the Blue Bard

1970 I'm born.

1971 Chainmail 1st Edition

1974 OD&D Boxed Set published (AD&D perfection process underway)

1976 Dragon Magazine Issue #1

1977 AD&D Monster Manual published

1978 PHB + B1, D1, D2, D3, G1, G2, G3, S1 published

1979 DMG + B2, S2, T1 published

1980 I play AD&D just before my 10th birthday for the first time

(D&D + Rogues Gallery + A1, C1, C2, Q1, S3 published)

1981 FF + Erol Otus Basic & Expert Set + B3, L1, U1, X1 published

1982 S4, WG4 published

1983 MM2 + World of Greyhawk + Ravenloft published

1984 I am authoring more D&D material than homework

1985 UA + OA + Temple of Elemental Evil published

1986 DSG + WSG + Queen of the Spiders published. Gary leaves TSR. Prior to Gary's

         departure, my best friend and I go to Gen Con 19 (with our moms) and Gary

         signs my DMG

1987 Manual of the Planes published: the last AD&D book I ever buy.

1989 I graduate from high school and play sporadically until 1996

1997 - 2013 Some bullshit happens. In the middle of it Gary responds

to one of my emails and later, on March 4th 2008 he passes away

 2014 I return to table top RPGs. I try to play Pathfinder. It does not take. I

force my group to adopt the old AD&D system and begin playing regularly again.

2017 My friend and I (the same one who went to Gen Con with me 30

years ago) meets me at Gary Con 9. We bring our wives.

2018 +  AD&D. This is probably how I go out: rolling dice.

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So You Want to Learn AD&D?

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You've come to the right place.  I have a series of blog posts designed to introduce you to vintage AD&D and teach you how to play it more or less by the book.

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Here are the links:

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• Handling Character Death

(Philosophical Introduction to the Game)

• Teaching Old Dogs Old Tricks

(How I Convinced Modern Players to Go Old School)

• Rules over Rulings: Consistency in DMing

(Why Rules Are Your Friends)

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• The Way We Really Play, Really: Movement on the Board

(Intro to AD&D Miniature Movement in the Modern Age)

• Combat Part I: We Don't Need Segments...Unless They're Awesome.

(Core Rules of Combat, part 1)

• Combat Part II: Surprise! You're Dead.

(Core Rules of Combat, part 2)

• Combat Part III: Weapon Speed Factor Sucks and Other Myths.

(Core Rules of Combat, part 3)

• A Deck of Many Things: Using AD&D's Mixed Bag of Rules and Loving Them.

(Obscure Rules With Value: System Shock, Level Cap, Crushing Blows, Spell Costs, Zero HP Bedrest & More!)

• Psionics: The Way No One Ever Played Them

(How to Use Psionics in a Non-Terrible Way)

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• Zargon is OSR & the Hard-to-Come-By Art of Old School DMing

(Old School DM Theory & Philosophy)

• Learning to DM by Playing a Character RIGHT.

(Old School Player Theory & Philosophy)

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• High Level Play Part 1: Theory

(Theory on running High-Level AD&D games)​

• High Level Play Part 2: Mechanics

(Mechanics to keep High-Level games on track)​

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• AD&D Magic System Part 1: Gods

(Hows and whys of clerics, demons & deities)

• AD&D Magic System Part 2: MFG

(How to handle magic item manufacture​)

• AD&D Magic System Part 3: Spell Research

(Researching Existing & New Spells)​

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• AD&D Aerial Combat

(How to do it by the book)​

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