This is a pretty pretentious title for a post - Why I miss 2nd Edition AD&D. In OSR circles, AD&D 2E is pretty much the most reviled, despised and shunned set of D&D rules in the 40-year history of the game. Still, it is the edition that holds the most value for me not only because of nostalgic reasons but for gameplay reasons as well.
Memory lane
Let's get the obvious out of the way. I began playing roleplaying games in the spring of 1997. My brother lent me a mysterious boxed set with a griffonrider and a faux-stonework logo on the cover. This was my entrance to the City of Greyhawk and years of adventures exploring that metropolis and meeting its denizens.
Soon after, I received the Revised Player's Handbook (black border) and a set of polyhedral dice and every saturday my friends and I were exploring this fantastic continent of Oerik.
In the fall of the same year, a Friendly Local Game (and Comics) Shop opened in my hometown and with the money I saved from my allowance and my job delivering flyers I purchased a campaign setting of my own - the Planescape Campaign Setting.
In the years between that purchase and the release of 3E in august 2000, we played the heck out of Planescape and Greyhawk, frequently crossing over between them. Other favorites of that time when we could spend whole saturdays on gaming were Dark Sun, Spelljammer and Ravenloft. Our group never cared much for the Forgotten Realms, seeing it as a more vanilla incarnation of the more evocative Greyhawk setting.
Al these campaigns were created using AD&D 2nd Edition-rules and we played the shit out of them.
In short: 2nd Edition was the edition on which me and my friends cut our theeth roleplaying. It allowed us to imagine these grand and fantastic worlds, spiralling away into infinity.
The Last Real Edition of D&D
We embraced Third Edition when it launched in 2000. We were 14- or 15-year-olds and immediately grasped the more streamlined and focused design of the d20 system. For the lifetime of that edition, it was our go-to ruleset. I ran my first homebrew campaign in 3E and my most memorable characters were created using the 3E ruleset. And it felt great - the d20 resolution mechanic, the more powerful races and classes, the ability modifiers - everything was streamlined and computated and balanced and intuitive. It was only later, when 3E grew into the abomination that was 4E and then reconstituted itself in 5E that I realized - the editions of D&D published by Wizards of the Coast didn't feel like D&D anymore.
When you're fifteen years old, you immediately see the opportunities in min/maxing your character, finding the optimal distribution of ability scores, feats and skills, and all the other moving parts of 3E. We were overwhelmed with possibilities and options. And yes, ascending AC was awesome and easy. But as I look back, the game we played from 2000-onwards wasn't D&D.
Where were the ability score requirements, the different rates of advancement for various classes, the rules for strongholds and followers? But most of all, I missed the relevance of the six ability scores. Sure, with the derivated modifiers the abilities were more central to the game than before, but increasingly in 4th and 5th Edition, the game became about the modifiers. Why hold on to scores of 3-18, when the actual math revolves around the -4 to +5 modifier?
The old school Roll-mechanic for ability scores made perfect sense to me. A fighter with a 14 Strength? Your Strength check succeeds on a 14 or lower. A mage with a 17 Intelligence? Your Intelligence check fails on an 18+.
Third, Fourth and Fifth Editions are great roleplaying games with some amazing concepts, expansions, settings and adventures. They just aren't D&D to my taste.
Sheer Volume
Lastly, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition is my favourite edition by sheer volume. The 2E-era saw the release of a new Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer, the Ravenloft setting, a new Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Al'Qadim, the Historical Reference series, the Complete Player's Handbook series, the Dungeon Master supplements, an updated Dragonlance, Planescape and Birthright. It was the most prolific of editions and many themes and memes of newer editions harken back to AD&D 2E.
In Closing
I started roleplaying games with AD&D, 2nd Edition. I cut my teeth on Greyhawk, Dark Sun and Planescape. I still seek to roll under my Strength score to succeed at a Strength check and I see ability score requirements as blessings rather than penalties. I miss Second Edition AD&D.
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