Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition vs Dragonslayer RPG

Compare Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition and Dragonslayer RPG side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition	Dragonslayer RPG
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Classic Fantasy, Crunchy, Descending AC, Dungeon Crawl, Inventory Management, Random Tables, Resource Management, Strong GM Support, Tactical, Vancian Casting	Dungeon Crawl, Combat-Heavy, Gritty, Descending AC, Vancian Casting, Random Tables
Core Mechanic	Attack rolls use a d20 against class-and-level matrices to hit descending Armor Class. Other actions follow distinct procedures rather than a universal check.	Roll d20 + attack bonus against descending Armour Class to hit in combat. Saving throws are roll-over by category (Breath, Death, Stone, Wand, Spell). Initiative is d6 per side each round. The GM (Maze Controller) tracks time, light, encounters, and resources: torches burn out, rations deplete, and random encounters escalate with noise and delay.
Dice	d20	d20
Complexity	Very High	Medium
Availability	Paid	Free quickstart
Runnability	4 of 5 book tools	4 of 5 book tools
License	All Rights Reserved	Proprietary
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	TSR Games	Greg Gillespie
Year	1977	2024
Languages	English, French, German	English
Best For	Groups who want a referee-built fantasy campaign driven by treasure expeditions and careful resource planning.	OSR veterans who want a traditional dungeon-crawling experience with descending AC, strict resource management, and classic class-and-level gameplay: especially fans of Barrowmaze and megadungeon play.
Highlights	Recovered treasure earns experience, rewarding successful expeditions back to a safe base. Prepared spells make choosing tomorrow’s magic part of expedition planning. Dungeon generators let the referee create unexplored passages during play.	Comprehensive old-school toolkit with 11 classes and 8 races, heavy emphasis on dungeon exploration procedures (marching order, light, time), critical hit/miss tables add combat drama, designed by a megadungeon expert, extensive spell lists and equipment
Considerations	Racial limits restrict which classes and advancement paths a character can choose. Successful hits interrupt casting and expend the spell. Failed saves against many monster attacks can kill characters outright.	Descending AC and THAC0-adjacent math will alienate modern players, very large rulebook for an OSR game, tightly bound to classic dungeon fantasy, limited innovation beyond curating and polishing older mechanics