When fifth edition D&D was being playtested, I started to get curious about going back to the beginning. While I enjoyed 5e, many of my fellow players hearkened back to the “good old days” of AD&D. That got me interested. So I started buying old rulebooks on eBay. Then I started reading adventures. And then, things got real. In 2017, my gaming group began playing 1st Edition AD&D.
My goal was to experience the original D&D feel. At the time, all I really knew was that Gary Gygax was the source. If I wanted to play it “the old way,” I figured I needed to run Gygax’s adventures. I didn’t yet know about Dave Arneson, Blackmoor, or the Twin Cities crew. We started with what we knew.
What We Played
From 2017 through 2024, we played an extended campaign set in the Kingdom of Keoland in Greyhawk. Unfortunately, Gygax didn’t write many low-level adventures, and I’d already run Hommlet while learning the basic rules. So it took a while before we really got into his material. But here are all the adventures we played as a group:
- N1 – Against the Cult of the Reptile God by Douglas Niles (1982)
- [Homebrewed wilderness adventure along the Javan River]
- A0 – Danger at Darkshelf Quarry by Skip Williams (2013)
- U1 – The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh by Dave Browne and Don Turnbull (1981)
- A1 – Slave Pits of the Undercity by David Cook (1980)
- U2 – Danger at Dunwater by Dave Browne and Don Turnbull (1982)
- U3 – The Final Enemy by Dave Browne and Don Turnbull (1983)
- A2 – Secret of the Slavers Stockade by Harold Johnson and Tom Moldvay (1981)
[Homebrewed hexcrawl through the Dreadwood, using the original Greyhawk box] - UK3 – The Gauntlet by Graeme Morris (1984)
- WG4 – The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun by Gary Gygax (1982)
- [Another homebrew wilderness adventure along the Javan River]
- G1 – Steading of the Hill Giant Chief by Gary Gygax (1978)
- G2 – Hall of the Fire Giant King by Gary Gygax (1978)
- A4 – In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords by Lawrence Schick (1981)
- WGR6 – The City of Skulls by Carl Sargent (1993)
- WG5 – Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure by Robert Kuntz and Gary Gygax (1984)
My personal favorites (besides our homebrew Javan River and Dreadwood arcs) were Reptile God, The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, A4 – Dungeons of the Slave Lords, and the Saltmarsh trilogy.
What I Learned
What made the original days of D&D special? It was the sense of newness, danger, and potential. Anything could happen! And DMs weren’t beholden to the rules. Even Gygax had a bevy of house rules. He didn’t always stick to the AD&D DMG! The goal was fun. And if people weren’t having fun, they changed things to make it fun.
After a while, though, running Gygax’s modules started to feel more like work than play.
There’s plenty of debate about how Gygax and Arneson collaborated—and who did what. But from reading and running Gygax’s work (and getting to know some of the Blackmoor Bunch), I’ve come to a few conclusions:
Gary Gygax was…
- Responsible for the rigorous rules system of AD&D
- An innovator in developing tables and synthesizing ideas
- Likely a very fun guy to play with
- Unafraid to challenge players with difficult dungeons
But that doesn’t make his adventures easy to prep or run. If you’ve read a Gygax module, you know it’s often a brick of text. You find yourself needing to read it once, digest it, and read it again. After seven years of running AD&D, I was getting exhausted.
Through this process (including attending GaryCon in 2019, 2024, and 2025), I realized that Gary’s games weren’t representative of what everyone played back in the day. He had a particular playstyle that some loved—and others didn’t. And while Gygax systematized a lot, others built on and refined those ideas.
Gary’s modules tend to be hack-and-slash dungeon crawls. They can lead to thrilling stories—but not always. Sometimes you need a break. So it wasn’t unusual for my group to take a detour into FFG’s Star Wars RPG or a more narrative-focused system.
Probably the biggest realization? There are simpler ways to recapture that original feeling. In fact, many OSR games aim to do just that.
My Recommendation to Others
If you want to experience “OG” D&D, here’s my advice:
Start by reading the AD&D 1e Dungeon Masters Guide. Then run one of these:
- T1 – The Village of Hommlet by Gary Gygax (1979)
- N1 – Against the Cult of the Reptile God by Douglas Niles (1982)
- U1 – The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh by Dave Browne and Don Turnbull (1981)
Then, gather some players who are okay with character death and try:
After that, branch out. Try Basic/Expert D&D. Check out Shadowdark, Knave 2e, or any of the many Mörk Borg derivatives (I’m particularly fond of Pirate Borg). Or go for something like Cairn 2e or Into the Odd. These all capture the danger and flavor of AD&D—without the weight of its rule system.
You’ll have fun with any of them. And along the way, you’ll probably develop your own custom mix of rules and mechanics that suit your group perfectly.
What I’m Playing Now
Right now, I’m running a six-session arc of Pirate Borg, a homebrew adventure called The Treasure of Ghost Island. After that, I’m developing a Star Wars RPG campaign, followed by a return to Greyhawk—probably using a Shadowdark hack.
I’ll always be grateful for the work of Gygax and Arneson—and for the consistent playgroup that spent seven years exploring AD&D and Greyhawk with me. We had a great time. And I’m sure we’ll return to AD&D and Gygax’s adventures now and then.
But just like Gygax eventually moved on to other stories and systems—so will we.
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