Why?

 There are a lot of D&D clones kicking around so why am I working on my clone? 

Trust me, I own a bunch of them and I've read a bunch more. I was sure there had to be something that offered what I was looking to run at my table. I'm essentially a pretty lazy DM. I like to use other people's work and mostly just wing things when I'm not "borrowing". Thing is, I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

So what's the problem? 

Hmm, well, let's see if I can put it into words. I started playing D&D a few years after its first release. I loved it from the beginning and eagerly bought all the TSR products I could get my hands on. In the heady, early years of D&D there was a lot of space in the games design that people were rushing to fill, including TSR and Gary Gygax. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was amazing when it came out (and still is). It codified a lot of the experimental things that were being written about in the Strategic Review and later Dragon. It expanded the spell lists, added class levels, and modified the utility of ability scores. In general, it increased the power level of the player characters while leaving the core mechanical engine of D&D intact. That last bit is important and I'll be coming back to it.

But, there are some issues with AD&D and this is reflected in the wide variance of handling from table to table. Weapon speed and length, weapon vs. AC adjustments, Morale Checks, and Reaction Rolls, were all sub-systems that were often ignored, either because they were misunderstood (looking at you, grappling rules) or felt bulky or cumbersome in play. That bit is also going to be revisited.

The long and varied history of D&D from the 90s on will follow that general pattern. Expand the rules to fill new design space, and sometimes try to clear up the confusion of earlier rules. Make the game more complicated and as a result, more cumbersome to play. Somewhere in the 2e days, towards the end of TSRs existence, enough complexity was added to the game that the core mechanic was obscured and finally lost. 

I believe that the core mechanical structure of the original rules is crucial to the magic of D&D. The speed of handling and emphasis on time-keeping and resource management broad a dramatic tension and rhythm to the game that gets lost as the game grows more complex.

I've played all editions of D&D and lots of other RPGs. Some amazing designers have worked and are still working in this space. There are additions and ideas I admire in all of them. I think the 5e team in particular did some really solid work blending the previous Wizards editions, pruning some miss-steps, and adding some new ideas. But, they did not recapture the core mechanical wonder of EGG's work.

What I will be doing in this blog is stealing their work and making it fit into the core mechanical structure of AD&D/OD&D. A lot will have to be stripped down. Speed of handling is one of my core design goals.

We'll see how it goes.