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Posts concerned with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition.
A wizard casting spells from his magic circle by the light of his cauldron surrounded by creatures. by J. Wood 1763 Carl Sargent introduced a treasure trove of curiosities to the World of Greyhawk during the early 1990s as he helped reshape the setting, but perhaps none was more tantalizing than Philidor the Blue Wizard,… Continue reading The Curious History of Philidor the Blue Wizard
The world of LJN would have been an interesting footnote in the history of Dungeons and Dragons were it not for TSR attempting to make something more from the line. In 1983 TSR published AC 1: The Shady Dragon Inn. Ostensibly the Shady Dragon Inn was nothing more than a collection of non-player characters (NPCs)… Continue reading Dungeons, and Walmart, and LJN? Part 3, The Shady Dragon Inn
It is often said that the AD&D game is not a "winners-and-losers" game. This is true. The AD&D game is not a game in which one player wins at the expense of the others. But at the same time there is winning and losing, after a fashion, based on how well the group plays and… Continue reading The Importance of Experience
One of the things that I think many of us struggle with is whether to use "guilds" or "unions" in our games. So as we're dealing with the financial juggernaut that is the City of Greyhawk we need to take a minute to talk about the difference between the two and to explain when one… Continue reading Money and Power, Part 2: Guilds and Unions
The text states: The exact amount of financial dealings going on in Greyhawk is impossible to calculate, for it passes through many hands, leaving its mark in countless ways. Suffice to say that no place on the Flanaess sees as much value pass through its gates during the course of a year . . ."Niles,… Continue reading Let’s Read the City of Greyhawk Boxed Set: When You Talk About Money, You’re Talking About Power
From the AD&D 2e Dungeon Master's Guide: Since this isn't a combat game, the rules are not ultra-detailed, defining the exact effect of every blow, the subtle differences between obscure weapons, the location of every piece of armor on the body, or the horrifying results of an actual sword fight. Too many rules slow down… Continue reading Dungeons and Dragons isn’t a Combat Game
Last night I was reading an older DRAGON magazine that I had picked up recently when I ran across an article, “Part Dragon, All Hero: Half-dragon characters, for the Council of Wyrms setting and beyond,” by Roger E. Moore. The article is fascinating for a number of reasons but what got my attention was the… Continue reading The Gritty, Grimy, Self-Serving Greyhawk of the Early 90s
One of the things that I love about learning new games are the questions that I find myself asking as a result. For example: one of the major questions I keep asking is why did Dungeons & Dragons change so much from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (AD&D 2e) to Dungeons & Dragons Third… Continue reading Out with the Old, In with the New
So I really like the way that D&D 2e asks for us to determine initiative. Each side (the DM and the players) roll a single d10. The lowest result goes first and that side acts before the other. Now this result can be modified by various situational modifiers (for example being "Slowed" will add 2… Continue reading Combat in ADND 2e, Part 4: Initiative
The combat sequence of Dungeons and Dragons 2e is quite a bit different from that of 3e. In 2e the sequence goes as follows: 1. The DM decides what actions the monsters or NPCs will take, including casting spells (if any).2. The players indicate what their characters will do, including casting spells (if any).3. Initiative… Continue reading Combat in ADnD 2e, Part 3
I know that I've mentioned several times that there are drastic changes between AD&D 2e and D&D 3e but no where is this more apparent than when we're talking about combat. So please forgive me if this sounds a bit over the top: but the AD&D 2e combat round is 1 minute long. Let that… Continue reading The Combat Round in ADnD 2e
When it came to the Combat chapter of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition (AD&D 2e) I found myself struggling to understand the way that THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class 0) worked. In large part this is because D&D 3e, and the subsequent editions, all worked in a significantly different manner. In D&D 3e the… Continue reading THAC0, or How I Learned to Love Descending AC
The Night Below Alternate Cover by Charles Akins
Image by Moebius, Title Unknown All that we have explored this far in the Learning Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (AD&D 2e) project has been a preamble for this chapter as it represents one of the most common occurrences within the game: the combat encounter. Before we get into the meat of this chapter… Continue reading Learning AD&D 2e: Chapter 9, Combat, More than Meets the Eye (pgs 118 – 141)
If you play any version of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) for any period of time and happen to mention your love of it on social media you’re bound to see the criticism that D&D is nothing more than a hack-and-slash slog played by murderous hobos as they go from location to location killing things and… Continue reading Is D&D Just About Combat?
Dragons Never Forget 