I'm not really sure what happened to my post about game plans for the weekend - it appears Blogger ate it.
As it was my plans were a bust - a teething child trumps painting and gaming, generally speaking.
While trying to sooth Young Lord Shadowmoss by rocking him to sleep, my brain wandered and before I knew it, I had decided to take on another project: I am going to read my way through Moldvay's "Inspirational Source Material" on page B62 of the basic rulebook.
Why? As noted in the introduction to the list, "Sometimes a little research is useful to improve a dungeon, flesh out a scenario, and provide inspiration for a campaign."
Although I read a lot of mythology when I was younger, fantasy and science fiction titles were few and far between among the books I chose to read. In fact fiction in general, other than school related assignments, was largely absent from my reading preferences. It wasn't until well after college that I discovered how much I could enjoy fiction. With few exceptions, I haven't read the titles that appear on B62. I'm on a mission to rectify that.
True, "B62" doesn't have the same power of name that "Appendix: N" does, but I never enjoyed AD&D like I enjoyed the basic rulebook (and still do, 30+ years later), and so it has much more appeal to me.
Now, I typically read rather quickly, but lately, finding (or making) the time to read has been the challenge. So, I expect this project will take quite some time to complete. But this is certainly one of those cases where the journey promises to be far more interesting than the destination.
First stop: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin.
Wherein Our Hero blathers on about playing with toy soldiers, playing RPGs and related interests for his own edification.
In my opinion AD&D ruined the D&D "brand". Suddenly all sorts of tables were there to control everything . . . and much imagination was lost.
ReplyDeleteYes, I fully agree that early D&D is much more fun than AD&D. I've always told my players that anything they've read (including the rulebook) is only rumor . . . it might or might not actually work like that.
-- Jeff