Creativity in Old-School RPGs

When you play old-school RPGs it can be instructive to play them the
way they  were written, as  much as  possible, rather than  with the
accumulated baggage  of 40 some-odd  years of history  or experience
weighing you down.

Some  older  games  lend  themselves   to  doing  this  better  than
others.  Moldvay B/X  is  what  I would  consider  to  be the  first
minimally  "complete" version  of D&D  and one  you can  play almost
entirely by-the-book, without having to  make up or change rules for
basic play.

AD&D  1e  is certainly  a  complete  game,  but  not what  I'd  call
minimal. Still, you can play it largely as it was written.

What I've found, when I play  D&D _without_ keeping this in mind, is
that any game I  start tends to evolve into a mix  of games, old and
new.  Something like  OD&D +  Holmes (blue  book) Basic  + Swords  &
Wizardry  White  Box.  It  takes  an effort  of  will  to  stick  to
rules-as-written   (RAW).  So   for  me   anyway,  playing   RAW  is
instructive, but generally a short-term exercise.

What about the earlier editions? If you go back to the beginning and
try to play D&D using the  three little brown books (3LBB) from 1974
"as-written", you will end up making your own game anyway. The rules
themselves are  clear that you  should make  up what is  missing and
change what  don't like. And there  is a lot missing  anyway, so you
pretty much have to make it up  as you go. No two referees will play
identical 3LBB games. For me, this creative essence is the appeal of
3LBB D&D and why it is my favorite version to play.

As far as  retro-clones, the one that mimics this  style of creative
play the most is [Swords & Wizardry White Box][0]. Lots of rules are
left out - by design - with notes  on how to house rule and make the
game your own.  Most other retro-clones make an effort  to present a
complete  game, using  the  original game  they are  based  on as  a
coverage  target.  In that  I  think  they  are doing  the  earliest
editions a disservice.

An  example  I  can  think  of  is  the  3LBB  retro-clone  [Delving
Deeper][1]. It's very well-written,  a result of meticulous research
on what the intentions  were of the authors of early  D&D, and is in
itself a complete game. But it's  not my favorite to run. It doesn't
have the same feel that the  3LBBs have (even despite using the same
language  of that  time  period), and  I think  that  is because  it
doesn't evoke any creative urge when  I read it.

There are times, however, when I  enjoy running such games, and that
is when I'm playing solo. When I'm bored and want to whip up a party
and play D&D on my own with  little prep work, I'll reach for a game
that specifies exactly what I need to play, augmented with some sort
of random map generator and a simple oracle table. But that could be
the subject of another post.

[0]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/9/rpg/player_and_gm_resources/snw_whitebox.pdf
[1]: https://forum.immersiveink.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=113