No Edition D&D
It started with microlite20.
No.. that's not entirely true. It really started back in the late 70s/early 80s with the various games coming out. I bought them all, read them voraciously, played a lot of "take a bit of this, a bit of that, let's just throw dice and see how awesome our maxed-out PCs can be. So as you might suspect, that covers 0e (1974/LBB), 1e/AD&D, Holmes Basic, B/X, BECMI, 2e/AD&D.
Fast forward a lifetime to 2008. It had been over a decade since I'd even thought about D&D, much less played it. For some odd reason, I discovered a thread on some forum by a gent named Oakspar who wrote an amazing set of recaps on a medieval zombie-pocalypse. How fucking cool is that? I remembered fondly back to my Ultima computer RPG days and thought "How cool would it be run a D&D campaign from that universe?" So I started to write my own, using 3/3.5... and bogged down. Encounter levels? Balancing play? Planned level increases? WTF is this that I need spreadsheets to make a campaign?
So THEN it started with microlite20. I discovered this rule set and loved it. Fast, mean, little, clean, and easy to teach/play. I moved away from the Ultima campaign and went back to a campaign world I had been designing/writing for since the late 90s. My "Vale" world. I sat down with Angie (aka @thePrincessWife) and we did a 1x1 game together.
Then, thanks to the blogging explosion in 2008, I was really inspired. I started a new campaign and new world based on AD&D - The Dark Ages campaign. I moved my 1x1 campaign to Swords & Wizardry. I was all about the so-called "OSR" ... but I found something interesting already starting happen. My AD&D game was grabbing stuff from my 1x1 game and vice versa. I was bringing in concepts from Philotomy's Musings into both, even though he's all about the strict OD&D experience. I even grabbed things from Holmes, from B/X, from 2e, 3e and yes, even 4e... I was going back to my roots of what I had done in my youth.
Fast forward to today ... after answering a question today on G+ about "which version/clone", I realized that I play "No Version."
I simply play D&D.
If you have an imagination, and you can roll dice, you can play in my game. Sure, there are specific rules, and things that I do. But it's such a mish-mash of a little bit of 0e, throw in a base layer of 1e, don't forget a pinch of Holmes, B/X, Chainmail, Delta, Sham, Rients... I can't call it anything *BUT* D&D.
I get that for some people, having those precise rules, having all those books, have these labels is their thing, and that's OK. If you're having fun, more power to you! That's awesome! I just don't want there to be this perception that "thou shalt have one edition/clone only" is THE ONE TRUE RULE when at the end of it, the real tradition that has come down through all these games is "pull in what works, make it your own and have fun."
Let the publishers and money-makers worry about their labels and compatibility conversions. You have the freedom to make it your own. Have fun! Play D&D!
No.. that's not entirely true. It really started back in the late 70s/early 80s with the various games coming out. I bought them all, read them voraciously, played a lot of "take a bit of this, a bit of that, let's just throw dice and see how awesome our maxed-out PCs can be. So as you might suspect, that covers 0e (1974/LBB), 1e/AD&D, Holmes Basic, B/X, BECMI, 2e/AD&D.
Fast forward a lifetime to 2008. It had been over a decade since I'd even thought about D&D, much less played it. For some odd reason, I discovered a thread on some forum by a gent named Oakspar who wrote an amazing set of recaps on a medieval zombie-pocalypse. How fucking cool is that? I remembered fondly back to my Ultima computer RPG days and thought "How cool would it be run a D&D campaign from that universe?" So I started to write my own, using 3/3.5... and bogged down. Encounter levels? Balancing play? Planned level increases? WTF is this that I need spreadsheets to make a campaign?
So THEN it started with microlite20. I discovered this rule set and loved it. Fast, mean, little, clean, and easy to teach/play. I moved away from the Ultima campaign and went back to a campaign world I had been designing/writing for since the late 90s. My "Vale" world. I sat down with Angie (aka @thePrincessWife) and we did a 1x1 game together.
Then, thanks to the blogging explosion in 2008, I was really inspired. I started a new campaign and new world based on AD&D - The Dark Ages campaign. I moved my 1x1 campaign to Swords & Wizardry. I was all about the so-called "OSR" ... but I found something interesting already starting happen. My AD&D game was grabbing stuff from my 1x1 game and vice versa. I was bringing in concepts from Philotomy's Musings into both, even though he's all about the strict OD&D experience. I even grabbed things from Holmes, from B/X, from 2e, 3e and yes, even 4e... I was going back to my roots of what I had done in my youth.
Fast forward to today ... after answering a question today on G+ about "which version/clone", I realized that I play "No Version."
I simply play D&D.
If you have an imagination, and you can roll dice, you can play in my game. Sure, there are specific rules, and things that I do. But it's such a mish-mash of a little bit of 0e, throw in a base layer of 1e, don't forget a pinch of Holmes, B/X, Chainmail, Delta, Sham, Rients... I can't call it anything *BUT* D&D.
I get that for some people, having those precise rules, having all those books, have these labels is their thing, and that's OK. If you're having fun, more power to you! That's awesome! I just don't want there to be this perception that "thou shalt have one edition/clone only" is THE ONE TRUE RULE when at the end of it, the real tradition that has come down through all these games is "pull in what works, make it your own and have fun."
Let the publishers and money-makers worry about their labels and compatibility conversions. You have the freedom to make it your own. Have fun! Play D&D!