So I'm whizzing along in my little AD&D throwback when I keep seeing posts about "OD&D." Being 34 and having played RPGs, and AD&D in particular, since I was about 10 or so, I naturally assumed this meant Oriental Dungeons & Dragons. Because, you know, that's what it used to mean! Apparently, it now means "Original D&D." And not even that; it actually means Original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
For those of you what do not know, there is a huge difference in all of these. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a very basic game - insofar as any roleplaying game can be considered "basic" - comparatively speaking, anyway (compared to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I should clarify). It deals with all of the same concepts and has a lot of the same material, but it is handled differently; while spells, monsters, items, et.al. may have the same names, they are not the same items and do not work the same way in both versions.
AD&D is exactly that: an advanced version of Dungeons & Dragons. It brings all sorts of extras, errata, and further details to the entire game and milieu. In D&D, you have a warhorse; in AD&D, you have a warhorse with barding and equipment that has its own characteristics, can be exhausted and/or fatigued, needs at least 3x more food and water than you each day, and so on. Basic D&D is very much a game, where AD&D is more concerned with roleplaying and character immersion - that is, getting so "into character" and the game itself that you develop the suspension of disbelief writers strive to create and maintain.
Oriental Dungeons & Dragons is also a misnomer since, once again, it is actually Oriental Advanced D&D, but for decades, you knew that when you saw the "O" in front of the D&D, it referred to Oriental. Now, thanks to the Interweb, OGL, SRDs, TSR's collapse and purchase by Hasbro, et.al., OD&D means "original AD&D," which refers to the 1st-Ed ruleset.
When you used to have to call BBSes to network with others over the computer and you went into chatrooms - and this remained true well into the AOL days - "AFK" is what you typed whenever you would be Away From Keyboard, that is, you would be unable to respond for an extended period but you were coming back. "BRB" meant BathRoom Break, denoting that you would be AFK for just a few moments. Now, everyone just uses BRB to mean "Be Right Back" - whether that means [in a few moments] or [next week].
Get this one: "FTW" now means For The Win.
Now how many times do you think I've said "FTW" and someone else has thought, "FTW? WTF does he mean by that?"
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
1 comment:
I stand corrected - sort of: according to many, OD&D refers to the very original Chainmail rules and the fantasy supplements which expanded that wargame. These predate even the original D&D boxed sets - AFAIK.
I couldn't tell you because I was 4 in 1978. I first played Dungeons & Dragons in/around 1985 and it was from a box. That Christmas, I asked for (and got) the DMG. My fellow roleplaying friend down the road got the PHB.
It was pretty much downhill from there.
Accordingly, "OD&D" does refer to 1st-Ed. AD&D to some, even to D20/3rd-Ed.
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