New Haven Games is apparently doing a “remake” (as opposed to a “clone”) of the AD&D 2nd Edition rules, which they are calling Realms of Eternal Epic. They haven’t come out with an official press release announcement yet, but from their forums:
Ro2E is not a clone by definition. In fact, most of the clones have slight dissimilarities for legal reasons. We call it a “remake” because we have retained about 80% of the game, and only SLIGHTLY tweaked the other 20%. That 20% also includes the simple turning-the-rule-on-its-head change. Is it exactly the same game? Probably not. Is it a twin that sort of strayed from the family farm? Probably. See, we had two choices. We could have copied the entire original game or we could have refashioned some of it. From a legal and game development standpoint, we made the right decision. From the opinions of our self-fashioned grognard playtesters, we made the right decision. So, in a nutshell, Ro2E may still be what you’re looking for, even if you wanted a pure clone. At least test out the free Starter Set before passing off.
As I’ve said before, I was a huge 2E fan back in the day, kits and all, even though I’ve moved back to 1E in more recent years, so this will most definitely be on my radar. It also appears to be very far away from my own concept for Adventures Dark and Deep™, so there shouldn’t be any issues with direct competition. This is exciting news, and I know a lot of people have been asking for a “living” version of 2E for a while, now. good luck, New Haven Games!
Very interesting. A lot of my gamer buddies cut their teeth on 2e, so this should be great for them!
The name is a bit silly and makes no sense but it'll be interesting to see what they do. I really liked reading Hackmaster and seeing what they did with 1e.
How is it they can do this what with trademarks and all?
Mike: The situation is a bit different here. When Kenzer & Co. did Hackmaster, they had an actual license for the 1E rules from WotC. If they do things right, New Haven Games won't be violating any trademarks or copyrights, because you can't copyright game rules, only the way rules are written (for example, that's why they're not using the term THAC0, but something else that serves the same purpose). That's the same legality that allowed OSRIC to be published.
As far as the name, I suppose some folks need to find something negative to say about just about everything, but it doesn't seem particularly bad to me, and lets them work in the "2E" into the abbreviation.
I wonder how the guy who did Dark Dungeons feels about this…?
Not that I mind, because for personal reasons I don't support Dark Dungeons–it'll be nice to see a 2e clone (based on his description that's what this is, despite his assertions to the contrary) that I can pick up and add to the shelf.
Gadzooks, Jason– I completely forgot about Dark Dungeons.
Hmmm… yeah, I can definitely see the potential for stickiness there.
Back in high school I ran a hybrid of 1st and 2nd editions – the Players Handbook was from 2nd edition but everything else was 1st. Not quite sure what a "remake" of AD&D 2e is going to bring.
What's the big deal with Dark Dungeons, I thought that was RC D&D and not 2e?
Isn't Dark Dungeons a Rules Cyclopedia clone? I don't see how that relates.
Or I could just second the second half of Wayne's comment.
I'm all confused. For some reason I thought Dark Dungeons was a 2E clone. I was sure there was one lurking about that was different than Ro2E…
Dark Dungeons is a Cyclopedia, Basic Experts, Companions, Master Clone not a 2E clone.
Dumb name. However as 2e has given me the most fun of any edition of D&D (it was popular during my peak gaming years) I'll check it and any of the other new versions out.
Good to hear; I really enjoyed 2e as well. I liked 3e more when it came out, but now in retrospect it's when a lot of the switches to rule domination came in the groups I played in. Kits allowed for a little flexibility but was not near the rule sprawl of later editions, and was an improvement over the wonkier 1e and more limited 0e.
Looks like they've changed the name to Myth and Magic
I just signed up at their site. I was actually confused at first, because I didn't see Realms of Eternal Epic. I saw Myth & Magic. (I like Myth & Magic much better, FWIW.)
In any event, my group is interested.
As an aside, it's good to see Greyhawk Grognard has more sensible od-school readers. The Grognardia post comments were a bit "off-put".
The Starter Set is now available to forum members and after a quick skim it looks great. Sign up and download if you are interested. The forum has a members only thread with a password and download link.