The more I read this game, the more I like it. This is the definitive implementation of the Second Edition. Like OSRIC, it does not go out of its way to expand the game, and it presents as complete a core experience as it can manage. Unlike OSRIC, it includes the improvements from the Second Edition and all the core classes we know and love today. And it maintains perfect backward compatibility with OSRIC and Adventures Dark & Deep, as well as with existing 2E books.
Why not just play First Edition? The differences are minor, but the addition of bards and removal of assassins puts the game in line with the 1990s experience. The games are interchangeable, but Second Edition has the refinement and familiar feeling of when we took the Forgotten Realms seriously, and it captures that time for me. The art in FG&G also doubles down on a serious, tonally medieval period and a classic world, and that makes my heart sing.
Also, FG&G has increased XP for monsters, and the Story XP system is preserved —an additional difference between this and First Edition. Second Edition adventures could be more goal and story-based than their "XP for gold" First Edition counterparts. In fact, 2E removed XP for gold and only included it as an optional rule in the 2E DMG, discouraging its use.
FG&G assumes no XP for gold.
You only get encounter and story XP here, and this changed our perception of AD&D away from "kill for treasure" to a more adventure and story-based game, with awards for goals and heroism. Second Edition is the version we got big into, just because XP for GP was removed from the game.
There are also minor changes to monsters, standardization of THAC0, and a general cleanup and presentation of the rules. FG&G takes that a step further and pulls off an amazingly organized OSRIC-like presentation of the game. Best of all, the PoD reprints of the monster books are all 100% compatible, even though the game comes with its own bestiary.
There is nothing wrong with THAC0.
Can you not do simple subtraction?
A THAC0 of 19 trying to hit AC 9?
19 - 9 = 10+ to-hit.
Or do what they do in ACKS and add the target's AC to your to-hit roll, and aim for your THAC0 number. A THAC0 of 17 and fighting an AC 6 creature? Roll a d20 + 6, and meet or beat 17. There is no subtraction required here, only addition, and the concept that a lower armor class gives less of a to-hit bonus for the target. What number do you need to remember at the table? Only one, 17. Add the target's AC to the roll.
Think of AC as the to-hit bonus for the target you are attacking. The lower the number, the less the bonus, and the harder it is to hit. The higher the number, the easier it is to hit.
It is so simple, it is stupidly easy. I find this system far easier than some of the ascending AC systems out there, especially those in 3.5E, where AC numbers can reach 30 and higher.
In fact, THAC0 is easier than 5E to hit rolls. In 5E, you are rolling a d20, adding a modifier, and comparing against an AC value that can float, so you have two sides that can change. In THAC0, the number you are trying to roll or higher never changes, and you only add the target's AC to the roll.
THAC0 is easier than 5E.
If you want demons and devils, you will need to port them from First Edition or get the Outer Planes Appendix for 2E. It is a minor gripe, but it is nonetheless there and easily fixed. For us, we never had infernal creatures in our 2E Forgotten Realms campaign, and that allowed the other bad guys to step up and take more active roles. There is something to be said for not allowing demons and devils to run around your campaign world like it was a plane of hell, and limiting them to either direct summoning or being gated in for a limited duration of time. Doing what Pathfinder 1e did by letting demons wander around like MMO mobs is sort of lame and removes how special and rare they are in the game.
Oh, and the demons and devils are renamed to silly names, a 2E-ism that I equate to them being called by different names due to a cultural belief. It is simple to just call them what they are.
The Forgotten Realms started in AD&D First Edition and became mega-popular when the Second Edition and novels came out. And the world during that time was still a standard, human-dominated, classic, AD&D-style world with racial level limits. The world was not filled with cartoonish character races; it had real diversity in skin tone, cultures, and people within its human population. The cartoonification of racial options in the modern setting erases all these wonderful human cultures that used to be paramount in this world, and turns the setting into a parody of fantasy tropes.
I would rather have the original diversity of this setting instead of these D&D 4E transplant cartoons. I remember when 4E came out, and we could not wrap our heads around where to put the new races of Eladrin and Dragonborn; they were just there because Wizards said they were. They fit better in the D&D 4E world of Nerrath, to be honest.
In our games, the darker-skinned human traders and adventurers from the Southern continents were a force to be reckoned with, with equally powerful mages to match Elminster. They had adventurers and heroes who would show up in my adventures and campaigns. These days? Here are some kobolds, goblins, orcs, and dragon-men for your diversity.
The cartoonification of the modern D&D setting is killing the game and turning every world into the childish, goofball Happyland of McD&D. It is also killing real-world diversity and representation in this world in favor of everyone playing a cereal mascot.
Teiflings are not normal, everyday inhabitants of this setting, and they would have a taint of evil in their blood. They would not be readily accepted by most populations. This is another reason not to let demons and devils freely walk around, and take the focus off of them in a classic throwback 1990s 2E game.
The current Forgotten Realms is unrecognizable—it is no longer the classic setting.
Part of me wants to remember and play it as it was, but the other part of me is ready to toss the world into the trash, knowing it will never be the same again. I could do better, create better, and have a world consistent with First and Second Edition games without all these modern distractions. It does make me sad since 2E FR was one of the best fantasy settings of all time.
While the monsters in FG&G are the pared-down 2E core set, I can pull in monsters from any 1E or 2E book, and they are perfectly compatible. Only the XP needs to be recalculated with the tables in FG&G. The Adventures Dark & Deep Core Bestiary is a massive tome, and a perfect match for this 2E-flavored game. All my 1E and 2E games sit on the same shelf, and are an enormous library of games to play, from the more story-like 2E, to the classic hardcore 1E, and even OSRIC finds a home there alongside my (flawed, but still appreciated) 1E reprints.
All of them work together beautifully. Do I want a hardcore 1E game? OSRIC. How about an expanded 1E game? Adventures Dark & Deep. The game of novels in the 1990s? For Gold & Glory. Swords & Wizardry hangs out there, too, still compatible and still amazing. My First and Second Edition books make a highly compelling gaming shelf, full of fun and options for adventure.
A stack of classic adventures sits at the ready. All of them work perfectly with any First or Second Edition game, and for that matter, all my BX adventures for OSE and Labyrinth Lord work flawlessly as well. Why not play BX, White Box, or 0E? I get the meaty, gritty, chart-filled, Gygaxian classic 1980s and 1990s feeling and flavor here—the original recipe D&D taste—and it is a great time.
The older I get, the more I realize that most of the games they keep rereleasing and rewriting can never hold a candle to the originals. The best old-school is the old-school. The originals, but the ones crafted by the community to be around forever.
OSRIC.
For Gold & Glory.
Adventures Dark & Deep.
I have OSE and Swords & Wizardry, too.
Something tells me the best games we already had were the ones we had when the hobby was still new and electric. Just as the 1980s and '90s produced the best music and movies, the best decades also made the best games.
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