[Abe Sargent]

Abe’s Guide to the Useful and Essential in D&D, 1st Edition AD&D and 2nd Edition AD&D


What are the supplements and books I recommend for people to play the game from the 70s through the 90s?

I wrote 3500 words on my views on what and why for you!


First you have to pick a game, and pick up the DM’s Guide and Player’s Handbook for that game. I recommend 2nd Edition over 1st, even though I started with 1st, because it cleans up a lot of issues, and makes some rules, such as non-weapon proficiencies, into the main book. However, they are very close together and you can easily play with many (but not all) sourcebooks from either era. Differences are often more about style than anything else.

If you want a simpler game, look at Dungeons and Dragons without the Advanced, and pick up a Basic set. This is the same game, but with fewer creatures, spells, no proficiencies, no skills or traits, and races are classes rather than being able to take a class, so you play an elf class, not an elven thief or elven bard or anything. It’s still D&D. You can take any D&D supplement and use it in an AD&D game, but not vice versa at all.

The Option series in the mid 90s adds the ability to shape your character massively, with a degree of flexibility not seen before or after. That level of flexibility introduces the possibility of min-maxing a character to be the best in combat, but it also gives you a serious dose of role-playing if done correctly.

If you play the Option series, you can use anything before. If you use 2nd Edition normally, you can’t use the Option adventures and such. (There’re not many). If you play D&D, you can’t use any AD&D stuff without massive changes, and f you play 1st Edition, some of the later 2nd Edition stuff makes no sense (such as Options and Kits). So maximum flexibility suggests 2nd Edition normal or Option. I love Option, and I wish 3rd Edition would have moved more in that arena. If they had, I wouldn’t have stopped at it.

With Option, you need Skills and Powers, Spells and Magic and Combat and Tactics. Most C&T make the game more like miniatures too much for my tastes, but weapon proficiencies and other things are quite useful. So, you begin your game with your core rulebooks.


Assuming 2nd Edition with Option your five core books are Player’s Handbook, DM’s Guide, Spells and Magic, Skills and Powers, and Combat and Tactics.