Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;520634Yeah, I wouldn't recommend 3d6 in order for AD&D PCs.  The 3d6 in order method works just fine with OD&D and the little brown books, but stats are *much* less important under those rules (although once you add in the OD&D Supplements, it's pretty much like AD&D).  AD&D gives stats a lot more weight.

We always waived 2 15s though )using 4d6

But sometimes we allowed sell 2 down for 1 up

Quote from: jibbajibba;520645We always waived 2 15s though )using 4d6

But sometimes we allowed sell 2 down for 1 up

My current method is "4d6 drop lowest, in order, at least two 15s".  I'll either allow a player that comes up short of two 15s to reroll, or to just raise their highest two scores to 15.  I'm considering adding the "2 for 1" buy from B/X.

Quote from: DestroyYouAlot;520669My current method is "4d6 drop lowest, in order, at least two 15s".  I'll either allow a player that comes up short of two 15s to reroll, or to just raise their highest two scores to 15.  I'm considering adding the "2 for 1" buy from B/X.

One of my players suggested the "roll 12 times 2d6, arrange in pairs, drop one".

It worked quite well.

Quote from: Philotomy Jurament;520634Yeah, I wouldn't recommend 3d6 in order for AD&D PCs.  The 3d6 in order method works just fine with OD&D and the little brown books, but stats are *much* less important under those rules (although once you add in the OD&D Supplements, it's pretty much like AD&D).  AD&D gives stats a lot more weight.

I did this in a pretty long campaign, almost the beginning of my whole 'very average pc raising themselves' ideal i still sort of cleave to, decades later.

The attribute generation methods used in my AD&D game these days is roll three characters in attribute order, selecting one of the three as the player character.  The others are any contact the player wishes.  The contacts could be literally anything the player can think of: parent, trainer, wife, rival, sage, noble, friend, and anything else.  It gives the players a stake in the campaign world creation process at character creation, and I have been using it for a while now.  I find it helps place players in a little different mind set about who their character is in the campaign world.  Just about anything the players selects as a contact is great, as it helps move the campaign in a direction that the players would enjoy.  It has worked really well.  The players only do a full write-up of their player character.  So, I use a scaled back version of system IV, but one could do the full 12 sets of attributes, if there was a desire for it by the players.  The contacts have only their attributes, name and a description, without any other creation steps taken, which makes the process pretty open for new players too.

Quote from: Aos;520643B/X too.

Yeah.

B/X puts more weight on stats, but it also sets the threshold for gaining a bonus lower (e.g., in B/X a Str of 13 will give you +1 to hit and +1 damage, but in AD&D you'd need at Str of 17 to gain those bonuses).  I wouldn't mind using the 3d6 method with B/X (especially if you're using the "shift points around" rules).

I go with 3d6 in order, re-roll 1's and 2's once, and once only.

Either as a player or a GM I used all of the listed rules in the OP post. Not all of them at once perhaps but over time yes. Many of them really defined that era as 'D&D' for me.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Spell Preparation = Never used.  It was always free casting of either spell slot or spell point variety.

We used Spell Preparation.  We did develop our own Spell Point system and used it for awhile, but eventually we just switched back the RAW.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Chance to Learn and Maximum Number of Spells Per Level = This is shown on the Intelligence chart in the PHB.

We used it.  It rarely became an issue unless the M-U had a medicore INT score, or became high enough level to amass many spells.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Training to Level up = In the DMG, a character didn't level up automatically.  It cost a minimum of 1,500 GP times the current level of the character to advance to the next level.  It also took 1 to 4 weeks of game time with the full cost paid each week.  I saw this used a couple of times, but it was always quickly abandoned.

We used it for a long time, but abandoned it shortly after 2nd AD&D came out.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316The Whole Hand to Hand Combat System = I never saw any of the AD&D hand to hand combat system ever used.  Everyone always used a system which I think was introduced in Basic where a weaponless attack merely did 1-2 damage + Strength modifier and rolled to hit just like any other attack.

We used it only in very rare instances, and eventually moved to 1d2+STR for unarmed attacks too.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Weapon Proficiencies = I never saw anyone use them or even realize they were there until Unearthed Arcana and Weapon Specialization.

We used this all the time.  Screw the staff; darts are a M-U's best friend.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Weapon Vs Armor Type = Never met anyone who used it or had even realized what those huge charts in the PHB and UA were for.

Yeah, we tried it for a time, but abandoned it because of the disconnect between natural AC and real armor AC.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Weapon Speed = Never met anyone who used it before AD&D2.

We used this.  There was an excellent article in Dragon which presented an Intiative system based upon weapon speed.  It worked well and we used it for years.  We dropped it when 2nd AD&D came out and just used that initiative system.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Material Spell Components = It was usually acknowledged, but very rarely used or tracked.

If the material component was something mundane and easily (relatively) to obtain, then it was never an issue.  However, if you had a spell that required something special or costly, then we would track it; i.e., like with the Identify spell that required a pearl worth at minimum 100 gold.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Psionics = I've met a couple of groups who used it.  Mostly, this whole subsystem was simply ignored.

We rituallly rolled for psionics with each character.  I had several characters that received one or two psionic powers over the years.  They didn't get used often, but they became handy is a few key situations.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Magic Resistance = The Magic Resistance shown for a monster assumes an 11th level caster.

We used this whenever the situation arose.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Racial Level Limits = I hardly ever saw anyone use this.

We used this, although I rarely had a demi-human PC rise to the level where it became an issue.  One of the things that I loved about UA was that it expanded this rule greatly by expanding the classes allowed to demi-humans and allowing them to exceed level limits slightly if the character possessed high Attributes.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Recovery of Spells =  This was borderline, but I didn't frequently meet people who used or were even aware of the rules in the DMG for recovering spells.  Most played it that a night's rest (6 hours at least) and about an hour's study of the spellbook was enough to recover all expended spell slots.

Well, most of the time, spell casters rarely expended all their spells so it wasn't a big issue and a night's rest and some study was good enough.  However, if there was a big fight and the casters were completely drained, then we would determine how long it would take to regain spells.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Cleric Spells = I never saw anyone who paid attention to the idea that mid level cleric spells needed to be delivered by Godomino's Spell Delivery services (please tip the Deva), and that high level spells could only be replenished by paying a personal visit to one's deity.

This came into play a few times, but most of our play was of levels where this wasn't an issue.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Spellbooks = The Unearthed Arcana had extensive rules for how many pages a spellbook could contain and how many pages each spell took.  I only rarely saw anyone who didn't simply abstract it and say that all a mage's spells were in a single spellbook which never really came up in play.  Mages didn't have libraries, they just had a single book with everything in it.

We used this, but when you're carrying bags of holding and portable holds it wasn't such a big issue that a M-U had multiple spell books.

Quote from: Gabriel2;519316Item Saving Throws = I only rarely saw this used, and when it did come up it was almost universally just the DM being vindictive.

We used this as well, but it only came into play when we were magical Christmas Trees and high-level spells were cast against us.  Also, we used it for falling and stuff against vials and potions.

Weapon speed seems like a mechanic that could be useful, it could add a third element of value to the game:first, your to-hit bonus with that weapon, second your damage with that weapon, and finally your speed with the weapon.  Those three factors would be able to play off one another.

But weapon speed was so badly done that it never caught on.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;520986Weapon speed seems like a mechanic that could be useful, it could add a third element of value to the game:first, your to-hit bonus with that weapon, second your damage with that weapon, and finally your speed with the weapon.  Those three factors would be able to play off one another.

But weapon speed was so badly done that it never caught on.

RPGPundit

Never caught on? It was used by gamers for years. My groups used it for at least 6 years. It was the default concept for a very long time.

All this talk got me to spend some time re-reading the AD&D1e PHB and DMG, which I have on my external hard drive.  I confess that, as I was a child at the time, a lot of these rules got tossed for reasons that, on reflection, were usual for our age (i.e. we were fucking retards).  I now have to run AD&D1 totally RAW now, just to see what comes of its play experience.  Come to me, oh Mad Irishman, so that I may use those classic character sheets...

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;521006All this talk got me to spend some time re-reading the AD&D1e PHB and DMG, which I have on my external hard drive.  I confess that, as I was a child at the time, a lot of these rules got tossed for reasons that, on reflection, were usual for our age (i.e. we were fucking retards).  I now have to run AD&D1 totally RAW now, just to see what comes of its play experience.  Come to me, oh Mad Irishman, so that I may use those classic character sheets...

I could never do it again. I would start to interject the more modern 3.P without even realizing it. There was just so much of that older system that was inconsistent or just plain half-baked. Good luck.

I used weapon speed, but bastardized it pretty fast.

I got way to into the whole weep type vs armor type thing.  I went through the whole mm and determined the approximate type for every entry.
Those charts, coupled with the weapons of proficiency rules, allowed a fighter the advantage of having the right weapon for any situation.

why the percieved complexity of weapons speeds?

Its not hard right? and its like written down on your character sheet.

Weapon speed & dexbonus = modifer to a d10; lowest first.....

Not rocket science is it

Not there might be some issues round reach in there and possibly some sort of mechanism for resolving the really slow fighter with a halberd that seems to always get 2 attacks at the end of every round but they are out of scope for DnD's abstract combat model surely