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I started playing D&D back in 1979.  Around that time it began to be a bit of a phenomenon, and it was in the press alot (both good and bad).

Someone talked me into playing one night at Ohio State University, and I was hooked. 

Everyone I talked into trying it loved it.  It wasn't your typical group of antisocial folks either.  It was full spectrum and a mix of both guys and girls from all social circles.

What made that version of AD&D so much fun, and so successful was that it was relatively easy to play, it was flexible, and it moved along smoothly and quickly.

Almost every gaming group I ever joined that played AD&D had adopted two very popular optional rules, 1) spellpoints, and 2) THACO.  Other than those two modifications, nearly every DM I ran across played straight AD&D.

Later versions lost the "magic" for me and those I played with.  Those later versions felt more constrained, slower moving, and more and more like a boardgame.  We kept playing AD&D (with those two modifications) for about a decade and then drifted off to other interests.

I think that WoC should do one of two things:

1) Try to capture that fast paced, simple functionality, and fun of AD&D in D&D Next or
2) Re-publish AD&D with new artwork, and add in those two almost universally used optional rules (spellpoints and THACO).  Call it "AD&D Classic".

I suppose they could do both.   There is money to be made with option #2 I believe.  You have all the material, and you could use updated artwork.   You have to admit, there was something about AD&D that made it so fantastically popular the first time. 

Recently, my kids and their friends tried D&D 4e.  They thought it was fun but moved too slow.  I bought a set of AD&D books off of ebay (expensive), and low and behold, they love it!

I wish the team the best of luck.

I'd like to see that old spirit back in the game, whichever path they take.

May 18, 2012 -- 8:21AM, Mand12 wrote:

Of course it's not difficult.  That's not the complaint.  The complaint is that it doesn't make sense to a lot of people to put on a shield and have the number that represents how good you are at defense to go down.

By the way, if you really want to, you can turn any system into a THAC0 one, or turn THAC0 into non-THAC0.  It really is only math, and only in the definitions. 

Gentlemen,

The point here isn't "please return THACO". 

I was simply saying that the game, aside from the technical esoterica was FUN!  

I think that an AD&D Classic version might fly, and for a very modest investment by WoC, they could make it happen.

My second point was my hope that they would recapture that sense of fun, and fast moving, easy to play flexibilty in D&DNext.

For fast furious fun try
Savage worlds. It is simple, quick, and quite fun. It has a bit more crunch to it than AD&D but nowhere near the complexity of 3e. It is also one of the few games where your character actually feels special and does not need to be afraid of a housecat or the common cold.