Comments on: Top 5 Things to Miss About D&D 2nd Edition

By: up yours

up yours — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:39:17 +0000

4e is for mongoloids and ppl who are too stupid to figure out simple things like thac0,play your watered down crapfest sandbox game,and leave whats left of a game that doesent require you to kiss boys and have a hitler haircut to the real RPG’ers,go play World of warcrap and oh and eat a dick!

By: bml

bml — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:17:52 +0000

Played them all and enjoyed them all, but now days I much prefer 4E over any of the previous editions. 3/3.5 collapses under the weight of all it’s rules and complexity. 1E & 2E are just cumbersome and combat is boring. 4E has simple and clean well designed rules focused on fun. Of all the editions, the 4E rules get in the way the least. I’m not saying 4E’s perfect, but as a complete system I like it the most.

A few weeks I joined a new 2E campaign that was just starting. Most hadn’t played 2E and those that had hadn’t played in a long time. The first session was a mess with people struggling to figure out simple things like THAC0, when to roll high, when to roll low and weapons speeds. Lot’s of confusion and a lot of wasted time.

On the other hand I just started a 4E campaign last week with only one player having played before (2 sessions). I had seven players. One was a player’s girlfriend that just watches the 2E games and never wants to play. I handed her the quick start rules and five minutes later she grabbed a pregen and was playing. There were a few rules questions, but the first session ran much smoother than the first 2E session and we got a lot more accomplished in the game. Overall the rules alone made it a better experience for everyone.

By: Jimmy D

Jimmy D — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:10:56 +0000

The only experience I have playing third edition is in computer games. It seems like a good fantasy RPG, but as someone old enough to have played Basic D&D, then First edition AD&D, I feel I’m qualified to say that 3rd&4th editions are NOT D&D. My group and I don’t even play them, and never will.

By: Loew

Loew — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:33:17 +0000

Thanks. 2nd Edition is still my favorite. For all the reasons you mentioned and many more… I wanted to add one more: D12s. Who uses those things for anything else?

By: Luke

Luke — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:18:12 +0000

well, there is nothing I miss about AD&D 1st or 2nd EDs.
I am actually still DMing a world that is a combination of both.
I don’t see why anyone has to miss anything, they just have to get some people together that are willing to forget the “new and improved” versions and work with that which was/is actually good.

By: pirate34

pirate34 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:36:58 +0000

halfling thieves are overkill in 2nd edition and they never have the same pwnage again, 2 daggers to the throat with initiative and another 2 to follow up then a pickpocket of a party member while he loots for you, fucking madness!

By: Old Fart

Old Fart — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:30:23 +0000

1st Edition was best. Really, why do we need anything more than Fighters, Clerics, Thieves, and Wizards? I can understand rules changes that make things easier, like THAC0, but almost everything else has just complicated and unbalanced the game. Back in the day, we could take someone who’d never played an RPG before and have them playing in half an hour. I could never see that happening with the newer rules.

Unearthed Arcana and the Barbarian class was where things started to go downhill. In the campaign I was playing in, no-one wanted to run regular fighters anymore after Unearthed Arcana. People who played fighters now always wanted to be a Barbarian or Cavalier, the non-fighters began to push for more power for their own characters in order to keep up, the DM had to make the monsters harder to give them a shot against these unbalanced characters, and it made life harder for everyone. I’ve not played in a long time, but from what I’ve read of the newer rules editions, this type of practice has run amok. Every character seems to start out as awesome and move up from there.

I looked over the 4th edition Players Handbook and DM guide in a bookstore today, and I agree with the earlier comment that the characters there seem like you’re making something up for a video game – that was exactly my thought. If that’s what the experience is like, why not just play CRPG’s?

And wtf is the ‘Players Handbook 2′ all about? Players Handbook 2? Are they completely shameless when it comes to finding ways to sell new rules?

Bleh… I’m ranting. I’m just pissed because I really used to enjoy the game at one time, and I know I never will again. :-(

By: Noob

Noob — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 08:28:01 +0000

Ive been DMing a 2nd edition game for a few sesions and i realy enjoy it as for the new 4e the more i read about it the more unatractive it gets. any way theres no telling how long my group will last so i dont want to waste that much cash on books that wont be used. great site and great article by the way.

By: logan

logan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:02:35 +0000

tried 3.0 not the same. but now with the d20 system your character can be in any game sphere(ancient, modern, future, ect….). been there, done that, use the shirt as a greese rag.

By: War Duke!!!

War Duke!!! — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:46:50 +0000

The powers that compel me ,tells me that this thing they call 4E will fail with the elders as did 3E and 3.5.Why old warduke has memorabilia from those who actually worked at TSR and has corresponded with those who helped to create 2E,and even they agree that that the newer system blows! I shall only say it but once!Hasbro is the true enemy and hasbro is a creator of toys made in the far off oriental setting of china( or perhaps it was kara-tur?) for but pennies on nigh dollar! Not a system they bought from thy beloved childhood company,oh no sirree!But thy profit shares from Lorraine Williams,who was once quoted as saying”gamers are beneath me.”whilst keeping yon buck rogers gaming rights close to her age spotted buxom.A fledgeling corporation by the name wizards of the coast known for making a series of piss-poor cards had the wealth to buy out TSR from thier own sucsess,which they soon did as to rid themselves of any profitable competition and soon found themselves in a most dire situation.Thier 2E games we’re quite the fashion for the moment,pitting players against adventures that most had ever dreamed of,such as battleing vecna himself or saving waukeen from the bowels of the most evil abbyss.However,this was not to last very long,as products we’re slow to reach shelves and video games at the time we’re becoming more standard than tabletop gaming,they soon lost a profit margin that forced them to lose thier own stock to thier greater shareholders at mighty hasbro.Hasbro had foresaw profit from fat nerds and “emo kids” as they we’re called,and soon the rules we’re changed to dumb down gameplay so that most anyone could play,thus leaving behind the most loyal of TSR’s past followers.Gone was the tinkering gnomes who worked in thier shops and from the school of magic the illusionists of old had all but dissapeared.Powers we’re now freely given out like report cards on sunday school morning,and most characters could’nt tell the difference from one another.Thus warduke by this time had amassed many more 2E modules and boxed sets than he would ever be able to play,but treat him like they we’re his sired children he did,thus the story had been written and 2E had remained in the hearts and minds of mortal men till the very collapse of the great civilizations of the great world.