This first chart keeps things simple by charting the origins of D&D and the evolution of D&D, AD&D, and the positioning of some other early developments, up to the debut of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition in 1989. Perhaps later I’ll take things from 2E through 4E, but the era presented is the real heart of the whole discussion, particularly the split between D&D and AD&D and the contributions of Gygax vs. Arneson.
(via Purple Pawn)
That was kinda confusing haha. Ive never played Dungeons and Dragons before.. is it fun? (P.S. I made a montage of you and River Phoenix for youtube yesterday.. if you wanna check it out you can just use this URL, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daeNaMEdptE. It would be cool if you would watch it and give me some feedback! Oh yeah and good news, I will probable get to go to the ComiCon in Arizona!! Yay!)
Definitely something that would make sense to only hard core D&D folks, of which I am not one. However, since some of those sort might read these comments, perhaps someone could fill me on something.
When I was in 4th grade, I attended the gawd awfully named “Area D Alternative School” in LA. Seriously, does that not sound like some sort of school for alien pod people? In any case, it was a pretty crazy set-up, even for the 70’s, where we could cuss and call teachers by their first name, and take any class we wanted to at any age. Ah the 70’s…. So one day on a field trip, during our lunch break as I recall, some of the kids start playing this game with dice and notebooks that they called Dungeons and Dragons. I sat with them and tried to play along. Mind you, this was 1975 or 76, so there wasn’t a book or anything yet that I know of.
My question is, how did these kids know about D&D? Was there some sort of group of D&D players, prior to the game being published? Was the LA area where it all started? I guess I’m just not up on early D&D history, so I’m curious how it tied in with that group at school.
BTW, my husband, who was an avid D&D player back in H.S. in 1978, just rolls his eyes whenever I tell friends that I actually played it at least a couple years before he did. And I never really played it after that. Go figure.
My God! — Those were the good years. I was working on “StarFleet Battles” and hanging with Weis, Elmore, and the TSR crew back then.
I also remember when no game distributor would dare pick up this new weird product. Then Lou Zocchi (Uncle Lou) said, “Sure, I’ll distribute it. As long as I get to manufacture the dice for it.” And so was brought into the world (markets) thyne D&D and it was good!…
Cheers’
Tom…
Ah, the memories. I was introduced to D&D in ’77ish, then quickly jumped to AD&D. Yeah, I was hardcore – and I’m having a little trouble following the genealogy…
Wil, I’m very happy (and a little jealous) that you’re enjoying a play day. Yes, the floor is the only place to roll up a new character! Anyone want to DM (they’ll _always_ be Dungeon Master to me) a game in the Reno/Sparks vicinity? – g^2
P.S. On a completely unrelated note, how could it ever be possible to confuse our illustrious Wil with MC Hammer?!
Wow, I think im one of the youngest ones on this site. I hear everyone saying stuff about the 70’s and 80’s and I was born in the 90’s… thats probably why I cant apprehend some of these things…
You mean this ISN’T MC Hammer?! WTF am I following this blog for. OMG!! I’m so disappointed right now…
You know, I started telling my wife how cool this was, and getting all enthusiastic, and she– a woman who would not only MARRY ME, but who would play games with me, talk about all kinds of game stuff, read fantasy novels, and so on and so forth, declared this TOO NERDY.
…of course, now I want to get the 3 or 4 people I know around here and talk them into letting me run a First Edition AD&D With My Bonus House Rules From When I Hadn’t Read Most Of The Rulebooks game for them… I’d get ’em all happy and levelled up with some fun dungeon crawls and an occasional outdoor adventure of some sort or other and then, once they were level 10 or 12 and feeling pretty badass, BAM, Tomb of Horrors. Yeah…
>now I want to get the 3 or 4 people I know around here and talk them into letting me run a First Edition AD&D
Oh dude! Friends don’t let friends play First Edition any more. Go for Edition 3.5,or better yet, go for Pathfinder RPG, the heir to the 3.5 throne. 4th edition is totally different game with the D&D name tacked onto it.
Example: 1st Edition:
Player: The Orc King has an armor class of 4. What do I need to hit it?
DM: Well let’s see. What character class are you and what level are you? Let me look that up and cross reference this chart of “to hit” rolls. Just a second, OK, it looks like you need to roll a 16 or better.
Example: 3.5 Edition:
Player: The Orc King has an armor class of 16. What do I need to hit it?
DM: 16
Since 3.5 is no longer supported and the books are no longer being printed you can either buy them on EBay, or check Amazon for the Pathfinder Playtest Beta book. I found it for $12. The full hardcover edition will be out in August and it will be a stand alone replacement for the out of print 3.5 D&D books. When that happens I think you’ll see a lot of gamers leave D&D 4th edition behind entirely and move fully into Pathfinder.
Tom Hanks is about to jump off the top of the World Trade Center…
His friend says, “No! Don’t do it! You’ll die!!”
To which he replies, “But I have a flight spell.”
The quick-thinking DM says, “No, Pardu. I am the Maze Master… you don’t have enough points.”
Tom Hanks thinks this is a pretty logical argument and climbs down off the wall.
My boyfriend and I happened to catch “Mazes and Monsters” on tv the other night. HIGHlarious!!!
“Why can’t I remember anything????”
2nd Edition is the only real AD&D, nuff said!
But seriously… we still play 2nd Edition only. At first it was because we already had so much 2E stuff when 3 / 3.5 came out, so we just didn’t want to spend the money to begin from scratch. But nowadays I still prefer 2nd edition over the new ones. There are some nice things in 3rd ed. but for my friends and me there’s just not enough ‘better’ stuff in 3rd ed to justify abandoning 2nd ed.
And when I hear ppl complaining about the complexity of 2nd ed. I just keep my mouth shut and feel sorry for them. 😀
One thing I have to admit though is, 3rd ed. is not really bad, and actually for new players there might be nor reason not to like it. The 2nd edition fandom mostly resides on ‘we got used to it’ I guess. 😀
damn, hit the post button instead of preview. sorry for the typos.
one more thing: I didn’t mention 4th ed. because I haven’t read any 4th ed. material yet.
I’m with you, spec10. My group has been playing 2E for almost twenty years. We’ve made some modifications over time, but we still love it. Even Thac0.
DruLeeParsec: Why would you buy them when everything you need to play is reproduced (legally, even) on http://www.d20srd.org ?
Tilatta: I will check into that. But I should say that I’m quite impressed with the quality of the Paizo Pathfinder book and modules.
I’m trying to get together a group of 4 or 5 folks as PCs so I can DM a game.
Yes, I’m also just a geek.
I remember getting into D&D, white box, when it got released around 1977. My group had been doing AH boardgames including 3rd Reich. Then this strange little game called Dungeons and Dragons came out. My parents didn’t have an issue with the magic or anything just the complete waste of time. Of course I still participate in complete wastes of time, just focusing in on boardgames and miniatures. While I like RPG’s I don’t have the time to play in a campaign, play miniatures, paint figs and play boardgames. So first the SCA got dropped then the RPG’s.
WOW! I used to be a big D&D dork way back in the day, so this made sense to me. Only ever played with 2E rules tho. But this was very insightful!
Pretty funny that it took almost 20 years for someone to make a chart like this.
Oh, this reminds me. Have you ever read Order of the Stick over at http://www.giantitp.com (link to the latest issue is on the left, but start at the beginning)? If not, you deserve to read all 614 issues so far.
I am thinking you will be enjoying it very much, yes?
The title of this post, containing “D&D” and “tree,” reminded me of the ornaments I just made out of a set of red and green dice… the DM of our current game is going to be the lucky recipient of the d20 ornament.
Ah, that reminded me of what I considered the best fantasy world out there to use with these systems: Harn.