Analysis of How and Why Dungeons & Dragons Has Changed Since 1st Edition

Analysis of How and Why Dungeons & Dragons Has Changed Since 1st Edition

By Christopher J Parisi Anyone who has played both 5th edition and 1st edition or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons would agree that the games are incredibly different. From mechanics, charts, playstyle, to the combat and death of characters. The game has generally gotten easier to play over the years and editions, but there’s an explanation for why it was so hard. However, this has come at the cost of realism and decreased player strength. These changes have more broad gameplay implications, such as making the game more simple.

5th edition has even been both credited and criticized for making the game incredibly simple. Undeniably, however, this simplicity massively increased the popularity of the game. It is a huge step up from when 2nd edition excluded devils and demons due to political outrage. Compare the complexity to Advanced D&D for example, which required you consult a chart dependent on class in the rulebook to determine hit attacks, with a decreasing armor class to indicate better protection.

This is opposed to the more modern concept of having a pre-calculated armor class that must be met for a hit. There are other such examples and oddities of 1st edition, such as elf, halfling, and dwarf being classes instead of races. Compared to later editions, the first couple seem so unintuitive and unnecessarily complicated. These quirks make you wonder what on imaginary Earth were Gary Gygax and his team thinking? There are two answers to this. Firstly, older editions had a much older target audience that Gygax thought could handle different charts and dice.

Conversely, 3rd edition and onward are targeted towards a younger audience, even children. The D20 became used for almost every roll and the overall vocabulary level of the rulebooks dropped. This was likely a marketing decision rather than a creative one.

The other answer is they were thinking out of the box. They invented the entire concept of the “Role Playing Game”. Nobody had thought of anything like it before. We look back and say how simple the concept of pretending you’re someone else and rolling some plastic is, but you could say this about any invention. The wheel is a simple device, but it took countless years for the first caveman to use it to move something. D&D has not (yet) had the impact of the wheel, but a better comparison would be Elvis inventing Rock & Roll. Rock & Roll is so wildly different from all the music before it. Like D&D, it lacked

precedent. Gary Gygax is the Elvis Presley of Gaming. He invented an entire genre. They were not just innovators, but creators.

Opposite of creation, another big mechanical change is the death of characters. As the editions progress, it generally becomes harder to kill player characters. In 1st edition, all characters die upon hitting 0 points. In AD&D, they begin bleeding to death after they drop below zero hit points. If unaided, they will die. Later editions added a 10% chance to stop bleeding each round, and finally 5th edition introduced death saves, effectively granting a 50% chance of survival without aid, which is unrealistic for those who value and immersive experience. 5th edition also removed the terrifying concept of the death attack. In a death attack, if a character fails a single saving throw, they die instantly. Needless to say, in older editions players died more often. The ramifications for both of these mechanics are significant. Firstly, this encourages more reckless behavior. As opposed to the numerous instant death attacks in earlier editions, there is only one mechanic that will allow a character to be killed in one hit in 5th edition, so players may be more likely to take risks. A healthy amount of fear can add to the fun. Conversely, it could be argued that this lack of fear leads to more fun, silly shenanigans, which always bring a laugh. Moreover, since characters are less likely to die, they are more likely to live a lot longer, so players are more liable to become attached to their characters. This might be dangerous because players are more likely to be upset when their character dies, and nobody wants deal with nor be a sore player during what is at the end of the day just a game. On the other hand, it can be a very rewarding experience to grow with a character as they change and learn over a long time.

The last interesting difference power scaling, is also a factor of the time put into the game. That is, how fast each class increases their combat effectiveness as they level in comparison to other classes. In older editions, martial classes were more powerful at earlier levels and magic classes at later levels. This difference is primarily noticed in 5th edition, in which all classes are approximately equal power at all levels. Both concepts have their merits. The idea of older editions being that if you survived the low levels as a magic class, you’ve earned the high-power upper levels. Newer editions would argue that equal power progression is fairer and less discouraging. It also fits well with the 21st century’s overall inclination towards inclusivity. This appeals especially to younger players, who are now the target audience. Lastly, the power progression is different such that as the editions go on, level one player characters are more powerful. For example, in AD&D, a 1st

level character has hardly more bonuses than an untrained person. Compare this to 5th edition where you can start the game as a lord with servants. Opponents of later editions would argue that this appeals to and fuels young people’s sense of entitlement, or that the progression from peasant to hero is rewarding. Proponents would counter it allows players to dive into the action and coolness of being a heroic adventurer a lot more quickly.

In the past 47 years, Dungeons & Dragons has changed enormously. It has become more focused on action and accessibility as opposed to realism and immersion. The biggest reasons for these changes has been to make the game more appealing to younger audiences, and also that there was no precedent to create a simpler ruleset from since it was the first one. Whether it is better or worse now is entirely up to opinion. The Good news, however, is you can pick any edition you want. That’s the beauty of Table-Top RPGs. You can even mix, match and make up your own rules. Those are the perks of being the Dungeon Master.