This is Part I of a two-part series. Part II will cover the much-abused Oriental Adventures (which also rocks, by the way).
To start: about Unearthed Arcana (UA for short)… I’ve never understood the hate.
There, I said it. I’m an unabashed fan of Unearthed Arcana, but not in a weird way like the Bobs from Office Space.
The book is roundly reviled in some quarters, especially once you get into the OSR (“Old School Renaissance”) weeds. I get the impression some would prefer to pretend Gary Gygax’s name isn’t on the cover, or that these aren’t really his rules. But they are.
Some feel that UA led directly to the “terrible” 2nd Edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but to me that’s a stretch. If anything, it was showing its hand toward the direction Gary was heading with his version of 2nd Edition AD&D.
(There’s an excellent article that sums up the various clues Gygax left us about where he was going. I’m not going to rehash it all here, as it won’t lead to anything productive.)
UA opened up a new realm of possibilities. It also changed my perception of fighters. As presented in the 1st Edition Player’s Handbook, fighters are pretty milquetoast. UA gave them some real umph — especially when you consider how much magic-users outshine them at higher levels. That’s not to say it’s perfect (bow specialization is still the most egregious example). But overall, I’ve always liked fighters, and they might very well be my favorite class to play.
Taken as a whole, the book has some bad parts, some middling ones, and quite a few good ones. To me, the good parts more than balance out the bad — even the crap spells for clerics and druids, many of which I’ve never seen used in an actual game.
When taken in historical perspective, some people dislike Unearthed Arcana because of the politics of the time. The book was (likely) rushed out the door as TSR was experiencing a major cash crunch due to the mismanagement of the Blumes (allegedly). Others point to the really crappy binding of the original printing. I was lucky — my original copy was bound well (it’s since gone missing). Any copies I’ve bought off eBay since have been the later printings with the better bindings.
As far as the “rush it out the door to save the company” angle? Good, I don't mind. Because it helped lead to 2nd Edition, which I like.
Taken all in all, UA dovetails nicely with what I consider core AD&D.
I use the 2nd Edition rules, but having come into the game during the later stages of 1st Edition’s run (as I outlined here), I pull from a variety of sources from the 1984–1989 time frame — particularly Dragon magazine.
Myself and others who play like this are what I call “Hybrid Players.” As I’ve gotten older, I’ve largely rejected kits and a lot of the additional books. Some, like Ships and the Sea or Arms and Equipment, are handy. The various Complete guides less so — but not always for the reasons most gamers dislike them.
To me, kits speak to larger market forces. At the time, 1st Edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was gaining steam in the US and it had a boatload of classes. I think the kits were TSR’s response to WFRP. I have no hard data to back this up, but it makes logical sense. I’ve used them in play before and at the time they were fun — no regrets. But as time has gone by, I’ve pared player choices back to the 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook and use NPC classes for various supporting characters.
For me, in closing: Unearthed Arcana holds a special place because it was the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons hardcover I ever bought for myself (sent away for it via mail order!). Prior to that, all I had were the Basic and Expert sets plus hand-me-downs from my older brothers. It probably explains why, early on, I played an inordinate amount of cavaliers.
But hey — cavaliers aren’t so bad. They nerf illusionists in 1st Edition splendidly. And any time an illusionists is nerfed its good. Well, if they could squeeze in a special ability to slay gnomes too, I’d be completely okay with it.
As an aside, I’ve pretty much solidified on 2nd Edition AD&D when I DM (sorry, Randolph), but I do include options for my current campaign world. Instead of the UA cavalier, I use the “Corrected Cavalier” as well as the article “Tracking Down the Barbarians” from Dragon #148. Both work better than the UA versions. In fact, it’s a great example of how things can be lifted straight from 1st Edition and dropped into your 2nd Edition games. Oh yeah, almost forgot — I also allow the 1st Edition assassin pretty much as written. It works, and I’ve had little to no problems with the class aside from the occasional “High Gygaxian prose.”
Now about all those pole-arm illustrations in the back of the Unearthed Arcana...
