tim (10/21/82)
Someone has asked what other FRP games have over AD&D.
(1) Realistic combat. The idea of "armor class" comes from Chainmail,
the medieval miniatures rules that fathered AD&D. In this, the
lower a unit's AC, the better its chance of surviving any hit.
D&D simply added hit points as a measure of how much damage you
can take, substituting this for instant removal. However, armor
in real life subtracts from the damage inflicted by a hit; it
doesn't make you harder to hit. There is also the one-minute
melee round. This is a total absurdity; hand-to-hand combat is
*very* fast. It also leaves you with a very unclear picture of
character movements and positions during the round. The completely
open-ended hit points system cannot be rationalized, despite
Gygax's best efforts. If a large part of hit points is parrying
and getting out of the way, how come it takes weeks to come back
naturally? A more realistic combat system improves identification
with the character by allowing clearer visualization of the
world, and speeds up play by preventing the arguments that can
result from the ambiguities of an unrealistic system: it is
easy to extrapolate and resolve questions in a realistic system.
(2) Greater personalization. In AD&D, you are primarily determined
by your class, level, extraordinary attributes, and magical items.
In many other systems, the ideas of class and level are thrown out
entirely, in favor of a more realistic system in which your col-
lection of skills is uniquely yours, and you can learn any skill
you can convince a trainer to teach you. Experience improves you
only in the skills you use, unlike AD&D, in which a thief who
never has climbed a wall gets better at it by stabbing people in
the back.
(3) Intuitive magic. The learning-and-forgetting spell system of AD&D
runs counter to human intuition concerning magic, which involves
spell learning as fairly permanent, and the powering of spells as
the draining factor. This is admittedly arguable, but I think if
you're honest you'll agree. (The RuneQuest system has both the
kind of spell I've described and infrequently-usable spells,
available only to Rune Priests, done with the aid of a deity.
These latter aren't forgotten, it's just that your god won't
help you out with tem again until you spend some time in
worship.)
(4) De-emphasis of magic items. Magic items in AD&D can tend to over-
shadow a character. Despite warnings about not using magic items
frequently, the huge number of such in the DMG creates an almost
irresistable temptation for most DM's. Once this cycle is entered,
it is virtually impossible to escape.
(5) Cost. Most systems cost less than the three basic AD&D books,
not to mention DDG, FF, and the forthcoming companion volume.
Playing aids tend to provide more for the money than the
various AD&D modules, record sheets, etc. (In fact, the only
AD&D aid I know of worth the bucks is the DM's Screen.)
I hope this has helped to shed light on the matter. The list
is not meant to be all-inclusive.
Tim Maroney (unc!tim)