Planet Crasis Ruleset Conundrum

My spicy hot-take is that D&D is dead unless it is being actively run. (Book collecting is a different, cool hobby). A spicy corollary is that D&D is dead for you unless you are running it. (Supporting another DM to run their game by being a reliable player is a different noble calling.)

(Relax! I’m not serious… well, a little bit.)

For a task as important as keeping D&D alive, it’s important to run the best version. Is it:

AD&D is my internal baseline for D&D. It’s hardwired and myelinated into my brain. Prior thinking is that neuroplasticity declines at age 25, and I came back to the game in my 30s. Or, maybe AD&D is just awesome. I don’t know if it’s the incarnation of the game I want to keep alive the most, but it looms large in my interests.

I kicked off Silver Swords in 5e because it was most accessible and most popular in my real-life friend group. But I think I would prefer an “orthodox old school” edition to mirror the stultification of Law in Moorcock’s writing and the Planet Crasis campaign.

I kicked off Bronze Blades in Old School Essentials due to popular request. But I think Dungeon Crawl Classics is a natural fit with its random combat and spell tables, patrons and spell corruption. Possibly all that could detract from the rather calm mechanic of “mysteries” so perhaps I would need to amp that mechanic up. I think also that Whitehack is a natural fit for the freedom of Chaos with player-led definition of a character’s “groups”. Groups are a cool mechanic you should read about, but you would need to have a copy of the game to do that.

A perverse corner of my brain suggests that Rolemaster Classic might fulfill both the orthodoxy of Law with baroque procedures and randomness of Chaos in the crit tables. This will never happen unless through solo play, I think.

At any rate, when I am designing content, my brain is in Gygax and Appendix N mode.

– Dallas

Date Notes
10 Aug 2025 Initial version