Why is 2nd edition the most modular of the editions? Just look at the core rules. They are loaded with side bars with optional rules for damn near everything. Every class outside the main four are optional. There are six different ways to roll stats. Three different ways to do initiative. Two different ways to do critical hits (and those are optional as well). Options were everywhere and allowed dm's to run fairly different games of D&D right from the beginning.
Now look at the slew of optional rule books that came out for 2nd. Yeah, yeah, I know - 2nd edition created the word "splat book", but no other edition has had so much official (non-3rd party) support and options to chose from. From the horde of class and race books to rule books for creating castles or running campaigns at sea, 2nd edition had you covered. By the end, it also had the Player's Options books which allowed DM's to even more radically change the game they were running. 2nd edition had options and modular systems out the wazoo. Yeah, a lot of it was unbalanced and poorly thought out garbage, but the concept was right and I think this is the path they are looking to follow once again.
Time will tell. I'm signed up for the playtests. It should be a very interesting year!
OTOH, 2e was constantly a hot mess, because all of these options couldn't hang together into any kind of cohesive whole. (Also, apparently, the designers of their splatbooks had never heard of game balance.)
ReplyDeleteThat sprawl of disconnected mess was a large part of what 3e sought to correct with such things as named bonuses and conditions. Adding tags all over the system so that it was (relatively) easy to figure out how the spell that was just cast might interact with the monster's inherent abilities and added feats.
If Mike and Monte can put their heads together and get the best of both worlds, we may have a serious winner on our hands.
Yeah, it was a mess but there were tons of options to chose from. The player options books killed my last 2e campaign (probably a dozen years ago) due to the incredible amount of min/maxing they allowed. But I still think it's a good model to follow if the books are written with more care and half a nod towards balance.
ReplyDeleteAs a (nominally) more mature individual, I am oft tempted to re-visit 2nd Ed. and use it all over again, now more cognizant of what the optional blah blah blah you get my drift.
DeleteSeriously. The PHB, the DMG, the Monstrous Compendium, The Complete Book of Fighters and The Complete Book of Wizards, and no more than that make for an enticing smorgasbord of bare basics plus a few danglies to tart things up, and dammit, that's the way uh-huh uh-huh I like it uh-huh uh-huh.
THIS DOTH ROTWANG! DECREE!
My 2e campaigns were the best ones I've ever run and I think that all the optional books would actually work out better for me now that I'm a bit wiser as to what works and what doesn't.
DeleteInteresting. I've been running 1st AND 2nd Edition AD&D for years (still do, and WILL again at GenCon this year). Never had an issue with "too many options" or things being "off balance". Sure, let your players "go wild" and you get a lot of min/maxing, but a good GM will take that into account, or in my case, simply not allow it.
ReplyDeleteGame balance is ultimately the GM's responsibility... and I simply tell my players "Sorry, that resource is just not allowed". I love my 1st and 2nd Edition stuff... and judging by my completely full games at several conventions... so do a lot of other people.
I certainly hope they DO return to the 2nd Edition. I just may decide to purchase it.
I quite enjoyed 2nd edition after coming on board with 1st. I wish I stillhad the books. I neverbought anything after the DMG, PHB, and Monstrous Compendium.
ReplyDeleteI don't much care for D&D in any versionif I get tochoose the game, but if it has tobe D&D I'll take 2nd edition.