I have got to admit, I’ve been away from Old School Dungeons & Dragons (and any roleplaying games for that matter) for some time. And by that I am referring to classic table-top (or ‘pen & paper’ if you prefer) gaming – not computer game versions. Being also a wargamer and familiar with using figures (as were many of my gaming group) we tended to play D&D that way 90% of the time; and most of our group always had.

I’m also not an ‘original’ who started playing in the mid-1970’s but I am part of the next wave (for want of a better term); the people who started playing around the late 1970’s/early-1980’s after the publication in 1977 of D&D Basic (by Holmes) and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (by Gary Gygax) that grew the game significantly¹. So by the time the next iteration came along (AD&D 2nd Edition in 1989) we’d all been playing some edition or other of D&D for several years or more (and the hard core originals had for well over 15 years)…

End of the First Decade of D&D

Anyway I gradually stopped actively playing around the time AD&D 2e came out; not playing any D&D after about 1991 due to other interests (e.g. historical wargaming). There are people who believe the death of old school D&D had already commenced before AD&D 2e was released; and the latter simply cemented that trend. I never played AD&D 2e in person (table-top); although I subsequently played it extensively in computer game form (and had a few of the rulebooks).

Second Decade

This was from December 1998 when Baldur’s Gate came out; playing BG I & II and Icewind Dale I & II and their expansions extensively on PC. As an aside my computer gaming play of AD&D 2e was briefly revived again in 2012-2015. The Enhanced Edition of BG was released then; and at the time I played it as a nostalgic revisiting of BG. Not realising it was also a nostalgic reach back towards Old School Dungeons and Dragons (but more of that anon).

Back in 2001 I then played the Neverwinter nights PC series of games extensively. It was based on the new D&D 3rd Edition obviously; and it was about this time that the D&D 3e rules brought me back to table-top D&D too! Although that only lasted briefly (a handful of sessions with a couple of groups). One thing I found not long after was that; despite the initial excitement of the new rules; the apparent ‘flexibility’ of character design and development; and the (shiny looking) sleeker mechanics it actually resulted in a more bland generic feel to characters (for me). This was reinforced further from playing NWN on PC intermittently over the next couple of years; as everything had a ‘sameness’ to it…

Return to Table-Top D&D (the Third Decade)

Around this same time I did return to playing table-top (or pen & paper) D&D briefly for a while as mentioned; initially inspired by the released of the 3rd Edition rules. However this was over a relatively brief period in the end with a couple of short lived campaigns. And despite the excitement of the potential of the new rules; it didn’t really come though in the milieu of the games. So my second ‘era’ of table-top D&D gaming ended (or rather petered-out) rather quickly. Although I did invest in a set of the 3.5 Edition books; to replace my 3e rulebooks when they came out.

What I had not realised; as I had moved away from RPGs in general at that time, both table-top and PC; and focused primarily on historical wargaming; was a lot of other D&D gamers (of my era and earlier) were similarly finding the ‘new’ D&D unsatisfying. And many of these were also players who had been more actively playing D&D a lot more than me over the past decade. By the mid-2000’s the OSR (Old School Renaissance) in table top D&D had quietly begun; with many players returning to play D&D Basic (either Holmes or Moldvay) or AD&D 1e, or the newly developing retro-clones. The latter thanks to WOTC putting the old editions under versions of an Open License; allowing for new publications based on the old 1970’s and 1980’s ones.

The Trouble with New School

One of the problems with the newer editions (3e, 3.5, 4e, 5e) has been the downplaying of player-dungeon master adlibbing; and immersion in the fantasy and more of a dogma driven play be numbers type approach; with very linear structured storylines and other detrimental effects. Such as very long drawn out combat resolutions, from the perspective of many old school players. The “OSR games encourage a tonal fidelity to Dungeons & Dragons as it was played in the first decade of the game’s existence—less emphasis on linear adventure plots and overarching metaplots and a greater emphasis on player agency. As a result the general ethos of OSR-style play emphasizes spontaneous rulings; from the referee or Game Master, over set rules found in a book.“

By 2012 this ground swell was sufficiently well established for WOTC to start reprinting old original D&D Adventure Modules; and to free up licensing on the old rules editions as noted in the paragraph above. Old School Dungeons and Dragons was back! However not being across the extent of the OSR movement myself until post 2017 or so; I had largely lost interest (temporarily) in both table-top and PC D&D gaming by this time. Although I became a bit more aware of the OSR movement with RPGs and D&D in particular over recent years.

Old School Dungeons and Dragons Returns (Fourth Decade)

By post-2012 my D&D interests were growing again, although this only realised itself in the form of purchasing a couple more PC games (such as Pillars of Eternity, plus the Baldur’s Gate Enhanced already mentioned above) and a set of the new 5th Edition D&D Rulebooks (I skipped 4e and didn’t even realise it had been released until a couple of years after it’s actual release – so along with AD&D 2e it’s the ‘other’ edition I have never owned rulebooks for).

Now thanks to an on-line wargaming friend (in Australia) and his Brighthaven Campaign (played with D&D B/X); and the posts of his campaign journal mean I’ve been totally re-energised and re-inspired back to classic table-top/pen & paper D&D; in my case primarily AD&D 1e and Basic B/X; and reminiscing about all the good times and great games played through the ’80’s… I have enjoyed becoming re-involved in the online D&D community some more again and catching up on other D&D gamers blogs, forums and Facebook groups. I have begun rebuilding my AD&D book and figure collections and started working on ideas for campaigns and adventures from a DM perspective, and character ideas from a player perspective. I’m looking forward to actively engaging in D&D in 2022, and posting here as I work on those and get further back into D&D and join the OSR!..

Closing Notes

Examples such as OSRIC (Old School Reference and Index Compilation) and OSE (Old School Essentials) have gained big followings, so some kudos to WOTC for doing the open licence. It’s certainly helped the OSR publishing community grow. See here for further OSRIC info – essentially its like a refreshed version of Original or 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons (that features some similarities to AD&D as that was were Gary Gygax was heading rather than Holmes’s 1977 Basic rules). Also see here for the basic OSE Rules, which is essentially Moldvay’s D&D B/X from 1981 (with optional advanced ‘extras’ version aka snippets of AD&D like extra PC races & classes).

As an aside Justin Alexander (The Alexandrian) suggest he knows the day the death of old school D&D began – it was as early as 1981 when Jean Well’s B3 The Palace Of The Silver Princess was pulled the same day it was published² and released by a senior TSR exec due to the illustrations included, and largely rewritten by Tom Moldvay, changing it from an expansive ‘Jaquayed‘³ mega-dungeon adventure to a structured linear adventure with clearly defined encounters and ending.

Notations

¹ in 1981 the revised version of D&D Basic B/X (by Moldvay) came out and there was also a third version of D&D Basic called BCEMI (by Mentzer) published 1983-1986 during this first period I was actively playing – but we played AD&D almost exclusively so only rarely referred to the Basic editions of D&D – although the D&D Expert box was my first ever purchase (by Cook in 1981 it was the companion to Moldvay’s Basic box, hence the B/X acronym for the 1981 – which any old school D&D player knows…

² See my separate post about B3 The Palace Of The Silver Princess and the 2 versions there were of it.

³ The term ‘Jaquaying‘ a dungeon refers of course to Jennell Jaquays who worked for Judges Guild in the early days and wrote possibly my favourite, and one of the best D&D modules ever, ‘The Caverns Of Thracia‘. Jason Alexander (The Alexandrian) possibly created the term (I like it) has a good write up on ‘Jaquaying the Dungeon‘ and incidentally see also my post on the Judges Guild Deluxe Edition Books by Goodman Games: Volume II focussing on Jennell Jaquays work at Judges Guild.