9. AD&D 2nd edition, 1989Anyone who gamed in the eighties is going to have this one on their list. The weird thing is that this is number nine on mine. Usually Dungeons and Dragons is at the top, if not in the number one slot. Nope, it's not even top five material for me believe it or not. It doesn't make it any less special, it's just noteworthy that in all of my gaming foundations, DnD came pretty late in the game.
Of course once it made its debut it never really left, so for that reason and more, here it is. We usually played in the Forgotten Realms, but had brief stints in pretty much all of the other settings out there, Dark Sun being one of my more favorites, though it was short lived. Homebrew campaigns, hand drawn dungeon maps, lengthy character bios, all the tropes and more that come with the territory were formed during this time. As far as staying power, and games that shape what the future was going to bring, AD&D had it all. We would eventually go back and play first edition, as well as have a very long 3/3e campaign within recent years. Whatever its incarnation, DnD is just that, DnD; it's not just a staple, it's the staple..
I can't claim to have played this, I dabbled with warhammer quest in the mid 90's and thats about
ReplyDeleteI forgot all about That! We played a ton of WHQ and WHFRP.. In fact our WHFRP campaign was probably the longest one we ever played as a group, weekly for over a year!
DeleteI recognize what adnd did to the rpg world, and for that alone i have complete respect for it. I have never played it, but that Thac0 thing, man i cant get over it.
ReplyDeleteThac0 was a bit of a goofball concept, as for AD&D's impact, yeah, it's pretty mighty, of course it makes the list here for impact on me instead.
DeleteThe THACO thing was pretty awesome, as I recall, because you finally didn't need a chart to determine if you hit or not. It was the next step before 3rd Edition, where it was all pure math.
DeleteMmm, I didn't actually start D&D until the late 90s, early 2000s, but this (and ADD 1E) are what I started with and are definitely defining.
ReplyDeleteAD&D was never hurting for supplements and by the time you were getting into it there were dozens and dozens of adventures, modules, sourcebooks, settings, and more. First edition is another one we played, just not as much, but it was no less enjoyable.
DeleteMy pals who were playing had 1E books, but since none were available at the local used book shop, I picked up the 2E books since they were backwards compatible, and went from there. It was great times, but we never used any of the out-of-the-box modules, out DM was too interested in world building and being immersive for his players.
DeleteWe played 1st ed AD&D, but we were about 10-11 years old so it wasn't a very coherent game. Traveller, Top Secret and Champions lured us away and we never really played D&D again, although I had the Dark Sun supplement for some reason.. I think I liked the cover art :)
ReplyDeleteWe're only at #9, who know, maybe Top Secret and/or Traveler are still going to show up?
DeleteDark Sun was the first supplement that really shook things up in my eyes. It had starkly different art from everything else at the time, a unique settings unlike anything else, and they took existing races and put new twists on them.
I think I started with AD&D in 1985. I was in my early teens, and we played a modified version of it,with very little dice. (Are you attacking, ok, you hit. Kill!)
ReplyDeleteMy best memories were in the early nineties, when our two killer DM's (who sadly fled to Atlanta and New Jersey) use to run it.
Avery and Marc's DnD games were the best for sure, it was a combination of a bunch of environmental factors that made those Friday and Saturday nights the best. Remember when we would play 'til sun up? We'd be walking out to our cars and people were already mowing their yards in the neighborhood.
DeleteSince 2nd edition only came out in 1989, I never actually played it until the late 90's. We played other games throughout the 80's (Call of Cthulhu, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Villains and Vigilantes, et al) but nothing consumed our nerd-driven weekends like AD&D.
ReplyDeleteAll great games you've mentioned, and ones that may be showing up in this list perhaps?
DeleteWe're in the same boat, all those great games were just that...great, but it was AD&D that set the stage for such "nerd-driven weekends" for sure.