
This is the Grandparent of all RPGs, I learned how to run games with White Box D&D, moved on the Advanced D&D, 3.0 and 3.5 and eventually 5th edition.
This is heroic, high fantasy. Player characters become very powerful compared to normal people, and their opponents are every kind of fantasy villain and monster that’s ever been created. If you want to swing a sword or throw lightning at a Fire Giant who is charging at you with a sword that’s bigger than you are, this is your game.
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GM (me): A giant spider drops out of the trees, right on top of your mule! It plunges two large, venom dripping fangs into poor Elvira (the mule) who brays loudly and then slumps over.
Wizard: I fire up a Witchbolt on the spider! (rolls a d20, and gets a critical success)
GM: Woah! Roll your damage twice for the crit.
Wizard: (rolls an 11 and a 12 for damage) YES! Take that!
GM: Well, it can only take so much of that. It only had about 10 hits left. Your Witchbolt surges with extra energy and connects directly to the spider’s bulbous body. For one brief second it’s lit up from the inside, and then it explodes in a spray of ichor and hairy body parts! You discover that electrically fried spider smells really, really bad. You need to make a saving throw for all those expensive bottles of magical ink that the mule was carrying as the box was very nearly ground zero for the Great Spider Explosion…