WHY AD&D?
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) is my system of choice when running Dungeons and Dragons. There are multiple other editions of D&D, some are fine, some are... not so. AD&D is in the goldilocks zone in terms of D&D history. Early D&D (Original Dungeons and Dragons/OD&D, Judges Guild third party products and it's related maga/zine publications) was filled with whimsy and crazy stuff. It is a fairly simple game (although more complex than many modern players give it credit for) that provided a basic foundation for Dungeon Masters to add rules onto. It was remarkbly non-serious, with it's co-creator's (that's Gary Gygax!) game including a bowling alley for Giants, and a font containing an infinite number of snakes. The game focused on player entertainment and challenge (E.g: How do we stop the snakes from coming out so we can traverse the dungeon?) over world design (E.g: Who put the snakes here?) and story (E.g: Erm how does this relate to my stupid characters 12 page backstory???). AD&D came out a bit after that, with game design still encomporating the dungeon-heavy gameplay of yesteryear but adding realism to the mix. The AD&D rulebooks are far more lengthy than the OD&D ones, shifting from small booklets to massive tomes of knowledge. TSR began publishing modules, the earliest of which are excellent. However, as the years went on D&D began to shift. By the mid-80s Dungeons and Dragons began to become more intrested with story. By the time AD&D 2nd edition came out, games were focussed on forcing a story instead of having it develop naturally through gameplay. Instead of having the players decide to invade another country, the Dungeon Master did. 2nd edition still has a few good modules, but they are the exception, not the the rule. By 3rd edition the game is unrecognisable.