GURPS, AD&D, Role Aids

So, if you have been keeping-up with me lately, you know the current project is to learn GURPS - which I have been saying I was going to do for years and should have done many years ago - so that I could employ it to run a campaign based on Mayfair's excellent Role Aids line, all of which I acquired back in 2005 through a lot sale. The series was specifically written to be run under (then) TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. TSR sued Mayfair over Role Aids and won (for the most part), effectively pushing Mayfair out of the RPG business before it could release the (then) highly-anticipated Cyberchill. According to at least one source, Gary Gygax advocated developing a working arrangement with Mayfair concerning the line, but was outvoted.

Anyway, the deeper I get into GURPS and the Role Aids supplements, the more I realize it's going to be a whole lot easier to run under AD&D. I am still reading and learning GURPS, so I'll know it (largely because I have so many of their excellent supplements, which I use in conjunction with other games and systems), but I am going to use AD&D 2^nd-Ed. as the engine.

I have way too much AD&D stuff and Role Aids was specifically developed for it - that's what got Mayfair in so much trouble! - so there will be almost no conversion. I already know the system and am comfortable with it (even though I haven't played it in at least 10-15 years), and have tons of supplements for it, including dozens of the official sourcebooks. It is far simpler a system to introduce to virgin players and, I truly believe, every gamer should be able to say, "The first [roleplaying] game I ever played was Dungeons & Dragons."

Let's face it: no matter the edition, no matter the supplements and homebrewed systematics - no matter anything - D&D/AD&D is the gold standard of the hobby and industry. In some form or another, to whatever extent, it is the game on which all others are based. Neophyte players should be given some sense of history whenever they are introduced to the hobby, and that means starting them out with the keystone of the field.

All editions of D&D have their issues, but I abstained from 2^nd-Ed. for years after it was released, and when I finally capitulated, I enjoyed it immensely. It is better organized and more concise. TSR did this so they could package the rest of the information in a myriad of sourcebooks, supplements, boxed sets, adventures, et.al., more than anything else, but it is still easier to follow and locate rules in than the 1^st-Ed. I have most of 1^st-Ed. as well, which is literally packed full of great stuff hidden beneath Gygax' rambling interjections and copious footnotes, of which only pieces were reprinted under the 2^nd-Ed.. As I tell everyone, "You read AD&D 1^st-Ed.; you game with 2^nd."

Part of the reason I didn't want to run AD&D anymore is because TSR, and now Wizards of the Coast, screwed a lot of people over - within both the industry and the hobby. They basically ran Mayfair out of the gaming industry with their refusal to cooperate, then later bankrupted GDW over a product Gygax developed for them - not to mention the way they treated Gary Gygax, himself! Their latest licensing agreement was so completely one-sided, many companies refused to (continue to) support d20 under it. And all of this, as well as the flood of handbooks, supplements, et.al., made the line impossible for any troupe to follow, much less afford!

It's a purely ethical thing - as in, the companies behind D&D lack ethics. However, I paid for the books; I shouldn't punish myself (nor you) over some kind of personal philosophy - a philosophy, I'll add, which almost no one aside from me cares about! Everyone still plays D&D and I'm just as guilty as the rest of you - no matter how many (better) systems I own and run, whenever I feel like fantasy gaming, I want to play AD&D. ¹

Don't get me wrong: I am not shrugging and saying, "Companies/corporations do that - so what?" OTOH, I no longer purchase D&D products because of this, and that's really all I can do. I'm remaining true to my convictions, to as great an extent as I can, and like I said before, I don't know how much of this project I will share with you, largely because you would need the same books I have in my library, and I sincerely doubt most people have access to these books (many are quite obscure).

But I don't know about that. Who knows how much of it will actually require the original sources? I may well be able to share a significant part of the campaign and materials without having to refer you to the books - and/or you may be able to make-do without the original references. I won't know until I get deeper into it.

So, what about those "ethics" of mine? I mean, providing supporting material for D&D is tantamount to endorsing it to many people... And even though I'm using an older edition(s), that basic outlook prevails; regardless of the edition I use, providing resources for a game when I disagree with the makers' policies and behavior still comes across as literally supporting both.

Also, D&D covers all of the ground Role Aids presents. I'm sure the Monster Manual has everything Monsters of Myth & Legend does and there is a handbook for basically every aspect of the 2^nd-Ed. Serendipitously, the box with my MM and (old) campaign materials is in storage (I say "serendipitously" because that could be taken as a "sign"). This is best illustrated through Bushido, which I wanted to use as my Oriental setting: why bother converting, rewriting, and so forth, when I have just about everything Kara Tur (the official AD&D Oriental setting)?

I'd love some input on this. I know it's a long post and all, but I'd love to hear what you have to say on the matter. I'd long ago decided to present the fantasy material in an open format, so as to be adaptable to any system, and this Role Aids project is completely personal (I've always wanted to use them), but basing an entire campaign around them (and some other third-party products) pretty much demands I refer you to them at some point. Further, my stance on WotC and D&D as a property is firm: I stringently disagree with the way the business side of the game has been handled.

So, if you actually read this whole thing, thank you (first off), and let me know what you think, if you please.

¹

I am still going to use Warcom and War Law to further my Rolemaster campaign world, which I plan to share as-is, but RM is so incredibly complex and involved - not to mention that I don't know the system as well as I used to and it's really confusing - that I'm doing that on the side. Wa-ay over to the side...

© C Harris Lynn, 2009