Possibilities & Glory - Observations on Original Dungeons & Dragons 1974 game, & Original Traveller Rpg

If there's a game that is loved around the table top then we begin looking deeper into it. And with Gencon on this weekend it's no wonder that once again Original Dungeons & Dragons '74 is on the table top. So let's pick it up right from here on the blog. 

And weirdly enough there was a lot of push back on this last blog entry because of the mention of Lamentations of the Flame Princess Rpg and it was mentioned because it's a B/X clone. Original Dungeons & Dragons 1974 has own distinctive flavor all it's own. And a bunch of fans & players which is right in line with observations made in the Original Dungeons & Dragons wiki entry going back to the early days of Space Gamer magazine;" Tim Waddell reviewed the original Dungeons & Dragons in The Space Gamer #2.^[7] Waddell commented that "The most stimulating part of the game is the fact that anything can happen. Nothing is impossible."^[7] Andy Pudewa also reviewed the original Dungeons & Dragons in The Space Gamer #2.^[8] Pudewa said that "As a game, D&D is a fantastical outlet for the imagination. It has the quality of being infinitely flexible, and with it comes the reality of impossibility. [...] There are drawbacks to the game however; as there are in any game. D&D cannot even begin to get interesting in less than 20 hours playing time. Hundreds of hours of work must be done ahead of time by the referee, and it takes a fairly long time to prepare on the part of the players."

My point here is the wide openness of the original Dungeons & Dragons system in lue of the more restrictive rpg systems of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons of today. And please don't give me the fact that it's the same game. These are very different animals deriaved from different branches of the Original Dungeons & Dragons tree. Original Dungeons & Dragons is in a word infinitely flexible gaming. Or is it just one little aspect of the 'grand game'. And I personally think that this goes back to the wargaming roots of original Dungeons & Dragons. 
And other original Seventies era games such as Marc Miller's original Traveller rpg. And these two games can and have worked closely together in the past at the table top. An interesting insight was had by one of my players while searchingt through the Original Dungeons & Dragons forums on Traveller from 2010 member Slade wrote; "For what it's worth I believe En Garde! is to Traveller what Braunstein is to OD&D.

En Garde! is the char gen framework that inspired the char gen mini-game in Traveller." 
This style of mini game gives the characters background, skills, and gravitas that we see in both the Pulp stories of the 1930's through 1970's. A call back to the skilled and above average heroes of old. And this is something that both original Dungeons & Dragons and Original Traveller have in common. 

The possibilities that you can and will be able to do anything campaign wise with these two games is pretty mind blowing. And continue to play them since 1970's until now is pretty mind blowing. It's almost like that ulitity is design into these products. Endless possiblities in a hand full of dice! But how do they work together?! Next time we dive head first into these systems together!