AD&DR

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Revised

by Rob Bocchino

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Revised (AD&DR) is a simple rule set that revises the somewhat clunky core mechanics of the original AD&D game, while retaining the essence of Gary Gygax’s work. Unlike the later “editions” of D&D, AD&DR does not replace the AD&D core rule books (Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monster Manual). Instead, it describes how to convert the rules in those books into a more playable game. Most of the AD&D rules work fine, and most are used unchanged in AD&DR; published AD&D adventures can easily be converted to AD&DR. Thus we get the best of both worlds: a more playable, modern set of core rules that retains the spirit of the classic game and lets us use the classic adventures and settings with minimal conversion.

The most important mechanical changes from AD&D to AD&DR are the following:
A uniform skill system. In AD&DR, virtually all character functions (including combat, spells, thief functions, and even saving throws) are skills that are acquired and improved in a uniform way. A simple and abstract yet complete list of skills covers nearly all adventuring situations, in contrast to the original AD&D rules (which completely lacked a general skill system) and Second Edition (which bolted an awkward and overly-complicated set of “nonweapon proficiencies” onto a skill-less game).
A uniform mechanic. AD&DR uses a d100, low-roll mechanic for all actions, including combat, spell casting, and skill use. It’s easy to see at a glance what your basic chance is of doing something. It’s also easy to mix and match skills and abilities to resolve new situations.
More flexible character customization. Because everything is a skill, a magic user can learn to use armor or a fighter can learn to cast spells. This customization can be limited as much as desired to enforce the “classic” AD&D class roles.
Much less table lookup. Almost all the ad-hoc tables and charts of AD&D are replaced with simple scores or formulas in AD&DR. This makes play much simpler and faster. THAC0 was a step in the right direction, but it was still pretty clunky.
Revised combat sequence. Let’s face it, it was pretty hard to know how to use all those rules for spell casting times and weapon speed factors to figure out the order of actions in a combat round. AD&DR replaces this muddle with a simple segment-by-segment combat sequence that makes it clear what happens when.
Luck and Psionics. AD&DR adds Luck and Psionics as character abilities. Luck provides a chance of last resort when your character faces otherwise certain death or disaster. Psionics measures the brain’s psionic potential; it works for psionic skill roughly in the same way that Intelligence or Wisdom does for magic use.
The AD&DR rules are available for download here. Please contact Rob Bocchino if you have any questions or comments about these rules.