I don't know what it is about Adventures Dark & Deep that has me pumped up; I haven't been this excited about a game in a long while. On the surface, it is a first-edition retro-clone, only a bit crunchier and in-depth.
There isn't that much to buy for it either. I have all the books, and the print versions are coming here.
What is it about this game? I swear it has an "it factor," that psychic feeling I get about a game before it gets big. Granted, the Kickstarter for this wasn't astronomical, but the game has the pedigree and a designer knowledgeable in the game and subject.
I can't wait to play this.
If I look back, AD&D was always a game I liked. And yes, GURPS did replace it. That story of Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, and the world's lore. My problem is that 5E feels like "false lore" in my experience, the "video game version" of a world I once knew. All the powers saved and the effects of magic spells are done on 6-second turns, and in AD&D, some of these durations were minutes. If you were hit by a charm or hold person spell, that was it - this was not being "thrown off" the next turn.
5E is even more of a video game than 4E was, and the entire game is built around the "six-second combat clock." This turn-by-turn game is not classic D&D or AD&D but pen-and-paper video gaming.
With ADAD, I am finally looking back into these worlds as I knew them back in the day. Sure, I could always play them with Old School Essentials or even Castles & Crusades, but those are a few steps removed from what I remember.
ADAD, being based on a first-edition framework, hits differently. It has an authenticity to it, and I felt I was missing. It feels low-magic when, by all accounts, it shouldn't.
And this isn't the second edition, where the power-gaming splat books flowed like wine, and all the GMNPCs were unkillable. In our first-edition game, Elminster felt vulnerable and weak and needed care and caution when approaching a problem. He was over 500 years old and a 26th-level magic-user by the rules and the original campaign book. By the rules, he will have 50-60 hp. He needs to use cloth armor; even with all that magic, he is still fragile.
We never saw him as a problem since the AD&D rules put a cap on his power. He could still lose initiative and get hit with an arrow of slaying. He is so old that his system shock and resurrection chances will be low. Many evil factions want him. His physical scores are not that high, so he is slow, weak, and frail.
Even if "he was touched by the gods," he should have been "called back home" long ago because he sets a negative precedent for the game world. Because Elminster exists, N+1 unkillable GMNPCs exist. This all started in AD&D 2nd Edition when the power gaming crept in.
How do you fix the GMNPC problem in the Forgotten Realms?
How about playing by the rules in the book?
And not "touching characters by the gods" to the point they become superheroes? Everything has a cost, and life only lasts so long - even by the rules in AD&D, which put a cap of 120 years on humans.
If you have unkillable GMNPCs, you are probably not playing by the rules in the book, making some ridiculous decisions as a referee, and not increasing the cost of benefits granted to characters. Like a credit card, those referee-granted boons have a price, and the bill comes due someday. For him to be over five times his age, where he would generally be "called home by the gods to serve as the Celestial Librarian," he has to have some severe limits on his actions and significant limitations to his magic.
Characters who become living gods get called home.
The world is for mortals.
And if push came to shove, I would have ruled that for our Realms campaign for all PCs who got above the 20th level. You are summoned to the "Hall of Heroes" or the "Lair of Infamy," you do planar adventures all day, but you aren't allowed to wreck a world made for mortals. Even Dragon Lance's setting said that if you got above a certain level, you were removed from the mortal world and sent elsewhere.
I don't care how many books the character sells; encouraging this isn't good for the game. But, again, when we followed AD&D rules for this world, we never had a problem with these NPCs. Follow the rules for magic by the book, and you realize "casting a wish spell while in combat" will not happen. In AD&D 2nd Edition, we saw the problem.
And it feels like they took the GMNPC syndrome of unkillable, overpowered, and insufferable characters and built 5E to be that game. If you are playing a game with unkillable GM NPCS, you are either not playing by the rules, fudging your rolls, or playing 5E.
If you have unkillable PCs or NPCs in your game or have been playing for years and no character has died, you are not playing the game by the rules.
Or you are playing 5E.
I swear, this is why some kids could not handle the game in the 1980s. They got too invested, and it is just like getting too invested in Monopoly and flipping the board if you see yourself losing. Now, all of 5E caters to the "flip the board" crowd, and they encourage investing yourself in the game to a point where it causes health issues.
This is why cheating the game, fudging rolls, or breaking the rules isn't good. It ends up destroying your world. Your world has a finite amount of legitimacy and authenticity. Letting characters like Elminster turn into GMNPCs and unkillable problem-solvers and the hero who steps in and says, "Let us handle this," like the Avengers, makes you look like a terrible referee and destroys your world.
The first edition feels like this is the other path. The other way to go. A game where superheroes don't rule the multiverse. A game where normal people rise to be heroes, grow old, build strongholds, retire, and begin the next generation of heroes again. A game where even the powerful feel vulnerable.
Gods are gods, and mortals are mortals.
In a first-edition world, everyone dies from a short, heroic life or old age in their stronghold as they pass the kingdom. The rules help tell the story of the world, not just one character.
The focus on "me and my power" in 5E is the fundamental flaw of the game.
ADAD feels like I could return to our original version of the Realms and explore that world again without all the drama and power-gaming. The same goes for Greyhawk or any other classic setting. Could I do this with OSRIC or even the original first-edition rules?
I could.
I was already moving in this direction with OSRIC. This is still a highly legitimate first-edition game, especially for those who do not want changes to the core system. OSRIC is the first edition's Old School Essentials. ADAD expands upon the game as part "what if" and part "what could be?"
ADAD just accelerated where I was headed.
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