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Have any of you ever ~not~ seen the 1e PHB? Want to take a look? We’re in quarantine, so what the hell.... Let’s take a trip back in time to 1978. #dnd
That cover, by the way, was by D.A. Tampier. He would eventually part ways with the hobby and become a bit of a recluse.
Iconic art.
Iconic art.
I love the wizard sitting on dice.
42 year old pizza sauce stain? Who knows. Three pages of table of contents.
People of all shapes and sizes! Even women play!
If there’s one thing about Gygaxian prose... it doesn’t give a shit about word economy.
Gygax assumed that adults were playing this game.
The word “level” was a bit confusing, as it was used in various ways. There are still remnants of that today in dnd.
Lets look at the 6 abilities. Same ones as today, sacred cows, and the heart of a #dnd PC.
Worth noting: The PHB DID NOT include rules for rolling ability scores. Left that in the hands of the DM for them to decide for their game how to do it. Players had no agency there.
Worth noting: The PHB DID NOT include rules for rolling ability scores. Left that in the hands of the DM for them to decide for their game how to do it. Players had no agency there.
Strength. Look how the game limited races. Female halflings, for example, were maxed at a 14 STR.
A female human and a male gnome were maxed out at the same STR.
STR - if you were a Fighter and rolled an 18, you were eligible to roll a percentage roll to get a bit of a STR boost. And if you had a STR of 16 or more, XP bonuses.
INT followed STR. Half Orcs were maxed at 17. Look at INT score 5. Poor fighters.
Art budgets have increased over time.
WIS - Halflings can’t have a higher WIS than 17. If you are very unwise, you can be a Thief.
DEX - Dexterity had a second chart just for thieves, with their Dex score determining penalties and bonuses for certain abilities. I liked 1e thieves. They were fun to play.
CON. Think the actual ability score number doesn’t matter? Think again. Your initial CON score determined how many times you could come back from the dead. Cats have 9 lives. Bob the Fighter could have 18. Every time you came back, your CON dropped by one.
Invite me on a podcast or a stream or some shit. I like talking up all this old stuff. 
CHA. Half-orcs really were not treated well in Ad&d.
Alright awesome. We have our character.
A dwarven cleric! Um, no.
An elven ranger! Um, no.
A halfling anything? Almost no, pretty much.
A dwarven cleric! Um, no.
An elven ranger! Um, no.
A halfling anything? Almost no, pretty much.
This chart is already asking for party trouble. Races that outright hate other races... yikes.
We’ve come a long way.
Here’s a typical race entry. Elf. You can see things there that are still around today.
Notice how many languages a PC starts off knowing!
Nothing like some nice math in the opening paragraph of a class entry. Class description? Flavor? Nope.
Percentage points and multiplication.
Percentage points and multiplication.
Fun Ad&d quirk... classes advanced at different rates. 
Gygax assumed that in some campaigns, the DM would keep track of the PC’s HP.
Hard no from me.
Hard no from me.
The money system was different back then too.
The wargaming roots were worn firmly on its sleeve. I still have a hard time understanding how this was supposed to work.
Notice how Gygax teeters back and forth between “referee” and “DM”
Spells! Bigby, Leomund, Mordenkainen... all here!
Fireball! 
Safe to say things have gotten easier to manage.
“Here’s a class you probably won’t be allowed to play, but we’re including it anyway”
“I’m high as fuck and I’ve thought of a great way to visualize alignment. Check this out.”
“Let me take another drag, gonna do the same for the planes. That’s awesome, man”.
I’m not entirely sure what the first paragraph is trying to say regarding people’s playing time. It seems like he’s equating real world time with campaign time? It’s a bit confusing.
I’ll end with Gygax’s preface. He was quite comfortable anointing himself as “the final arbiter of fantasy roleplaying”. He also justified eesign choices that today seem obsolete as necessary to maintain the game’s character. Pretty interesting stuff.
I hope you enjoyed this look at the 1e Phb. It’s late. I’m off to bed!
Maybe in a few days... the copyright infringement edition!
