If you haven't read this, do so.
Read it carefully, it is very good...
I was reminded of a piece I wrote on 2nd Edition, three years ago, when I was still very new to the scene. For whatever reason, I never hit "publish." Thankfully, I saved it, as it is very relevant right now...
Begin Original Post
Written in November, 2019.
(Back when I was still double-spacing between sentences.)
AD&D 2nd....the Lost Edition?
Several months ago I found myself thinking about AD&D 2nd Edition. Of all the editions, this one seems to get talked about the least. Browsing the web, I came across an old reference to it as the Lost Edition.
Is it?
This is literally true for me, as it's the only edition that I no longer possess. I loaned out the books mid 90's, never got them back, but my interest in gaming waned at the time, so.....
Is it?
This is literally true for me, as it's the only edition that I no longer possess. I loaned out the books mid 90's, never got them back, but my interest in gaming waned at the time, so.....
When 2nd Edition came out I was in high school. It seemed then, that a new edition was due. We couldn't wait. The big new innovation: THAC0!!!!
THAC0 came to exist as a whipping boy.
THAC0 came to exist as a whipping boy.
No Monk, no Assassin, no Half-Orc. I completely forgot this happened. They were added in a later product I didn't own. Of those three, I really only cared about the Assassin.
Deities no longer had full stats; you could no longer kill a God, just their Avatar, and Specialty Priests were born. We were cool with this at the time, but in retrospect, it helped kill the Sword & Sorcery aspect of D&D. There was an over-all grounding of the game into something more, real-world. This was reflected in the art, which depicted realistic cultures and the challenges of slaying a dog-sized dragon.
Forgotten Realms was quickly becoming the main course. Many of you like the Realms and that's cool, I wanted to, it just never came together for me. The original Grey Box was nice though, great Keith Parkinson cover art, but that style didn't carry forth very long. The art, as 2nd Edition grew (especially with the novels) quickly devolved into photographic paintings of the out-of-shape authors themselves, dressed in Renaissance Festival fluffy-shirts and feathery caps.....ugh.
Demons and Devils became Tanar'ri and Baatezu. I hated this and consider it the single worst aspect of 2nd Edition. A serious over-reaction to the Satanic Panic that was, by then, already winding down. There we were, loyal players defending the hobby, and the designers capitulated to people that didn't, and never would, actually play the game. And ironically, the new kid on the block did everything D&D was ever accused of, and then some...
Enter, The Masquerade, and overly gothed-out people, sitting in proto coffee shops, counting ten-sided dice, lamenting the loss of their souls.....
Demons and Devils became Tanar'ri and Baatezu. I hated this and consider it the single worst aspect of 2nd Edition. A serious over-reaction to the Satanic Panic that was, by then, already winding down. There we were, loyal players defending the hobby, and the designers capitulated to people that didn't, and never would, actually play the game. And ironically, the new kid on the block did everything D&D was ever accused of, and then some...
Enter, The Masquerade, and overly gothed-out people, sitting in proto coffee shops, counting ten-sided dice, lamenting the loss of their souls.....
I bought very few 2nd Edition modules. An adventure came with the DM's Screen (I think) and man did it suck. All story, fit for locomotion. But the 90's were all about story. I had friends that were trying to emulate novels.....they should have just written novels.
But the settings......Planescape......Dark Sun. Incredible!!! Well conceived, well written, well presented with gorgeous art. Tony DiTerlizzi's art was Planescape. Brom's art was Dark Sun. I stopped buying Planescape books when they stopped using DiTerlizzi's art, but most of it was out by then.
Splat books galore! The Complete This, The Complete That. I never bought any of these.
In many ways, the game was the same. Saving Throws were still old-school, class-based, roll over this number, poison, paralysis, etc. Armor Class was still descending. Spells and weapons now had speed factors, which added granularity to combat. Proficiencies (introduced in late 1st edition) became par for the course.
We loved it, I'd be lying if I said we didn't.
So, why is this the lost edition? Or is it not? (Someone reading this right now is saying, "Dude what the hell are you talking about, I've been playing 2nd Edition all along!?!?!") It's definitely the edition that I hear the least about (aside from 4th of course.) Is it because it's the middle child, crunched between 1st and 3rd, not quite a fulcrum? Or the end of the beginning, too old-school for the modern gamer, yet not old-school enough for the true grognard?
Maybe it's too tied to the 90's, a decade people have yet to wax nostalgic for. Before then, D&D was Heavy Metal and Pentagrams, Iron Maiden posters, Black Sabbath and Black Magic. SWORD & SORCERY!!! Things changed in the 90's. Metal became Grunge, Demons became Tanar'ri, Vampires became Heroes. In every medium, the focus became "character development."
Old school mechanics tempered by storytelling may have tainted 2E. And yet I remember when 5th Edition was in the works, there seemed to be a consensus that the edition it should emulate the most was 2nd (which I don't think it does at all, I view 5th Edition as a simplified hybrid of 3rd and 4th.)
No doubt there are many players out there that still love it, but other than THAC0 and settings, 2nd Edition does seem kind of.....forgotten. (There is a clone out there, but the name escapes me.)
So for awhile there, I found myself browsing the internet for good copies of those 2nd Edition books......(oh yeah, not the ugly, black-covered "2.5" edition.)
Had I bought those books again, would I have cringed? Is there some hidden turd I forgot about? Or perhaps I'd be blown away and feverishly start creating 2nd Edition content.....
But why even bother now that we're well into the enlightened Age of the OSR, DIY D&D, especially when I already own so many "editions" including great games created by other bloggers and OSR enthusiasts, not to mention my own ability to create?
We'll see.....
End Original Post
That "clone" I spoke of is called For Gold & Glory. I never bought it or the 2nd Edition books.
The intro module was called Terrible Trouble At Tragidore. I still have it in a box, and, holy shit was it stupid.
Planescape had so much potential. The Blood-War was dumb; you shouldn't ever know that much about demons and devils, they should be vague and terrifying and evil to the core. I loved the art and I'm convinced it is the main reason for Planescape's success. Sigil, conceptionally should/could have been the greatest city/mega-dungeon of all time.
Some people say Dragonlance was the true beginning of the end of old-school... at least Dragonlance had phenomenal art. Yes, art will always be a part of the equation for me. The art experience of 2nd Edition Core and the books/novels that followed was atrocious. This was mainly a product of the times though. Throughout the 80s, fantasy art became sterilized. Nudity disappeared. The fabulous paintings of the 70s and early 80s were no more, driven away by the church-lady and the corporate desire to be family-friendly.
I would love to see the AD&D hardcovers reprinted with the art of Frank Frazetta and the likes of Simon Bisley... unabashedly, unapologetically, strong and sexy! This would be the greatest thing of all time. Based on that alone, I would play nothing else.
As I said in my last post, it is up to you to un-bland D&D.
Gabor is right, the spirit of 2nd Edition is not old-school... but what you do with it can be.
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