What is This Blog Anyway?

The following post is self-indulgent state-of-the-blog stuff. You’ve been warned.

I wasn’t sure what this blog was going to be when I started out a few months ago; I just wanted to start writing again. I’ve tried writing fiction and short stories for some time, but it tends to end with a whimper rather than a completed work, and I always seem to come back to games.

When I really started digging into 2e, I found myself all over the web, discovering blogs, forums, and OSR hacks as I tried to better understand this unique game. Through those blogs and forums, I got the itch to write in the nerdiest way possible. Through the hacks, I knew that I wanted to tear 2e apart and put it back together again in my own image.

So I guess I really am making a game.

Since I’ve just spent the past few months ripping apart the Ability Scores and Saving Throws, let’s interlude to discuss what the goals are here. 

 

1. Make Something New

What I do not want to create is a clone. First, someone has already done that. It’s called For Gold and Glory and it is a faithful and nicely formatted recreation of 2e. Second, I’ve already (sort of) done it, too. The 2e Primer is 68 pages of “here’s a more streamlined 2e,” but presented as a companion guide rather than a full game. If anyone wants to play AD&D 2nd Edition as it was originally designed, I think they have plenty of options. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel.

 

2. Add Power Steering and a New Paint Job

The victory of the OSR movement (at least the later stages of it that brought us games like The Black Hack, Mothership, Into the Odd, and more) is its very accessible rulesets. These rules focus on getting you into the game with the least amount of friction possible. They provide intuitive systems that make adjudication straightforward and avoid the grinding halt of pulling out the rulebooks. In the cases where that’s required, the rules are easy to find; the layout of these books lends itself to both reference and learning the rules.

Basically my inspiration board

 

2e is… not that. In comparison to Gygax’s layout, it’s a triumph of readability and clarity, but it’s still a sprawling collection of legacy subsystems spread over too many pages. Its cardinal sin is that it buries important rules inside paragraphs of text, but it’s also hampered by fidelity to its predecessor by retaining every mechanic that the system inherited over 15 years.

So the goal here is to bring something of the present to the past, streamlining the rules while providing an easier to read book. The challenge, of course, is to make something that is still AD&D.

 

3. Keep The AD&D in AD&D, but remove all the extra AD&D

What drew me to 2nd Edition was the mix of the modern and the archaic. Here is AD&D, in all its fiddly glory, built as a game system instead of a nicotine-fueled text dump. In a way, it’s the first AD&D retroclone, giving you the AD&D experience in a friendlier format while providing quality of life upgrades. It proves that you can change much about AD&D without removing the soul of the game; if you retain the core gameplay and the specific systems which drive it, you’ll still have AD&D afterward.

So what makes up the core gameplay of 2e? I’d say it’s the following:

Ability Scores – The core six. They provide bonuses to other subsystems.
Saving Throws – Saves made against specific effects, determined by level and class.
Races – Unique types of people, each with advantages and disadvantages.
Classes – Distinct classes which each do things that the others cannot.
Skills – Weapon and Nonweapon add-ons to help create unique characters.
Equipment – Multiple options, encumbrance rules, and choice of loadout.
Magic – Vancian casting, schools of magic, reversible spells, and spell research.
Magical Items – Strange, rare items that can be created and recharged.
Experience – XP awarded for story goals, good gameplay, and for playing a class well.
Initiative – Occurring each round, after players state their actions.
Morale – NPC reactions during battle to allow fights which aren’t always to-the-death.
Surprise – Devastating extra round of combat, with additional ambush options.
Reactions – NPC reactions outside of combat based on decisions and Charisma.
Healing – Slow natural healing or costly magical healing.
Henchmen – Additional support for party composition and backup characters.
Overland Movement – Distinct rules for wilderness adventuring.
Modularity – The option to add or remove rulesets as needed.

Anything that doesn’t serve these elements is expendable.

You could look at this list and say that aside from skills, modularity, and the separation of race and class, all of this could apply to Basic. If one distills AD&D down to these core ideas, what is the difference between this game and BECMI? Can you have AD&D without the crunch, excessive tables, and bespoke rules? Where is the line?

I’ve realized that the answer is: I don’t care. This is not a nostalgic recreation of AD&D 2nd Edition. At best, it’s a love letter. I’m trying to retain the core gameplay elements that engender a specific type of play, which lies between the essential ‘old-school’ orthodoxy and modern story-game sensibilities. I think 2e did that better than any of its peers, so it’s my template and my lodestar, but it’s not the sole authority for what this project will eventually become. It should play like AD&D, but it doesn’t need to be AD&D.

 

In Summary

I’m making a game inspired by 2nd Edition. I want to develop something that I can put in front of my friends, all of whom started playing TTRPGs in this century, so that they can enjoy the fruit of AD&D’s gameplay without breaking their teeth on the pit. This means a streamlined system, low page count, easy-to-find rules, and mechanics that can stay in your head (or your character sheet) when it comes time to adjudicate those rules.

I have no idea if I’ll hit this target, but this blog will continue to aim at it. If anyone reading it finds inspiration or good ideas here, all the better.