AD&D vs. D&D 4th... Part 1 (the seriously cut down ramble).

An updated version of D&D was released as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (often abbreviated to AD&D) 1979. Dungeons & Dragons 4^th edition (D&d4th) the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide were all released in June 2008.

If you’re not sure check Wikipedia go on ill wait..........

Are you done? Excellent!

You know back in the day I would’ve never considered myself interested in role playing games let alone as I do owning at least 9 of varying rule systems worlds logics and 100 other in game factors.

When I was growing up I didn’t have a good gaming background or even being you stereotypical geek, I was the average 11 year old when I first came across D&D. Id got to that stage when collecting dinosaur magazines was getting old, Lego wasn’t fun anymore and my collection of ww2 model aircraft was quite extensive, for my generation this was common after all I didn’t play on a ps1 until I was 13 and our saga mega drive had died years ago.

It was during one of my father’s clear outs of a cupboard that he happened up old Games Workshop lead figures and soon after the most fascinating books id ever read AD&D1st edition.

He of course not resisting would and still to this day regales me with stories of his lv 6 thief, my mother’s half elf magic user the insane man beast and his Druidic half brother. I think I can say one way or the other my imagination was hooked.

Okay, at the time I was in games workshop per verbally going gooey over space marines and Gorkamorka! And yes I had played few examples of D&D games including First Quest! And AD&D introduction game with audio CD...it was bit pants and yes I never quite got my head around role-playing.

My career in geekenss and gaming revolved mostly around Games Workshop until once again a quick adventure to the realms of storage revealed character sheets books tiles and figures; from then on I endeavoured to play! Learning from the meanest DM of all: my father (guess something are fated) before long dad would get a campaign going which would die out before it began, he encouraged us to DM ourselves; and when it came my turn I crapped out.

But then I read, I listen to the my old man, I understood I researched and after one hypothetical question the winds of magic swirled around me and with the blinding green light a crack like thunder I became the DM and my friends the patrons of a small town legendary for being built upon an ancient city some saying that through the basements you could gain access to a lost city! and who knows what untold riches lay beneath!

But I’m rambling.

There’s a fundamental differences between the two games apart from the sheer time span; granted D&D has been the corner stone of role playing games since before I was born and has been considered as such amongst the role-playing community.

So in the natural order of things games must evolve.

Character creation:-

I’m not going to go through the pre-flight checks of how to literally create a character, you know roll 3d6 find what class roll hit points make racial adjustments... no its a granted I just want to give you a overall view... from me to... well... thee.

Now in my younger days I used to do nothing but create characters its a bad habit I've never broken out of, now initially AD&D has a relatively straight forward creation system roll up stats pick race and class, then fill in the tell tale gaps on your sheet, for a long time this has been one of the most tedious tasks in D&D finding out what bonus your strength has, how likely you are to know languages, your thieving abilities (which I can assure with racial bonus's coupled with a high dexs score and levelling up can be a minor headache) and hell I’ll admit I’ve never had a instance to use the percentile for resurrection chance. As for races you were, granted a bit limited to the standard line up elves, dwarf, half orcs (yes orcs with a C and yes they do procreate not spawned from mushrooms thank you Warhammer)! Gnomes, humans and good old halflings....really that was it.  Granted there were supplements released later on for other races and even articles in white dwarf magazine that allowed you to be something unique.

In 4^th edition its simply a case of let’s see how many books we can bring out with a stupidly extravagant array of creatures, monsters and some of the weirdest and unique player characters even invented the shard mind springing to mind (a physically animated crystalline humanoid) of course the classics still exist humans, half orcs, halflings, gnomes and no less than 3 breeds of elf? What like elves aren’t bad ass enough now there’s the wood-ish magical elves the normal elf the dark elf types and half elves just to make sure? But there you go. My only gripe with the character creation in 4^th is the character sheet!! Seriously people is it too much to ask for a how to fill in guide? I’ve played and experimented and still found stuff on there I needed to fill in!

OK granted 4^th is a D20 variant and yes once you understand (oh boy did it take me a while) its pretty dam comprehensive just long winded and daunting to say the least.

Maths is not my strongest point so really do I need to do semi quadratic equations to figure out what damage I do? What number I need to role on the dice just to hit?? But it’s the little things that are saving graces, a box to put your party member’s names in, a list of personality flaws, mannerisms and such: simplification at its best....maybe too simple. Oh and skills and feats! Practically every D20 base has skills list and yes this does help in the long run.


OK I need to chat up an elven waitress ill use bluff then diplomacy! Yeah it’s a helpful aid but where has the role playing element where the character psychically grovelling begging for more troops for the front when you can go ill use diplomacy *rolls I pass give me more stuff! It’s almost heartless although it does stop the DM being a bastard.

Feats something else that you can do that makes you just that little bit more awesome in game, and near enough forgettable but as the lords of D20 command there must be more stuff for you to remember!!!

In classic AD&D you had your stats you had equipment list you had this tiny space in which to make notes and of course the usual class, sex, flavour which you normally expect. The rest is up to you as the player to role play. With 4^th literally everything you ever need to know is on the sheet EVERYTHING!! (Granted the class cards a supplement with every option and power available to you do help but not at 7.99 they don’t).

Ok onwards!

Races...take your pick....classes... right?

Fighter, thief, magic user, cleric with added bonus of illusionist, assassins, druids and everyone’s favourite whipping boy the paladin and ranger, as I’ve stated there were more out there for the “old school” D&D player in supplements, options etc. but it wasn’t that hard to tweak/ hell change the names of weapons, clothing, even just borrow a few elements other classes or find the right trader (Mr. Dibblar esquire located near Fred's magic emporium) you could be that ninja or samurai or whatever; and 9 times out of 10 looking at your stats helps.

So choose class, gain some money grab your gear and off you go......straight to the nearest pub.

Simple, right…?

In 4^th same motions grab stats choose race spend ages filling in appropriate stats and skills. Choose a class...

Now in this edition not only do you think hey I want to be the paragon of justice lord of the gnomes and have a big sword, granted you can do that but also if your more like hey what do I want to be today? There’s another factor to take into account... namely your role: Controller, defender, striker and leader. Each class is now associated with one of these happy concepts, for example thieves are strikers (not trap finder) a fighter is a defender (form shield wall and crap self) warlords are leaders... etc now each of these introduce powers to your character, whether it be nasty attacks or the ability to heal or even 'buff up' your party so at last you can kick some ass (and trust me without at least a 1controller stuff will hurt you... lots).

Now I was never a fan of the 'powers' thinking hang on I'm over powered at lv 1 orcs won’t stand a chance....well your wrong! And I found out the hard way fighting against lv 1 goblins is embarrassing; especially when you’ve used half your healing surges just to crawl your sorry ass to the point where you can face the dreaded goblins of the butt-fuckery clan.

It’s interesting because by the end of it you crave more power and there’s only one way to get it: staring death in the face ripping off his nipples and asking “do I gain bonus exp if I call him Nancy?”

With each class comes great power and there’s a lot you can choose from so customization is a granted coupled with bit of imagination but you are spoilt for choice: Ardent, Avenger, Barbarian, Bard, Battlemind, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Invoker, Monk, Paladin, Psion, Ranger, Rogue, Runepriest, Shaman, Seeker, Sorcerer, Warden, Warlock, Warlord, Wizard to name but a few.

And each of these with up to 3 build options (5 if you have specific divine or primal power books) just so you can truly have the weirdest most custom character ever!

With the powers and the skills and what you can buy form the armoury! Its comprehensive I admit it’s all laid out there just waiting for you.....it’s simple, not particularly fast but it is a mountain of information literally at your finger tips.

Pick up and playability... well I leave that to you? AD&D I find simpler to understand and grab character and go, D&D4th its long you miss stuff but by the dark gods of my dice tin! Your character encapsulated in 2 sides of a4 with more info than you'll ever need… but that’s me.

Next time on scratching my head trying to remember stuff!

Game play: AD& vs. D&D4th.

DM