One long orgy of role-playing

Not long ago, when Gary Gygax passed away rather unexpectedly (for me at least), I got into an email conversation about a recreation of the Village of Hommlet I found at Dragonsfoot, called The Battle for the Moathouse. It’s a nice diversion in-and-of-itself, but it also wound up spawning an exchange that culminated in this comment from Ian:

And if you’re really interested in dusting off your old DM skills we could start planning now to have a good old fashioned D&D game night the next time you come to Asheville to visit your folks. The rest of us are all here in the same basic area and with enough advance notice I’m sure we can all make sure to have the same night free. Personally I say we make it one of those grand all-nighters, playing until the wee hours fueled by pizza and caffine….do all three of those classic modules in one long orgy of role-playing!

Even though I just posted an entry knocking the turn WoTC had taken with 3e AD&D, I realize that no game company is really going to survive the long run without releasing updated material and refining their product. Obviously, my lack of interest in the 3e + incarnations of the game have nothing to do with Wizards’ business practices and everything to do with finding 1e and 2e perfectly usable.

In the context of the conversation we’d started, I actually quickly fired back that I would be happy to partake of a long night’s gaming gluttony, though I expressed my preference for Castles & Crusades rather than 1e AD&D. I rather like the updates that Troll Lord Games made to the classic game, while managing to keep it essentially the same.

I also commented that I’d rather create my own series of adventures (in my own campaign setting possibly), as some of these guys have seen so much of those early adventures that I can’t imagine they don’t have them nearly memorized. Of course, I also realize that this could mean a great deal of work on my part; but isn’t that half the fun for the GM?