David Howery
Hero
Having recently acquired a copy of Dragon #103 and read through it, one of the most interesting articles was "From the Sorcerer's Scroll" by EGG himself (one of his last, IIRC), talking about his view of how the second edition of D&D would look like. He anticipated that it would be a 2-3 year effort, and would involve three very large books.
The Monster Manual would be the simplest, as it would be just a blending of the MM, MM2, and FF in alphabetical order, along with worthy new monsters from modules and Dragon. EGG vaguely mentions presenting them by 'where they would be encountered" (outer planes, forests, etc.) instead of alphabetical order (something that strikes me as a bad idea), with a vast index at the end.
The PHB would be another blending of three books; the old PHB, UA, and OA. EGG talks about moving the monk into the OA setting where it really belongs, without saying just how this works. He mentions making the bard a class from the beginning instead of the cumbersome 1E version (something that was done in the real 2E), and having a Jester subclass of it. He mentions (without detail) making a Mystic subclass of cleric and Savant subclass of magic user. Assassins would be relegated to 'optional'.
The new DMG would, like the PHB, be a blending of the old DMG, UA, and OA. Psionics would be gone, long with random encounter and monster XP lists. More details on the outer/inner/elemental planes.
A fourth book would be a revamped DDG or LL (EGG makes no bones about the fact that he hated the name change), which would include the WoG deities.
So, one of the great 'What If" questions for us grognards is "WI EGG had kept control of TSR and went ahead with his 2E plans?".....
The Monster Manual would be the simplest, as it would be just a blending of the MM, MM2, and FF in alphabetical order, along with worthy new monsters from modules and Dragon. EGG vaguely mentions presenting them by 'where they would be encountered" (outer planes, forests, etc.) instead of alphabetical order (something that strikes me as a bad idea), with a vast index at the end.
The PHB would be another blending of three books; the old PHB, UA, and OA. EGG talks about moving the monk into the OA setting where it really belongs, without saying just how this works. He mentions making the bard a class from the beginning instead of the cumbersome 1E version (something that was done in the real 2E), and having a Jester subclass of it. He mentions (without detail) making a Mystic subclass of cleric and Savant subclass of magic user. Assassins would be relegated to 'optional'.
The new DMG would, like the PHB, be a blending of the old DMG, UA, and OA. Psionics would be gone, long with random encounter and monster XP lists. More details on the outer/inner/elemental planes.
A fourth book would be a revamped DDG or LL (EGG makes no bones about the fact that he hated the name change), which would include the WoG deities.
So, one of the great 'What If" questions for us grognards is "WI EGG had kept control of TSR and went ahead with his 2E plans?".....