As a veteran of every edition of Dungeons & Dragons since 2e ADnD, it’s fascinating to learn that many players legacy editions of the game as being about anything more than combat. It seems there is a Mandela Effect-like phenomenon at work distorting the idea of these older editions from what they really were. I recently revisited my bookshelf, poring over every Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide from 1e to 4e. Reading the actual books completely confirmed my recollection that DnD was purely a combat simulator in its earliest versions, leaving the origin of these misconceptions a mystery.

There are problems with the game at present, like the Hasbro CEO’s determination that AI DnD is the future, but it is still far improved over ADnD. The idea of social intrigue as a pillar of play was entirely absent in 2e ADnD. Some Dungeon Masters may have run socially focused campaigns; in the same way, I could run a Succession-style story with Monopoly as the gaming system. These non-combat-focused campaigns certainly may have happened, but they did so despite the myopically battle-focused AD&D system, not because of it. The books themselves confirmed battle was all that mattered.

Old-School D&D's Rules Focused Solely On Combat

Many Dungeon Masters Made The Game About More Than Its Rules

In of game design, reviewing the older PHBs and DMGs showcased a clear improvement with each edition from 2e to 4e, as the game grew beyond its wargaming roots to be about more than dungeon crawls and battle. In the 2e ADnD PHB, the only nod to the Exploration Pillar is a few pages on swimming and climbing. The closest thing to a Social Pillar is the Reaction Adjustment based on Charisma, and the presence of a Non-Weapon Proficiency for Etiquette. This was not a game for Byzantine power struggles and political intrigue, it was a dungeon crawl simulator.

Most editions of Dungeons & Dragons lasted about a decade. Their successors built on what came before, expanding the playstyles available to groups to encom more than killing and looting. The 2e DMG devoted about ten pages to the Exploration Pillar, along with a few tables the DM might roll on. It had no concept of a Social Pillar whatsoever, unless one stretches credibility to considering the distinction between Hirelings and Henchmen as a Social Pillar. There is nothing wrong with adding more complexity to any tabletop RPG than what it suggests in writing, but the rules deserve no credit.

The Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Bastion system returns to a notion from ADnD where characters would gain a stronghold of some kind on reaching a high level. Some interpreted this as grounding Player Characters in the game world and giving them a political role as they transition beyond adventuring. In 2e ADnD, this would be up to the DM, as the game offers no such suggestion. 2e strongholds are a place to sleep and a source of followers. Interestingly, 2e was a clear step backward from 1e ADnD, which did put more emphasis on adventurers as bureaucrats at upper levels.

3e & 4e D&D Added More Rules For Non-Combat Challenges

To Most Players & DMs, Rules Legitimize Content Rather Than Harming It

The 3e DnD revision did a lot to clean up the messy parts of the system and promote game balance, but the addition of a skill system was the biggest boon for the game’s versatility beyond combat. The Social Pillar finally existed, as there were now distinct skills to Gather Information, Sense Motive, or engage in a Bluff or Diplomacy. These provided far more nuance over a simple Reaction Modifier based on a rolled Charisma stat. More importantly, they legitimized social encounters as an important part of the DnD game. Rules do shape what a typical campaign will look like.

Whether someone recalls Vampire: the Masquerade or Requiem, the impact of White Wolf’s World of Darkness line of games cannot be understated from the 90s through today. These games added mechanics that specifically fed into role-playing, as certain behaviors might replenish, or expend, a character’s Willpower. The fact that one-third of these games’ skills were Social in nature ed the concept that social encounters are as vital as any melee. The 3e DnD rules may not have leaned as hard into promoting deep characterization or complex narratives, but they did help DnD catch up a bit with Vampire.

The 2e ADnD era did provide some of the most beloved settings for DnD, like Planescape and Dark Sun, with a deeper focus on lore than more recent editions' setting books, but these settings are distinct from the core rules of the edition, where rules centered on battle and looting.

Though 4e Dungeons & Dragons divided fans, it continued 3e’s efforts to make the game enjoyable in and out of battle. Combat Powers were partitioned from Ritual magic, meaning a Wizard no longer needed to choose between situational spells that might aid exploration or social interaction, and spells to defeat enemies. The Skill Challenge system provided a robust mechanical framework to address everything from spies sharing secrets at a high society masquerade in Forgotten Realms’ Calimport, to surviving the harsh deserts of Athas in a Dark Sun campaign. 4e advanced the idea that the Social and Exploration Pillars truly matter.

Some D&D Groups Prefer A Blank Page Over A System

Rules Are Meant To Role-Playing, Not To Replace It

It became evident from rereading the actual 2e ADnD books, those that introduced me to the TTRPG hobby, that the edition is not at all what people it for, as it was certainly the most single-mindedly combat-focused edition of the game. Some groups may have experienced fantastic games that highlighted social scenes and exploration every bit as much as battle, despite the system doing nothing to promote that style of game. For some, the blank page is interpreted as brilliant game design, but to me, it is a blank page. An absence of rules can never improve a tabletop RPG.

Some players may have used the 3e skill system to simply “roll Diplomacy at enemies” instead of role-playing interactions, and some 4e groups may have used Skill Challenges as a substitute for roleplaying, instead of a system that compliments it. That is a problem for those players, or those tables. To me, the rules of a system are the designer’s way of telling you what the intended focus of the game is, and the kind of stories and challenges to expect. Dungeons & Dragons can facilitate complex and epic stories, but newer editions’ rules have made that far more likely.