I only recently dug out some of my AD&D books and made a purchase (as it had come down to a reasonable price) of a 2nd edition bard book (my favourite editions are the first and second editions, I absolutely hate the later ones, I've read them and I have two fifth edition books Monk and Paladin, Cleric and Druid).
If you are into AD&D or similar scenes and mythos what were your expectations and how they did they match realities and what surprises were there?
I have to say that I didnt think the Bards would be what they are at all, they are an interesting and attractive character class, I didnt expect that at all. In fact in the earlier editions they are sort of prestigious and you need to do a lot of playing and character development in order to "unlock" the bard class, so to speak, its much more like "The Bard", ie Shakespeare or Homer, than travelling guitarist type I had thought they were.
In fact it now makes sense to me how and why the Bard got a series of video games on PC and then consoles and then android and tablet.
The other thing was the Priest or Cleric class, I definitely didnt realise that the first and second editions of AD&D were so influenced by or set within a sort of medieval european landscape or ren fest kind of thing (the books on vikings, romans, greek heroes/athenians were something I hadnt known about). I had also figured that the clerics were just some sort of auxiliary, like a medic, who fix up the barbarians or warriors after each encounter but they are more interesting than that and the second edition has loads of information in it about hypothetical religions and their obligations, they even recommended a couple of good books on the greek pantheon, kabbalah and mystery religions if you want to decide your own for play.
If you are into AD&D or similar scenes and mythos what were your expectations and how they did they match realities and what surprises were there?
I have to say that I didnt think the Bards would be what they are at all, they are an interesting and attractive character class, I didnt expect that at all. In fact in the earlier editions they are sort of prestigious and you need to do a lot of playing and character development in order to "unlock" the bard class, so to speak, its much more like "The Bard", ie Shakespeare or Homer, than travelling guitarist type I had thought they were.
In fact it now makes sense to me how and why the Bard got a series of video games on PC and then consoles and then android and tablet.
The other thing was the Priest or Cleric class, I definitely didnt realise that the first and second editions of AD&D were so influenced by or set within a sort of medieval european landscape or ren fest kind of thing (the books on vikings, romans, greek heroes/athenians were something I hadnt known about). I had also figured that the clerics were just some sort of auxiliary, like a medic, who fix up the barbarians or warriors after each encounter but they are more interesting than that and the second edition has loads of information in it about hypothetical religions and their obligations, they even recommended a couple of good books on the greek pantheon, kabbalah and mystery religions if you want to decide your own for play.
