "basic" was Holmes and not Moldvay). It restored 3 alignments. It had optional rules for personal initiative as well by a 1d6 with adjustments from Dexterity (and, in the case of Halfling, from class).
BECMI added an array of things at the CMI levels. The Immortals level was radically new. Companion gave explicit rules for developing and maintaining a barony as well as for warfare. Plus, is gave rules for bonuses for demi-humans beyond their maximum level. Master gave rules for Weapon Mastery.
Quote:
AD&D (half-orcs, assassin, illusionist, cavalier, barbarian, THAC0, many of the "classic" spells, proficiencies, attacks/round, the one minute "round"),
Actually, the assassin was introduced in the Blackmoor supplement for OD&D. The illusionist first appeared in Strategic Review. Cavalier and barbarian were late-comers in AD&D, not appearing outside of Dragon until Unearthed Arcana, which also gave official rules for a whole array of demi-human subtypes. THAC0 actually has to wait until 2e. AD&D used charts (with repeating 20s before needing a 21, so it was not a THAC0 system). Weapon proficiencies were at the beginning of AD&D. The non-weapon proficiencies came later (first in Oriental Adventures, if I am not mistaken; maybe someone else here knows for sure?).
Quote:
2E, (kits)
See above re: THAC0. Also, it removed half-orc as a core race. Cleric spells were grouped into spheres, with major, minor, or no access (i.e. giving "official" ways to customize clerical spells based on mythos/god). Bards became a normal, playable class (as opposed to the original version in Strategic Review which was quite powerful [fighter, thief and MU all at once, with charm and lore power and the AD&D version which required quite prohibitively high scores and an initial career first as a fighter and then as a thief before beginning as a bard under druidic tutelage). Thieves and bards could customize their "thief" abilities.
I'll leave these to people better equipped. However, one notable change in 3e, retained in 4e, is that any race could play any class without any level limits.
Re: What are the Key Add-ons of each Edition? « Reply #3 on Jan 18, 2012, 10:49am »
I'll forgot something for sure.
Holmes: Alignments increased from 3 to 5, Thief as a Core Class, Dex Based Initiative.
B/X: symmetric Stat Bonuses, Race-as-Classes, Group Initiative.
BECMI: Weapon Masteries, World Management Rules (after Name Level).
AD&D: more race/class combinations, Racial Stat Bonuses, 9 Alignments, Rules for Multiclass/Dualclass Characters (at least more clear than in OD&D), Prestige Class Prototype (Bard).
2E: NWP, WP, Spheres for Druid/Cleric, Specialist Wizards,
3E: any class/race combination allowed, no racial level limits, different STs, ascending AC, Feats, Point Buy System for Skills, AoO, Prestice Classes, New Classes, Spontaneous Casting for Clerics
3.5E: Damage Reduction based on descriptor and not on a bonus, Spontaneous Casting for Druids, Bard/Sorcerer can forget spells and learn new ones
4E: Powers' Concept, Multiclassing ruled as gaining a Power from another class using a Feat, Hybrid Classes, Healing Surges, Skill Retraining, Half Level Bonus for all, Rituals, Tiers
Re: What are the Key Add-ons of each Edition? « Reply #5 on Jan 18, 2012, 11:14am »
I'd second the above point, adding that the differences between "late" OD&D (i.e. OD&D making use of the classes and such from the supplements as well as the commonly used additions, such as the ranger or illusionist, from Strategic Review and Dragon) and AD&D were such that they were also generally compatible. You can see this in the Monster Manual for AD&D (e.g. in having the weakest armor class be 9 and not 10, only the five alignments, etc.). So, while one can rehearse many of the "add-ons", what it helps to recall is that many of these had been proposed in the main magazines of the hobby or were common kinds of house rules, so one could both add them on or, just as easily, use parts of the new iterations while omitting what had once been house rules of sorts but had made it into "official" books.
I'd also argue that AD&D and 2nd Ed were also somewhat compatible with Holmes, B/X, and BECMI - at least more so than 3rd and 4th.
True, although Saving Throws are a real tragedy in TSR Editions (because there have been little changes from edition to edition making compatibility not so perfect).
Joined: Aug 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 261 Karma: 21
Re: What are the Key Add-ons of each Edition? « Reply #7 on Jan 18, 2012, 1:46pm »
At the risk of ruining my old-skool cred... I actually quite like the 3E system of fortitute/reflex/will saving throws.
In fact I once ran a 3e-lite campaign in which fort/ref/will will were main PC stats (replacing str/int/etc) in addition to also being the saving throws. Everybody had a blast and the game ran smoothly, something I cannot see happening if I'd used wands, poison, dragon breath, etc as the PC stats.
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