AD&D Makes Better Players

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons forces players to think of their characters as vulnerable; encouraging players to be inherently creative. This concept is missing from most Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition players. Buy the AD&D Players Handbook: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17003/players-handbook-1e?affiliate_id=50797

Transcript

Cold Open

You would be a better player if you played this game.

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to discuss how Advanced Dungeons & Dragons makes you a better player. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing my thirty-four years of dungeon mastering and playing tabletop role-playing games in every edition of Dungeons & Dragons. If your opinion differs from mine, that’s great, leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Discussion

When modern players who started playing Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition because of popular culture series like Stranger Things, or actual play online shows like Critical Role, they were presented with a game that on its face tried to be balanced, but as with any game which has continually added character options for a decade, the system is anything but. It does, however, provide players with heroic characters whose only struggle is to keep their players interested in playing them after six to ten levels. Why would a player grow bored playing a character after that long? Well there are a plethora of reasons, but at the top of the list would be homogeneity. With few exceptions, you could strip away specifics and all characters can melee, fire off some form of magical attack, heal themselves with a short rest and excel at skills whose ability score can go up to twenty or more! The whole premise of encounters seems to be based on an action game like God of War. Run into combat, kill as quickly as possible, rinse and repeat.

You can make a fair argument that player and dungeon master styles are what encourage that style of playing, but when the game presents player characters in this light, it’s hard to see anyone playing them any different without a background in role-playing or playing older versions of the game like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This could easily be tracked back to Original Dungeons and Dragons, but I prefer AD&D because Dragonlance was designed for it originally, and seeing as I am writing, performing and producing this video, you’re stuck with it. Now, before you throw your hands in the air and repeat the mindless drone like phrase of OK boomer or dismiss my thoughts as nothing but a grognard’s constipated complaints, I would initially ask you to stop giving into obvious and trite internet culture’s witless banter, and then give me a few minutes. I am running a 5th edition game right now, and I have run past 5th edition games. I play tabletop role-playing games, not a single edition of a role-playing game. This gives me something called perspective, a concept that seems to be lacking in social media and our culture at large.

Perspective is also something that is integral to being a good role-player in general. It allows you to immerse yourself into a character. To understand the motivations and drives of a given character based on their race and class. Another way of saying that is that your choices on behalf of the character are informed by their culture and experiences, not your own. How does one immerse themselves into a fantasy culture? Game mechanics and imagination. In 5th edition there is a brief paragraph on Alignment, then a sentence dismissing the entire concept. They present races but the only thing that truly separates them is game statistics, rather than cultural identities. When players are not presented structural reasons for choosing one race over another, it’s no wonder every race is treated the same.

But the true reasons for players’ mindless rinse and repeat actions are not simply due to their character builds, but the fundamental game structure. It’s an overly simple game. And there is nothing wrong with simple games, it’s just that when every encounter is presented as a hack-and-slash solution, you lose the role-playing aspect and degrade to action video game tactics. I have seen this in my own 5e games, where rather than dare I suggest, making yourself vulnerable for a moment by changing your clothing and equipment to bluff your way into an enemy encampment, you send a single player to sneak in, who actually believes they can succeed alone! Do you see my point here? They have so much faith in the abilities of a single character that they let them, alone, invade an enemy encampment, filled with enemies! How can you believe they see this as a challenge when it only takes a solo action hero to overcome it? When the game ended in a total party kill or TPK session, I would like to believe that they thought again.

I don’t blame the players for this approach as much as the game system. They are constantly told they are heroes by the game, given powers of heroes, so how could they believe they need to use creativity or ingenuity to solve problems? I have run into this again and again with 5th edition players. The party is low on health and magic? Let’s continue exploring! It seems no one ever considers a creative approach to a problem beyond opening the next door, and bashing the bad guy over the head. They would never consider leaving the dungeon and resting for a single second. Only pressing onward until they can take a short rest and heal themselves. And when they die, they have up to five rolls to save themselves, because heaven forbid another player help to stabilize their fallen comrade. That would mean missing out on bashing the bad guy again!

Again, this is a symptom of the game system, not the player. They are playing the game they are given to play. Which means, the fundamental problem is the edition. But all is not lost, you can learn to be a better player. You can learn to be a creative problem solver. You can immerse yourself in restrictions which promote ingenuity. It would mean learning slightly different game mechanics and difficulty overcoming obstacles, but success is within reach. My solution is not to watch endless Dungeons & Dragon content creators who instruct you on how to be a better player or dungeon master, but instead, playing older versions of the same game! That’s right, older versions of Dungeons & Dragons still exist. They are out there in their complex, challenging and frustrating glory. Why are those things good for you as a player? Because they force you to grow as a player rather than search for the best character build.

In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons your chances of rolling a hero are slim to none. You more often than not create a character that is slightly above average who you have to play long enough to evolve into a hero. You don’t have non-weapon proficiencies or skills until 1.5 edition with Oriental Adventures. This means that there is nothing telling you on the page that you can or cannot try an unconventional tactic like intimation, acrobatics, helping a wounded ally or negotiation. So it’s up to the players creativity and rolls rather than a stat on a sheet which provides options for success. There are racial stereotypes with class, experience, level and alignment restrictions that are intended to provide perspective balance between each. At low levels your characters are very vulnerable and you have to be creative to survive a world that is not there for you to dominate, but rather, to destroy you. The whole sensibility of characters in AD&D is to have a folder full of ones you can play when yours is ultimately killed. Because characters are not heroes out the gate, you have to be considerate in encounters. Perhaps you negotiate with the goblins rather than rush and attack them? Are your casters out of spells, well you leave the dungeon and return to town. Sleeping in the wilderness or a dungeon is as dangerous as exploring it while awake.

Different weapons are more or less effective against different armor types, and you have to be considerate with how you position yourself, or if you fire into combat, as you are as likely to be overrun or hit your party members as much as the enemy, because combat is not relegated to a five foot square, but a ten foot area where the party and enemies are in constant motion. Each weapon and spell has different speeds depending on style and complexity, and if you are struck while preparing a spell, you lose it! Healing can only happen if the caster has the spell memorized, if you happen to have a healing potion available or you gain one hit point a day with complete rest and no activity! Yes this makes it more challenging to play, but it then forces you to play with purpose.

The game system is designed for players to consider their actions and come up with unconventional solutions to problems, not simply fight your way through them. And sometimes, you have to actually surrender! Imagine that?! Surviving to fight another day as a possibly escaped prisoner rather than dying. Look, not all players are capable of understanding or enjoying an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, in the same way as not every player is capable of perspective for role-playing. But if you give it a chance, you may be surprised with your ingenuity and memories of the encounters and characters you engage with, and what you as a player are capable of rather than simply attacking.

Outro

And that is all I have to say about AD&D making better players. Do you think 5th edition players are less inventive? Do you believe there is such a thing as a good or bad player? And finally, what is your favorite edition of Dungeons & Dragons? Leave a comment below.

I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:

Was it something I said? Whatever it was, I didn’t mean it. I haven’t meant anything I’ve said for years. Except what I just said. I think.