A Rules Comparison of Older D&D Editions

The following is a comparison of TSR-era D&D editions and/or their derivatives that is mostly intended for my own reference when considering different editions to run, or if I am considering pointing others towards a specific game I would like to run. If anyone reading this blog can point out corrections or additional information, feel free to comment.

Systems Considered:

• S&W (Swords and Wizardry Complete, 2008, an OD&D (1974) Retroclone¹)

• B/X (Dungeons and Dragons Basic/Expert, Moldvay-Cook, 1981, consulting Old-School Essentials for clarifications. Additional references to Rules Cyclopedia)

• AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st Ed., 1977, consulting OSRIC for clarifications.)

Characters

Character Classes:

• S&W: Assassin, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Magic-User, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Thief

• B/X: Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Halfling, Magic-User, Thief (See Rules Cyclopedia for Druid and Mystic.)

• AD&D: Assassin (T), Bard (F/T), Cleric, Druid (C), Fighter, Illusionist (M), Magic-User, Monk, Paladin (F), Ranger (F), Thief
  (Note: Parentheses indicate a sub-class. Bard and Monk excluded from OSRIC. Additional classes in Unearthed Arcana, such as Barbarian and Cavalier.)

Character Races:

• S&W: Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Human

• B/X: Race as Class.

• AD&D: Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-Elf, Halfling, Half-Orc, Human

Alignment:

• S&W: 3-point Law-Neutral-Chaos

• B/X: 3-point Law-Neutral-Chaos

• AD&D: 9-point Good-Neutral-Evil and Law-Neutral-Chaos

Maximum Level:

• S&W: 20

• B/X: 14 (see Rules Cyclopedia for up to 36)

• AD&D: 20

AD&D Note (Leveling Up):

• Gygax suggests training required at a rate of current level × 1,500gp per week in order to gain levels.

Spell Lists and Max Spell Levels:

• S&W: Cleric (7), Druid (7), Magic-User (9)

• B/X: Cleric (5), Magic-User (6)

• AD&D: Cleric (7), Druid (7), Magic-User (9), Illusionist (7)

Scrolls:

• S&W: Can be transcribed to spellbooks. Must Read Magic for arcane scrolls first.

• B/X: Can only be cast. Must Read Magic for arcane scrolls first.

• AD&D: Can be transcribed to spellbooks. Must Read Magic for arcane scrolls first.

Adventures

Timekeeping:

• S&W: 10-minute Turn, 1-minute Round.

• B/X: 10-Minute Turn, 10-second Round.

• AD&D: 10-Minute Turn, 1-minute Round, 6-second Segments (10/Round)

Movement:

• S&W: Movement rate e.g., 12. (×20 = feet/turn; ×10/3 = feet/round in combat)

• B/X: Base movement (Encounter movement) e.g., 120' (40')

• AD&D: Movement rate e.g., 12". (Conversions: 1":10' per turn of exploration or combat round. 1":1' per combat segment. 1":2 miles per day of travel.)

Encumbrance:

• S&W: Weight measured in pounds. Affects movement only.

• B/X: Weight measured in coins. Affects movement only.

• AD&D: Weight measured in pounds. Affects Surprise and Initiative

Random Encounters:

• S&W: 1-in-6 chance every turn, but suggested as few as every 3 turns. Variable dungeon level. d6×10' distance in dungeon. (×3 to ×10 in wilderness.)

• B/X: 1-in-6 chance every 2 turns. Standard dungeon level. 2d6×10' distance in dungeon.

• AD&D: 1-in-6 chance every 3 turns. Variable dungeon level. d6+4" distance in dungeon. (50' to 100') Base 6d4" distance in wilderness, modified by surprise.

Reaction Rolls:

• S&W: 2d6. Low rolls are hostile.

• B/X: 2d6, modified by Charisma of interacting character. Low rolls are hostile.

• AD&D: d%. Low rolls are hostile.

Combat

Operation Order:

• S&W: 1. Declare spells; 2. Initiative; 3.Movement and Missiles, then losers of initiative; 4. Spells and melee, then losers of initiative.

• B/X: 1. Declare spells and melee movement; 2. Initiative; 3: In order: Movement, Missiles, Spells, Melee. 4: Opposition.

• AD&D: 1. Declare intentions including spells; 2. Initiative; 3: Resolve in initiative order.

Surprise:

• S&W: d6. 1-2 is surprised for one round, but only 1 if Monk or Ranger in party. 1-in-4 chance of dropping a held item if surprised.

• B/X: d6. 1-2 is surprised for one round.

• AD&D: d6. 1-2 is surprised for that many segments. Dexterity modifiers can negate these segments for individual characters.

Initiative:

• S&W: Group d6, highest goes first. Ties are either simultaneous or re-rolled per DM choice.

• B/X: Group d6, highest goes first. Ties are either simultaneous or re-rolled per DM choice.

• AD&D: Group d6, highest goes first. Each side acts on the other die’s segment. Ties are simultaneous. Spells resolve at appropriate segment per casting time.

Move and attack:

• S&W: Can be combined.10' melee range

• B/X: Can be combined. 5' melee range.

• AD&D: No melee until after the round distance is closed, unless charging (×2 move). Defender can set to receive charge.

Back Stab (Thief):

• S&W: +4 to hit from behind for Thieves and Assassins. If also surprised, damage multiplied based on level.

• B/X: +4 to hit if unaware and from behind. Damage doubled.

• AD&D: +2 to hit from behind (or +4 if also with surprise), damage multiplied based on level.

Attacks of Opportunity/Fleeing:

• S&W: Free attack as the character moved out of 10’ melee range, made at +2. Optional.

• B/X: +2 to attack from behind; No automatic attack.

• AD&D: Free attack(s) at +4 (i.e., treat as stunned)

Missile attacks:

• S&W: +0 at short range, -2 at long range.

• B/X: +1 at short range, +0 at medium range, -1 at long range.

• AD&D: +0 at short range, -2 at medium range, -5 at long range.

Firing into Melee:

• S&W: Random.

• B/X: No mention.

• AD&D: Random. Adjust probabilities based on sizes.

Monster Morale:

• S&W: Mentioned in the abstract.

• B/X: 2d6 vs. Monster's score. Equal or lower continues to fight. 2 successes will fight to the death. Optional.

• AD&D: d% roll for resolve; Base 50%, +5/HD >1, +1/extra HP. Additional situational modifiers.

Pursuit:

• S&W: No mention.

• B/X: Monster reaction roll. Success based on movement rate.

• AD&D: d% roll for pursuit chance. Depends on intelligence and situation.

AD&D Note (Spells and Weapon Speed):

• If lost initiative but attacking spellcaster in melee, subtract losing initiative die roll from weapon speed. If the result is less than the casting time, an interrupting hit is possible.

AD&D Note (Simultaneous Melee and Weapon Speed):

• In tied initiative, If the slower weapon has a greater speed factor by either +5 or 2x, the faster weapon gets 2 attacks before slower. If the difference is 10, the faster weapon gets a 3rd attack simultaneously with the slower weapon attack.

AD&D Note (Weapon vs. Armor):

• There is a table for bonuses and penalties to hit based on different armor types. Thus, certain weapons are better for lightly armored foes, and others for heavily armored foes.

As stated before, please feel free to comment below to point out inaccuracies or important omissions. In a future blog post, I hope to compare stat monster block formats found in adventures for various rules systems, as well as looking at how a monster changes across those rules systems as well.

1 - Note that of the three systems compared, I consider Swords and Wizardry to be probably the most removed from its inspirational edition of D&D, so I don't want to simply call it OD&D. (For example, the default option is a single saving throw, as opposed to the 5 different types.) As far as I know, it is an interpretation of the rules comprising Chainmail, the original D&D Box set, all supplemental booklets, and some articles from The Strategic Review. There are also the White Box (Original 3 Booklets) and Core (Same, with Greyhawk supplement) editions of S&W, but I imagine they are mostly stripped-down versions of S&W Complete. In reading the Swords and Wizardry Complete rulebook, however, there are well-presented notes about changes from the original rules.

Looking Back on the OSR

What better way to celebrate my return than to offer a sort of retrospective of the whole RPG scene and where I fit into it? In this weird world where D&D is more popular than it's ever been, I nevertheless feel increasingly isolated with where I like to place myself in it and the kinds of games I like to play. Also, since the death of Google+ and the fracturing of the RPG social media machine, I have had a difficult time surmising the current state of things with respect to RPGs in general, much less the Old School community. Twitter as a platform is far less functional and navigable than it used to be, and I have since deleted my Facebook account for a wide variety of reasons, my mental health being the most important. So, there are many people I used to talk to on a regular basis who I now have no idea how to contact, and I have no idea what they might be doing these days. And although I plan to summarize a few key events that occurred while I was removed from the hobby community, I undoubtedly missed something. Mindful of this ignorance, let's take a look at how I understand the "Old School" D&D scene on a macroscopic level before I inevitably find myself deep in its sweet clutches once again...

The OSR, Whatever That Is (Was?)

First, a definition. The "OSR"—at least at the time of my departure—had meant a great many things even during the span of time that I considered myself deeply entrenched in it. This is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that there persists debate as to what the "R" even means. "Old School Renaissance" is the most common I've come across, with "Rules" and even "Revolution" being alternatives. I think its formation can easily be traced back to the acquisition of D&D by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) and the incorporation of the fundamentally different 3rd Edition mechanics. Interestingly, the 3rd Edition also produced the Open Gaming License (OGL), which allowed for not only third-party creation of modern D&D content, but also the creation of content related to earlier editions of D&D.

Where I'm going with this observation is this: the thesis that there are generally two different populations that make up what would eventually become this "OSR" philosophy/community.

Initially, this "old school" crowd merely contained the population who refused, for one reason or another, to adopt the newer edition(s), instead sticking with the editions released by TSR¹. Not long after, it also included all the newer content (games and modules) that were released under the OGL, and these creations had fans in their own right. But still, you could say that this is the "nostalgia" camp, since their initial RPG experiences were crafted in the context of TSR D&D.

Eventually, there became an ever-growing population who had been introduced to D&D as it had been reborn under the WotC banner. They then discovered—through whatever means—the older editions and began to play those as well, and in some cases exclusively. Naturally, this tends to be a younger audience, coming into RPGs after the year 2000, when 3rd Edition hit the shelves.

Note that I, myself, am in a relatively unique position, or so I believe. My first experiences with Dungeons and Dragons were thanks to reading Bill Amend's FoxTrot comic strip in the mid-90s. After hearing nerd extraordinaire Jason describe D&D to his sister Paige, I thought it sounded like such a cool experience, let alone a cool game. I eventually convinced my dad to get me the 1994 Black Box, followed by the Revised 2nd Edition Dungeon Masters Guide, which I would read through while eating breakfast cereal. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that a lot of the rules I needed were in the Player's Handbook, which I couldn't find for a long time (since this was before online bookstores existed). Although the earlier edition captured my imagination, it wasn't until when 3rd Edition came out in high school that I found people who were into the game. Effectively, I can kind of claim membership of both of these subgroups that gravitate towards TSR-era D&D.

The Social Problem

Let's fast forward a few years. Facebook came out while I was in college, back when it was only open to college students. I remember thinking that it was a bad idea to open it up to the general public, and oh boy, was I correct. Since then, generally speaking, I have seen all manner of social media algorithms create hyper-focused self-reinforcing communities on their respective platforms. Echo chambers, polarization, and siloization are some terms that I am thinking of using here, although I hesitate since I have not studied social media dynamics academically, only as an attentive yet casual observer.

At least in the context of the US, there has been an ever-strengthening tendency of social polarization. On one extreme, you see higher concentrations of radical bigotry and hard-line social "conservatism." On the other side, I see well-meaning social progressivism, albeit too often in the framework of a hyper-morality competition that becomes absolutist and self-sabotaging. This is about as political as I want to get, as the tightrope of language is thin, and I have never been excellent at choosing the right words to convey my meanings with surgical accuracy.

Actually, scratch that. I had checked out well before the rise of the bizarre, perverse conspiracy cult of Anonymity centered around a letter between P and R. That's right, I'm treating it like Voldemort because I don't want Blogger to associate this blog with that terminology in any way. I have no knowledge of how that real-life fringe has affected RPGs, and for the moment, ignorance is bliss.

Back to the polarization aspect: an obvious correlation is that the bigotry side of our US society tends to consist of older, white, cisgender and heterosexual males, while the opposite side is younger and, broadly speaking, more diverse.² It follows that the OSR community is similarly divided, due to the generational gap between those who are members through nostalgia versus those who are members via discovery. Nevertheless, for many people who have not explored the older editions or who cannot understand the appeal, the preference for older D&D editions is easily written off as nostalgia, and is synonymous with old, likely bigoted, white men.

Certainly those of us who are trying to reject this association are not helped by the flood of problematic news that continues to come out about the older generation of gamers and creators. (Ex: 1, 2, 3.) Fortunately, I can say that during my run in the RPG circles, I made a lot of new friends of various sexualities, genders, and ethnic backgrounds, and most of them I met through playing older editions of D&D, or games that were inspired by them. What's more, I made more such friends than when engaging in all my other hobbies combined (including board games).

Evolution of the Label

As the OSR evolved, it began to be less about the D&D game system, and more about the ethos that the older editions represented. TSR editions of the game had fewer rules overall, and the farther back in the publication history you go, the poorer the organization and layout tended to be. As a result, there were fewer rules to cover every possible scenario that arose in play, and when those rules did exist, they were not always easily found. While there were times that this created some disastrous social outcomes, particularly amongst kids who are not always the best at fairness, the contemporary take from within the OSR is that this leads to greater freedom on the DM's part to be creative and make rulings that adapt to the fiction at hand.

Gamemaster inventiveness and homebrew hackery led many who identified with the OSR to experiment with new settings, game mechanics, and original game systems, all with the intent of facilitating better gameplay at the table with a DM who could be entrusted to fairly adjudicate the gameplay. Interestingly, an "opposing" group of new RPG design with direct narrative-control mechanics (e.g., Fate) likely also had its genesis in early D&D games, albeit ones where the social contract had been violated and the DM could not be trusted.

By the time I had decided to abandon the RPG hobby, I was constantly observing new content coming out from the OSR community, and hardly anything was even remotely related to D&D. The idea had evolved far beyond an association with a particular era of D&D rules. Instead, you could easily call it a DIY freeform RPG community with a shared genesis point. 

Where I Am Now

Within the last few months, I hesitantly accepted an invitation to a fortnightly 5th Edition game. As a matter of fact, we have our next session this evening. I know about half of the players, including the DM, personally. However, what has me plunging myself back into the hobby and into this blog is the fact that one of the players has expressed interest in running a 2nd Edition AD&D game. But all this was covered in the last blog entry. My biggest challenge will probably be resisting the temptation to let loose my inner DM and start up a third game. There is no way that the current group could accommodate a third game, and even I have little free time to dedicate to running a complete campaign, even one as lightweight as Megadungeon Madness.

So, I will sit here and roll dice as a player in the meantime. It is good to have my paper, pencil, and polyhedrals again. My hope is that when I do get around to wanting to run a game with an older edition of D&D, I will not get much pushback from a community so fully immersed in the most recent edition and its modern tendencies.

Thanks to my initiative of separating myself from a toxic social media addiction, I do not know if the OSR is still going strong. And if it is, I have no idea what it looks like now. If you are a content creator who I know from my previous foray into the world of OSR creativity, please reach out. There are a lot of good friends out there who I wonder about these days.

A Few Years Later, Our Hero Returns

Well, here I am after a long sabbatical away from tabletop gaming. All it took was a single mention of a TSR-era edition of Dungeons and Dragons, and I launched myself head-first into old-school systems again. I've excavated my dice, and I'm ready to start rolling them into the felt of the dice tray once more.

When I last left the hobby, I was going through some personal stuff. I was battling mid-grade depression, and what had once been a solid OSR community had at that point become toxic.

I turned my attention to board games, then visual art, and finally music before coming back to RPGs only recently. I have been playing in a 5E game (one night online every two weeks) set up by a friend from college, and overall it has been quite fun the last few months. However, I do have to quietly chuckle at myself at all the things that would not feature in a game of my own making:

- The expectation of combat, with one set piece tactical battle per 2-3 hour session.

- Battle maps.

- A general lack of mortal danger.

- The Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

- Skill checks. (A lot of them.)

- Players asking to roll said skill checks in order to do something.

One of the players has indicated that he would like to try running a 2nd Edition AD&D game on the side. He started a character creation session on Discord, which was ill-timed because I was at a real nadir with respect to my depression in the last month. I wanted to do nothing; I saw very little point in anything; I didn't know if I could stand talking to people, etc. Those who have dealt with depression probably know what I'm talking about. Those who haven't hopefully never will.

I had missed a vast majority of character creation, but I did learn that we had a Half-elf Ranger and a soon-to-be-finished Dwarven Thief. Fortunate that I still had my PDF of the Player's Handbook, I was able to open it and slowly refresh my memory. I didn't even have physical dice handy, but I rolled some stats and decided on a Human Cleric. (Maybe I'm unimaginative, but I always gravitate towards playing humans.) The rest of the following half-hour was spent re-familiarizing myself with this game which I had first learned in the late '90s, despite rarely having friends who were willing to play it.

I had merely finished character creation. Within days, I had purchased/ordered new replacement copies of the Dungeon Masters Guide and Player's Handbook. I'm digging out the small mountain of dice I own in no fewer than three tackleboxes. I'm seeking out new content sources, such as The Old Warlock on YouTube (which is my preferred content consumption platform). I'm seeing which blogs I enjoyed a few years ago are still around. I am wondering how many people looked at my own and wondered where I went.

I have yet to play my first session in this new game, but I feel inspired to run a game of my own, even if it means that I have to sacrifice some of my precious little evening time.

The sword, it would seem, has been re-forged.