From: johnf@apollo.hp.com (John Francis)
Subject: Re: Why do people like D+D/AD+D
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 21:15:37 GMT

cs201139@BugsBunny.acslab.umbc.edu (cs201139) writes:
>
>      ...Apparently you have't read the last page in the 1st Edition DM's
>guide which allows unlimited rule flexibility for each DM. If you find a better
>way of conducting combat or whatever else then go for it. They are guidelines
>not set in stone! That's why I feel 2nd Edition should have been released as
>optional supplements to the 1st Edition and not set out to replace it and then
>set say 2nd Edition is written in stone. This is a major difference in my
>opinion. Gygax allowed the game to grow through each DM who runs it. 2nd
>Edition seem too much like an absolute.

Apparently *you* haven't read the inumerable articles penned by Gygax in
issue after issue of Dragon, where he totally contradicted this viewpoint.
Nor have you read the statement in the 2nd edition handbooks (DM's guide,
I think) which explicitly re-states that the rules are *not* absolutes.
And now Gary Gygax is not in a position to give the lie to this assertion.

According to the great E.G.G.  D&D was a basic, flexible system open to
interpretation by the DM, but AD&D was not.  Either you played AD&D by the
official rules, or you were playing some different game **AND YOU SHOULD NOT
CLAIM TO BE PLAYING AD&D**. This point was hammered home time and time again
by Gygax and his buddies Frank Mentzer and Kim Mohan.  And what constituted
an "official" rule?  Something written in the hardcover rule books. No house
rules.  No rules from Dragon articles (not even those providing explanations
of areas where the "official" rules were obscure or just plain contradictory)
with the exception of the "Sorcerers Scroll" articles.  And why were these
"official"?  Because they came from the pen of Gygax, that's why.  And this
was despite the acknowledged fact that Gygax himself didn't play strictly
by the official AD&D rules because he was "too creative".
How good were these offical rules?  Well, just go read the Dragon articles
where we first see some of the new character classes which were later to be
published as part of Unearthed Arcana. From the moment these Dragon articles
were published the new character classes became "official". At least by the
time they appeared between the hard covers the character classes had received
some more play-testing, and some of the worst excesses had been toned down.
Gygax wanted AD&D to grow only in ways laid down by Gygax, and this meant
along the lines of Uneathed Arcana.  Bear in mind, also, that Gary Gygax
was basically a wargamer first and a fantasy gamer second.  So were most
of the people who play-tested the original D&D game. Right from the original
days Dave Arneson was finding fault with the way Gygax had implemented the
fantasy rules.  But, once AD&D came along, the Gygax version of the rules
was the one true interpretation - all other versions were heresy. Gygax liked
playing super-powerful thief-plus characters, so we got bards forced on us.
Gygax liked campaigns where a handful of adventurers not only ran entire
kingdoms but also took on demons in their own domains, so not only did we get
the named devils in the handbooks, we got Cavaliers and Paladins with all
their munchkinesque megapowers. And if you didn't incorporate these rule
extensions you weren't playing official AD&D.

To my mind the single best thing that the 2nd edition did was to eliminate
the worst misfeatures that Gygax rammed down the throat of the gaming world,
including the stupid insistence of sticking strictly to "official" rules.
The collection of all the basic knowledge needed by a player into a single
players handbook (and DM information into a single DM's handbook) helped, too.
Until 2nd edition came along a DM had to look in the DM's guide, the players
handbook, the Unearthed Arcana, and several other places. Now a DM can choose
to restrict a campaign to just the basics (players & DMs guide only - none of
the class-specific handbooks), or choose to add some of the optional extras.
Even some of the more esoteric stuff in the players handbook (proficiencies,
specialization, . . .) is strictly optional.