1e Barbarian

[manikus]

I thought you were referring to Gygax since he wrote the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Unearthed Arcana. And it' true that TSR employed dozens of designers, just not at this point in it's history.
And I actually did mean Lejendary Adventures, not his earlier game 'Dangerous Journeys'. Gygax said in interviews, he wanted to go back to the feel of Dungeons & Dragons when he was still running the Greyhawk campaign and playing in Blackmoor. But, as is correctly pointed out, it's not AD&D 1e.

I apologize for not more clearly stating my thoughts about the Star Wars games. The Dungeon Craft engine can handle (with some minor tweaking) games that are similar to 1e and 2e with dice rolls and tables, it can not work with a system like G.U.R.P.S. or the WhiteWolf games.

I'm working on the Official Dungeon Craft, which is an odd 1e/2e hybrid based on Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures by SSI. I'm considering personally (unofficial DC) doing a 1e add-on. By the very nature of my goals, I'm limited to "...thinking inside the box of absolute non-deviation from AD&D." For other projects and ideas, of which you can find many threads in this forum, I do different things. Implicit in all of this is that DC places certain constraints on what we can and can't do.

[Uatu]

Whether 1e/2e is better/worse than 3e/4e is, I think, a moot argument, as the Gold Box games (that DC emulates) were based on 1e. 1e and 2e were different but essentially the same game; 3e and onwards are completely different games with the same name. I don't personally think that DC can do much with 3e-ish rules at all right now - perhaps someone can add a module to do such if there is enough interest (but after version 1.0 ).

[manikus]

I personally feel it would be a bit of a waste of time to do 3e DC, as there are already options for those versions of AD&D - namely NWN and NWN2 by use of the Aurora toolset (that's at least what it's called for NWN). Plus, NWN has the advantage of having a native Linux version.

[Uatu]

Really? Dayum... We really need a native Linux version, too

[manikus]

All of the big games can be played on Linux, though mostly through the use of WINE. I'm sure DC would be supported by WINE if we had a few thousand folk seeking to play it on Linux.

[Skepticus]

Originally Posted by manikus I thought you were referring to Gygax since he wrote the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Unearthed Arcana. And it' true that TSR employed dozens of designers, just not at this point in it's history.

Sure they did. Even prior to 2E being released as it was.

And I actually did mean Lejendary Adventures, not his earlier game 'Dangerous Journeys'. Gygax said in interviews, he wanted to go back to the feel of Dungeons & Dragons when he was still running the Greyhawk campaign and playing in Blackmoor. But, as is correctly pointed out, it's not AD&D 1e.

Ah...my mistake then. I was unaware Gygax did anything else after DJ(adn Cyborg Commando and such) before he died. I stopped paying attention to the industry some time in the 90s I think and did not play any pen and paper stuff since the 80s.

I apologize for not more clearly stating my thoughts about the Star Wars games. The Dungeon Craft engine can handle (with some minor tweaking) games that are similar to 1e and 2e with dice rolls and tables, it can not work with a system like G.U.R.P.S. or the WhiteWolf games.

Hmmm...no apologies necessary. Though I was not much on playing the games for a LONG time I am a game design buff/fanatic.

I'm working on the Official Dungeon Craft, which is an odd 1e/2e hybrid based on Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures by SSI.

I know. I have been coming to these forums for a VERY long time now.

These forums never worked extremely well as far as I can remember so I have not been able to maintain a consistent ID.

I'm considering personally (unofficial DC) doing a 1e add-on. By the very nature of my goals, I'm limited to "...thinking inside the box of absolute non-deviation from AD&D." For other projects and ideas, of which you can find many threads in this forum, I do different things. Implicit in all of this is that DC places certain constraints on what we can and can't do.

I know. Again, I have no desire to change DC to be some other game system. While I may have my own design issues with AD&D/OD&D systems I like DC just fine the way it is.

[Skepticus]

Originally Posted by manikus I personally feel it would be a bit of a waste of time to do 3e DC, as there are already options for those versions of AD&D - namely NWN and NWN2 by use of the Aurora toolset (that's at least what it's called for NWN). Plus, NWN has the advantage of having a native Linux version.

Maybe. But NWN is not exactly conducive to single player party-based gaming.for 3E. I love that it used 3rd edition but that crappy henchmen system was hard to take.

[Uatu]

I remember that Mr. Gygax mentioned that Oriental Adventures was mostly written by Francois Marcela-Froideval, although Mr. Gygax and David "Zeb" Cook seemed credited more in the book. The Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Unearthed Arcana seem to be very much Mr. Gygax's own work for the most part, though (of course some ideas came from others); part of Unearthed Arcana was reprinted from Dragon Magazine (other authors), though.

[Skepticus]

Originally Posted by Uatu I remember that Mr. Gygax mentioned that Oriental Adventures was mostly written by Francois Marcela-Froideval, although Mr. Gygax and David "Zeb" Cook seemed credited more in the book. The Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Unearthed Arcana seem to be very much Mr. Gygax's own work for the most part, though (of course some ideas came from others); part of Unearthed Arcana was reprinted from Dragon Magazine (other authors), though.

Yeah, I remember most of those character classes from UA were created by Gygax and published within Dragon(Pretty sure all three were by Gygax. I know the Thief-Acrobat and Cavalier were).
The weird thing about Oriental Adventures was that the martial arts system detailed therein was pretty brilliant and influenced probably almost every other RPG that featured martial arts. But for some reason they abandoned this in 2e and I cannot for the life of me understand why?!

[Uatu]

I think 2e wanted to be more "realistic" - i.e. punching/kicking only caused subdual damage, and not much at that, although it could sometimes KO the opponent. 1e Oriental Adventures had martial arts much more deadly, with 1st-level PCs doing as much as 1d8 damage per hand strike (with often more than one strike/round), even if they were Wu-Jen

I personally have seen very high-level real-life martial arts, and would thus go with the 1e side, but perhaps make it harder to reach such levels of deadliness (i.e. perhaps 1st-level Wu-Jen shouldn't be able to get that with but a single proficiency slot).

I do think that there should have been some reconciliation with the monk, "kensai" (should be kensei), and non-class martial arts, though.