Below, I discuss my experience traveling back in time to play First Edition, and how returning to D&D’s roots have updated my view of 4th Edition. Our party suffered numerous deaths while exploring a much greater area than we could ever hope to do in a 4th Edition session. The surprises began with character generation, and continued throughout the entire day and night of gameplay with my Magic User (who died, and whose capabilities are nicely summarized by d20monkey above) and then Fighter.
My Magic User died with his proverbial lone bullet in the chamber. We played Palace of the Silver Princess, and it was an eye-opening experience for me both as a DM and player who is accustomed to the rules and pacing of 4th Edition. So I was eager to travel back in time when my DM recently suggested that we play a session of First Edition. I have vague memories of playing old modules like Horror on the Hill but forgot the specific mechanics of the game. I hope the distraction is minimal the difference in language should not affect the themes in the post.īefore taking up 4th Edition in 2009, it had been over 15 years since I played Dungeons & Dragons. My use of “First Edition” throughout the post is incorrect, but I decided to keep the language because comparing “First” to Fourth felt more logical. Edit: Several readers have correctly informed me that the game I played was actually BASIC Dungeons & Dragons.
