I’ve been interested in the cultural roots of the role-playing game for some time now, reading blog posts and the like, but only recently have I gone out and acquired some primary sources. The sources being, of course, 1st-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books, the ones with the original fuck-yeah covers full of demons with sword-cocks and awkwardly-drawn mystical beasts. But I’m not here to be WTF, D&D!? I’m here as someone who wants to earnestly understand some of the earliest role-playing stuff. To that end, obviously, I bring my own experiences and biases–I’m not trying to re-discover old school play in its original form, were that even possible; however I am trying to read the texts without any assumptions about what play is like.
It’s been very eye-opening, so far. It seemed good to me to start with the Player’s Handbook, being as it is the entry point and first interface for the game for the prototypical player. So I’ll go through these books from the perspective of their audience (reading the PHB like a player and the DMG like a dungeon master), and try to get a feel for play, and for what’s exciting about playing this game.
Before I kick this series of posts off, let me say: I’ve never played AD&D. Neither first nor second edition. In fact, I’ve played D&D probably about five or six times in my life, with an equal split between 3rd & 4th editions, and an equal split between GMing and playing a PC. Which is just to say, hey, this is where I’m coming from. I’m far more conversant in Burning Wheel and Apocalypse World than in any edition of D&D. Which is part of the reason I’m embarking on this project, anyway.
So…off to the dungeons, then?
Little Plastic People 
Captain Thark
September 7, 2011
When I first read through the AD&D 1e books, I was enthralled by how interesting they were. The game is flawed but has a lot of very interesting aspects to it.
A lot of the fun is spotting stuff that was unceremoniously dropped from later editions. With only a few exceptions, those are some of the neatest bits of the game.
Hans Chung-Otterson
September 7, 2011
Yeah, for sure. I love the crazy in this game. I’ve only peeked at the Dungeon Master’s Guide, for example, but the first few pages contain detailed rules and tables for your character’s chance to contract disease, what kind of disease it is, and how fatal it is. The organization is baffling, too. Like; why is that in the first few pages? Sometimes, because of the wacky organization, it reads like Gary Gygax’s stream-of-consciousness just edited down a bit.
Captain Thark
September 7, 2011
From what I understand, that’s exactly what this was. The BEST tables are the ones in the back of the Dungeon Master’s guide that have city encounters, you can bet I’m going to use those for Dungeon World. They just scream awesome hooks.
Lee Short
September 10, 2011
I think this is a great project and will lead interesting places. Make sure you understand, though, that “the earliest roleplaying stuff” was most OD&D, which is pretty different from AD&D…and most AD&D players were coming from an OD&D background. That’s pretty significant, because it built the context in which they were reading AD&D. You’ll lack that context; you will be pretty far removed from the target audience. If you read OD&D, played a couple sessions, read some Alarums and Excursions, *then* read AD&D — you’ll see it pretty differently, I think.
Hans Chung-Otterson
September 10, 2011
Good point. I know OD&D came before AD&D, but obviously AD&D’s easier to get my hands on, and it was a lot more popular than OD&D, as far as I understand it.
As for lack of context: I’m fine with that. That’s actually why I’m calling the series “AD&D and me”, because it’s about coming to the game with my assumptions and experiences. But it’s good for you to point out that I do have that lack of context; it throws my approach in relief.
And also, I’m definitely planning on reading OD&D and posting about it someday, once I get the books (I don’t want to read scans; I want a physical interaction with the thing). I’m sure that’ll color my view of AD&D, but I don’t mind doing it out of order!