It is Easter season, and like Jesus, this blog has risen!
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Here at This Bard's Tales, I've had the pleasure of having one regular commenter. You know who he (they?) is! In order to please my regular readership, of one... or two or three, I purchased Dungeons & Dragons Stronghold from gog.com.
In an interesting break from the other Dungeons & Dragons games I've played, this game is a kingdom simulator, which uses D&D stronghold building rules. I've tried to find the book which contains these rules, but unfortunately an internet search for "D&D Stronghold" gets a whole load of stuff that does not relate to this game.
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| The cover to the complete compilation of the expanded original game rules. Source |
First, I think it's important to start with a history of the D&D editions, because I've seen a wealth of misinformation about this subject on the web ("web" term used for amusement).
The latest edition of Dungeon & Dragons is 5th edition. However, this is actually the 5th edition of the "Advanced" rules. 1st edition and 2nd second edition were named "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" because, at the time, there was a separate set of basic rules. The "Advanced" moniker was dropped with the release of 3rd edition, because at that time, the basic branch had been discontinued.
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| 2nd edition. This is the book that started it all for me. |
Back to Stronghold. Stronghold came out in 1993, when the basic branch was still a thing, and thus its title "Dungeons & Dragons" refers to that ruleset. You may have noticed that the Gold Box games have "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" printed on them. Many people who care about pinpoint accuracy, like myself, refer to the basic branch as OD&D in order to avoid any confusion about editions. To me, the most easily visible rules difference in the editions is that the races of elves, dwarves and halflings are classes instead of races. The demi-humans basically have their classes built-in. Elves are fighter-mages, dwarves are fighters, halflings are rogues (at least I think they are). Stronghold uses these OD&D rules. Apparently, there is a book somewhere that contains the kingdom building rules the game uses, but I can't seem to find out where they came from. Anybody out there happen to know?
That's all for now, a short post, but I want to get it out there. I've got plans to revive this blog, but it's going to be in a slightly different form to facilitate more regular posting. Instead of summarizing my gameplay (which can be draining) I think I'll just focus on what is most interesting about the games, their history, and their inspirations. Rankings will remain a part of the blog.
