A definition of Classic?

An excellent series of essays on aspects of what might be termed the "classic" dungeon crawl over at All Dead Generations. Check them out:

 https://alldeadgenerations.blogspot.com/p/the-classic-dungeon-crawl-theory.html

What I played

 I've been thinking a lot about what "my" D&D looks like. Lot's of ground's been covered since 1981 when I started playing. And my tastes were influenced by the game as it developed, and by the increasing proliferation of fantasy and science fiction that in large part was influenced by D&D. A creative feedback loop. James Raggi did a great job of talking about this here. 

But in the fondest parts of my gaming life, what did I play? What rules did we use? What did we love and what did we hate, not understand or simply not use?

• We started rolling 3d6 in order to pick a class. This was the way I was taught by the guys that had been playing since Original D&D. 
• We later added 4d6, first in order and then arranged as we like, or trading two for one to increase some abilities. We also experimented with other ability generation methods from the DMG, but all these felt sort of like cheating.
• We used the AD&D classes.
• We sometimes used classes from Dragon, but we argued about what class should be allowed, as some were clearly created to just be NPCs. 
• We used all the races in the PHB, influenced by Dragon and later Unearthed Arcana. But we did not use "monster" races and tended to stick with the PHB core. One thing that never seemed to make sense to us was race as class. We never played that way.
• Sub races were considered part of the game, but it became clear with time that subraces could also be campaign specific
• We did use class restrictions fairly rigorously, but did not pay near as much attention to level limits. Truthfully few demi-humans were played, largely because of these restrictions. I almost always played humans, as I felt like I could identify with them more. I wanted to be the adventurer I was playing. Call it lack of imagination, as some people don't even want to be human and love playing as all sorts of different races. But the fact ism all the main characters in our group back in the day, with one exception, were human. The one exception was a halfling thief. 
• We used and loved the magic items in the DMG, and they played an integral part in the game. 
• We used 1d6 individual initiative, unmodified. We later changed to d10 as we liked the idea of breaking actions into segments of six seconds. But we also knew the math didn't quite work out, so ended up using it sort of like d6 initiative. 
• We used the combat tables, but little else in related to combat. We did not use surprise, weapon adjustment or speed factors, etc. 
• AC as was from the PHB.
• Spells as per PHB, though we only gave lip service to material components, but spent more attention to duration, and a little to casting times, but not enough to modify initiative intelligently. 
• Starting Gold generation at level 1, and pre-purchase of equipment as listed in PHB.
• We used most equipment, but didn't spend much time on resource allocation or encumbrance
• There were later ideas that made character generation fun, mostly from Dragon, Survival Guides or UA. Random tables like heritage, background social class, family structure, non-weapon proficiencies and the like. We also liked the age table and secondary skills table from the DMG, but they rarely mattered after play began. 
• We loved exceptional strength but mostly just for the to hit and damage bonus. We never rolled to open stuck doors, but occasionally used bend bars lift gates. 
• We did use rolls for secret doors.
• Intelligence for languages, but rarely for spell bonuses or rolls to learn. Same for wisdom, but we did like the extra spells. Dexterity to AC and to hit, but rarely for reaction. Con for hp, but rarely needed to roll resurrection or survival shock. And charisma rarely for anything.
• Speaking of charisma we never used followers or retainers.
• We used 9 point alignment.
• We rarely played assassins, bards were impossible, but just about every other class made an appearance. 
• We did not use gender ability restrictions.
• We gave lip service to racial preference but it was never a real issue.
• We did use weapon and armor restrictions
• We did use Vancian casting of course
• We did have some multiclassed demihuman characters, but few lasted very long.
• Languages were used, but not alignment language, we wrote it down but really didn;t know what it meant.
• We did use weapon proficiencies, attacks pre round for fighters and eventually specialization, but this was a late addition.
• Barbarian and Cavalier were rolled up but rarely played with
• We did use missile weapon ranges and rates of fire and reload times.
• We understood time as 1 minute rounds, divided into segments that somehow mattered for spell casting and initiative, but that rarely came into play, and that turns were ten minutes. 
• Distance we knew was feet (') inside and yards (") outside, but even that wasn't always crystal clear. 
• Light range and duration a bit, movement in theory
• Psionics, 1 time. 
• Most of the DMG was a mystery, but could sometimes solve tough questions if we could find an answer therein.
• Experience, 1 gp per experience and back of DMG to look up xp for monsters.
• We loved the concept of planes and planar structure and used deities in the DDG for our clerics, but in a rather simplistic way generally. 
• We only used critical hits and fumbles later on, and generally played death at 0 hp.
• Later we played around with death at -10 and variants but mostly death at 0, and resurrection rarely came up.
• Saving throws pretty much as in the DMG.
• Rarely did we play with morale. 

It's Been a Year

Both since I wrote a post and since I've played. Well, we had a session or two, one shots. 5e. At one point I had agreed to play 5e as a player, but was done DMing. But even that stopped awhile back. I was just not enjoying myself. The last session I did DM a short 3 hour one shot. I occasionally get so game-sick (home sick for gaming) that I'll pull those who I know would be up for a 5e romp together to get a fix--albeit a bit watered down. 

I've been thinking lately about the last time I had a good AD&D session, which was almost 15 years ago when I convinced the kids at the school club to start an OSRIC campaign. We played for over three years, and the kids loved it. And truthfully, I didn't do much convincing. I simply told them if they wanted me to continue DMing, we would be playing first edition. And, as I said, they loved it!

So maybe that's a lesson for now. I simply put it out there that AD&D is what I'm running and invite anyone who would like a seat at the table.