Old-School Gaming Primer
Playing an "old-school" style roleplaying game is very different than modern games. AD&D 2e gives many suggestions for how to handle specific situations, but in the end, rulings are left up to the gamemaster. Rules are a guideline for old-school gaming. Every gamemaster of and old-school game hacks together rules from multiple sources and comes up with rulings on the fly. Much of old-school game relies on player skill and not character skill. A staple of modern-gaming is the simple d20 roll determines whether you succeed or fail. In old-school games, the players should do everything in their power to succeed before they ever roll any dice.
Roleplaying vs. Rollplaying
Rollplaying is where a player does everything by purely rolling the dice to determine outcomes. Roleplaying requires a player to talk as their character and determine how they will perform actions. During roleplaying situations the player must actually roleplay the situation and not just "rollplay" the situation. For example, a modern gamer might say "I wish to seduce the dragon" then rolls a Charisma (Persuasion) check. If they get lucky and roll a 20 they might seduce the dragon and then produce their dragonborn children. In old-school gaming, if a player wishes to seduce the dragon they must roleplay the situation, which will most likely result in them turning into ashes. You may say though that D&D 2e has reaction adjustments for a characters Charisma so that means you can "rollplay" to seduce the dragon. The reaction adjustment is meant to be rolled after the roleplaying situation to determine if the monster's attitude toward the player character has improved or not. If the player does a poor job roleplaying the situation, the gamemaster might decide that the player does not get the reaction adjustment roll or the monster immediately reacts hostily.
Heroic vs. Superhero
A staple of old-school gaming is that characters begin as common folk and if they play smartly and long enough, they may become heroes. Even the strongest old-school character could be overwhelmed by a mob of villagers. Modern gaming starts with the assumption that the characters are already heroes and they become superheroes and essentially demi-gods. Every level a character goes up in modern game results in a magnitude of more power. Old-school gaming is about the triumph of the little guy becoming an epic hero, not the development of an epic hero becoming a superhuman. There is nothing wrong with the latter, it's just that old-style fantasy matches up with the former.
Forget "Game Balance"
The game is a game of fantasy. Challenges are not set to be just right for the level of the party. Characters can wander into places and dungeons that are way to difficult for them. The party has no "right" to win an encounter, no "right" to be abe to disarm or find traps, no "right" to roll a die in every circumstance. This is not a game of players vs. the GM, but story of the characters finding their way in a wild, but terrifying world. The players describe their actions, the GM describes the results, and the story of the characters, epic or disastrous, grows out of the combined efforts of gamemaster and players. Gamemaster are just as surprised by the results as the players are.
The game doesn't break down if one character is more powerful than the others, if an encounter is "too hard", or if a character (or whole party) dies. Some character classes are more powerful than others, which are generally harder to have the stats to play. Game balance is not a critical matter.
Just as players have no right to depend upon a rule in the book, the gamemaster has no right, ever, to tell the player what a character decides to do. That's the player's decision (unless there's a charm type spell going). The gamemaster in old-school games has more "power" than in modern games, and may become tempted to dictate what character are doing as well. If this happens, the whole game becomes nothing more than one guy telling a story while others roll dice. This type of behavior severly damages the fun of the game.
For more tips on how to play in the old-school style gaming read Player Duties and Game Master Duties. Reading both of these entries can be helpful for both gamemaster and players.
Rollplaying is where a player does everything by purely rolling the dice to determine outcomes. Roleplaying requires a player to talk as their character and determine how they will perform actions. During roleplaying situations the player must actually roleplay the situation and not just "rollplay" the situation. For example, a modern gamer might say "I wish to seduce the dragon" then rolls a Charisma (Persuasion) check. If they get lucky and roll a 20 they might seduce the dragon and then produce their dragonborn children. In old-school gaming, if a player wishes to seduce the dragon they must roleplay the situation, which will most likely result in them turning into ashes. You may say though that D&D 2e has reaction adjustments for a characters Charisma so that means you can "rollplay" to seduce the dragon. The reaction adjustment is meant to be rolled after the roleplaying situation to determine if the monster's attitude toward the player character has improved or not. If the player does a poor job roleplaying the situation, the gamemaster might decide that the player does not get the reaction adjustment roll or the monster immediately reacts hostily.
Heroic vs. Superhero
A staple of old-school gaming is that characters begin as common folk and if they play smartly and long enough, they may become heroes. Even the strongest old-school character could be overwhelmed by a mob of villagers. Modern gaming starts with the assumption that the characters are already heroes and they become superheroes and essentially demi-gods. Every level a character goes up in modern game results in a magnitude of more power. Old-school gaming is about the triumph of the little guy becoming an epic hero, not the development of an epic hero becoming a superhuman. There is nothing wrong with the latter, it's just that old-style fantasy matches up with the former.
Forget "Game Balance"
The game is a game of fantasy. Challenges are not set to be just right for the level of the party. Characters can wander into places and dungeons that are way to difficult for them. The party has no "right" to win an encounter, no "right" to be abe to disarm or find traps, no "right" to roll a die in every circumstance. This is not a game of players vs. the GM, but story of the characters finding their way in a wild, but terrifying world. The players describe their actions, the GM describes the results, and the story of the characters, epic or disastrous, grows out of the combined efforts of gamemaster and players. Gamemaster are just as surprised by the results as the players are.
The game doesn't break down if one character is more powerful than the others, if an encounter is "too hard", or if a character (or whole party) dies. Some character classes are more powerful than others, which are generally harder to have the stats to play. Game balance is not a critical matter.
Just as players have no right to depend upon a rule in the book, the gamemaster has no right, ever, to tell the player what a character decides to do. That's the player's decision (unless there's a charm type spell going). The gamemaster in old-school games has more "power" than in modern games, and may become tempted to dictate what character are doing as well. If this happens, the whole game becomes nothing more than one guy telling a story while others roll dice. This type of behavior severly damages the fun of the game.
For more tips on how to play in the old-school style gaming read Player Duties and Game Master Duties. Reading both of these entries can be helpful for both gamemaster and players.
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