The Spirit of AD&D

AD&D is working hard for levels, very hard. As you can see above, the amount of experience required for each level were much higher than people are used to today. And the above chart was for Thieves, the easiest level within which to advance. And though experience awards varied vastly between awards it generally took at least six to ten sessions of play to gain one level. However it wasn't abnormal to wait over twenty in some cases. Levels mean something in AD&D. Which is of course why level drainers were so utterly terrifying. 
 

The Spirit of AD&D

 

AD&D is a black skinned, spike haired, gravely odiferous beast called a wight. Every hit does 1d4 damage and drains one level of experience. Every time it hits. Every time. That's one level complete with HP, spells, class abilities and all other features of that level. Sucks your beloved character right down, smack dab into the middle of the previous level's experience table. Next to save or die, nothing struck fear into characters, especially high level characters like the level draining monstrosities of the Wight and the Vampire. 

And for those of you who don't know, levels in AD&D ... well, maybe we'll cover that next time. 

TTRPG Nostalgia

I don't know what it is, but I'm here again. This place I get to time and again when I feel overwhelmingly like my D&D is lost. Why do I feel this way? Is it just nostalgia? Or is it something more?

I have been doing some reading along with my soul searching lately and have come to find quite a bit online about gaming related nostalgia. Almost all of it is about video game nostalgia, but I think alot of it applies equally well to TTRPGs. One thing in particular stuck out. Nostalgia for video games tend to be so powerful because we invested so much emotional energy in them. We might be nostalgic for music, for a style of dress or even a movie. But we could spend hours and hours on a game. Sound familiar? Clearly I am very nostalgic for TSR era D&D because I spent almost every available moment, thinking about it, drawing, writing, mapping, reading, talking and certainly playing the game and every thing associated with it. 

I have teased before that D&D is my religion more than my hobby. I suppose, inasmuch as religion defines us from before to after birth and throughout our life, D&D does that as much for me as my religion does. Of course that's hyperbole. I just saw this old ad, and it brought back a wave of nostalgia for something that I wish could be recaptured ...