Further: I agree re: “It takes years to level up.” This was true for AD&D 1 and AD&D 2 as well, — if you actually followed the rules. I seem to recall a number of cruel rules about aging and casting haste spells, as well. (Something like: You age a year every time you cast haste? Yikes!)

House rules on “automatically getting full HP for first level” is nice; Nothing quite like playing a level 1 fighter with *2* (count them *2*) maximum hit points.

And they call it 4th Edition. Ha! What little they know :D

That sense of wonder never leaves; I always feel the tingle of warm fuzzies when we reach 9th level, even in 3e and 4e D&D. Then, I feel the faint bitter pang of disappointment…………..

@Dr Checkmate I know it’s not the same, but there’s always RPGNow. Here’s the Basic D&D section and the Rules Cyclopedia

OD&D completely separated each tier. You were only presented with your small chunk of the rules (and view of the world) so you didn’t have any expectations of what was coming. Then, when you got into the higher levels, there was a sort of feeling that everything you just experienced–everything you struggled with, and possibly died fighting–was only the warm up for the new challenges that lay ahead. For me at least, this held true even after making it past the switching points the first time. Moving from Basic to Expert always held that same wide-eyed wonder for me.

Of course, I’m now a bitter old man, so my experiences now may vary.