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Post by coffee on Sept 22, 2009 14:53:46 GMT -6
I wonder if any two D&D groups have ever used D&D rules identical to each other. Even, for example, two groups both using B/X and nothing else. The chances are very slim that they would apply the B/X rules in the exact same way: "Oh, we're pretty casual about rolling for morale." "We let halflings go to level 10." "We give the poor 1st-level cleric a spell." "We ________________." Etc. And add in the fact that the rules flat out tell you to change what you don't like. Then you can pretty much guarantee that things are at least slightly different from table to table.
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Post by geordie on Sept 22, 2009 15:37:46 GMT -6
I played D&D in a gaming group who, for a few weeks, swapped DM duties very three levels of a dungeon, and each had a different slant on the rules - one was more freeform whereas another was into historical re-enactment (loooong combats), one used Holmes initiative for the monsters, one used critical hit tables whenever there was damage, another used 6s-roll-again with OD&D weapon damage ..... - but we players just played D&D whatever. The game is more than the rules, the common threads that run through the different editions nurture the tropes of D&D.
I hope we never all agree on 'one version to rule them all' , I prefer D&D as a moving target rather than a monument, a vibrant chameleon.
It's what Gygax and Arneson left out-the negative space-that draws us to dabble with the rules - but at the table, when your racing down a trapped corridor to avoid the Beholder on your tail, it's D&D
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Post by coffee on Sept 22, 2009 20:51:51 GMT -6
It's what Gygax and Arneson left out-the negative space-that draws us to dabble with the rules - but at the table, when your racing down a trapped corridor to avoid the Beholder on your tail, it's D&D Very well said! Have your first exalt since you came back.
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Post by Lord Kilgore on Sept 23, 2009 8:21:05 GMT -6
An analogy is all the versions of Monopoly (which all are slight variations on the same game): Star Wars Monopoly, National Parks Monopoly, Beatles Monopoly, Denver Broncos Monopoly, Mega Monopoly, etc. That's interesting you use that example. I just said the same thing in a conversation, though I don't know if I thought it up myself or saw it somewhere before.
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Post by machfront on Sept 27, 2009 18:28:11 GMT -6
Makes me wonder if a decent solution might be to start with OSRIC (AD&D clone, rewritten to be more readable) and deleting from there. Dan Proctor's soon to be released Advanced Edition Companion for Labyrinth Lord may be what you're looking for. It basically allows you to turn LL into AD&D-lite, but leaves out a lot of those sub-systems in 1e that most of us never used anyway. Beat me to it. Want something that cuts a good bit closer to OD&D than S&W? Labyrinth Lord + it's Original Edition Characters. AD&D-lite? As Greyharp said, LL's Advanced Edition Companion seems to be promising to do precisely that. (If not at least AD&D as I wished it would have been...should have been when I was 13. ;D)
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