Line #39 EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/TabletopGames


1	* ''TabletopGame/AdvancedSquadLeader'': The first ten scenario cards produced for Beyond Valor in 1985 had a number of redundant Scenario Special Rules which only make sense when one realizes they were written for a brand new game, and the publishers wanted to be sure that key concepts crucial to playing the rules correctly were properly applied.
2	* ''TabletopGame/CardfightVanguard'': Prior to Limit Breaks being introduced in 2012, a simple +1 required you to take out a loan on your house for the cost. Also, a lot of clans were restricted to just four cards in their first round of support, most infamously Nubatama which got four cards in the first set of the game and didn't become a proper clan until the ''13th'' main set.
3	* As the first ever modern trading card game, ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'''s early sets are this, both for the game itself and [=TCGs=] as a whole.
4	** The game's original set has many differences from the expansions:
5	*** The setting was much closer to a StandardFantasySetting, making references to real legends with some cards having quotes from the Bible or other sources as flavor text. In fact, the first supplemental expansion was based off of Arabian Nights. It took about a year after launch for the game to develop its own story and universe.
6	*** The colors were much less defined mechanically than today. Many cards did things that would be unacceptable in their colors nowadays, such as [[https://scryfall.com/card/lea/74/psionic-blast Blue direct damage]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/arn/36/ali-from-cairo defensive spells in Red]].
7	*** There were bizarre mechanics, like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=603 flipping cards over in the air]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=813 dividing creatures into two different groups that can't ever meet]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=740 camouflaging creatures]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=980 subgames]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1147 playing for ante]]. Most of these were stricken from the game early, and never existed in later competitors such as ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}'' and ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh''.
8	*** Rules text was written in a much less formal style, the ultimate example of this probably being [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202586 Rock Hydra]]. Some early cards referred to abilities as "special powers".
9	*** Power levels were all over the place. Many of both the most powerful cards ever printed and the worst cards ever printed came in the game’s first set. In particular, spells were much more powerful, while creatures (particularly expensive ones) were basically worthless.
10	** Most of the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness was solved by ''Classic Sixth Edition,'' released in 1999, ''six years'' into the game's lifespan. Sixth Edition came with a sweeping set of rules changes, perhaps most notably introducing the first-in-last-out "stack" that the game has run on ever since. The "speed" of spells was simplified and interrupts were turned into instants, the phases and steps of a turn were codified, and various other clarifications were made.
11	** The "Block system" of one large set followed by two related sets, as we know it today, didn't actually begin until ''Mirage'' (1996-1997). ''Homelands'' was originally shoehorned into an ''Ice Age'' "block", but then later made ''Coldsnap'' to properly complete the ''Ice Age'' "block".
12	*** Ironically the block system was done away with in early 2018. Sets have returned to the previous system of each set being standalone, though there are some sets which are closely related, such as ''Guilds of Ravnica'' and ''War of the Spark''.
13	** Some elements that have always been a part of the game didn't always have their modern rules:
14	*** Cards that represent weapons and the like before Equipment was made into a rule. For example, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1837 Zelyon Sword]] used tapping and a continuous targeting effect to stay "attached" to a creature. With modern Equipment, a sword being used by a creature that gets killed "falls off" and can be equipped to a different creature, but old Equipment-like cards usually followed the user to the grave.
15	*** This is particularly awkward when a long-standing ability finally gets keyworded, but not ''exactly'' how the previous version(s) worked. One example is "Deathtouch", which causes any amount of damage dealt to a creature to be lethal--there were at least three previous versions, all of which worked slightly differently from both the modern version and each other.
16	** Also, many of the earliest cards use different words for core concepts and take less things for granted about the knowledge of the players. Cards often explain the mechanics of the game in the card itself, with examples and all, while nowadays these are nearly always left out because the templating is much more specific and streamlined, and the rules are much more codified, with whole sections on things that used to be (and in a few cases still are) specific to one or two cards. A good example of this is [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=208 Keldon Warlord]], whose original card text was: "The Xs below are the number of non-wall creatures on your side, including Warlord. Thus if you have 2 other non-wall creatures, Warlord is 3/3. If one of those creatures is killed during the turn, Warlord immediately becomes 2/2". The modern text is simply: "Keldon Warlord's power and toughness are each equal to the number of non-Wall creatures you control". Some cards (particularly in products aimed at newer players) will still have "reminder text", a parenthetical aside explaining in more detail how something works.
17	*** Speaking of reminder text, it has always been a part of the game (look at early versions of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1244 Fog]], for example), it was originally indistinguishable from rules text. Only in ''Mirage'' was it first put into parentheses and italics and used to define new or seldom-used keywords as it is today.
18	** For a single-card example, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=376508 here's a 2013 printing of Sol Ring]] with a silver card frame, rarity-coded expansion symbol, modern card frame and wording, and flavor text filling in the empty space in the text box. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=40 Here's the original]] with its old-school fantasy look, brown artifact frame, "mono artifact" on the type line, no expansion symbol, and giant rules text with no tap symbol that references "interrupts". The artist interprets Sol Ring as some kind of cosmic/stellar event instead of a wearable artifact, hence the modern flavor text referencing the older depiction as a lost artificer's technique from another time.
19	** While nowadays a creature subtype has no specific meaning in a vacuum, for quite some time any creature typed as a Wall simply couldn't attack, a fact which the designers didn't include on the cards until around "Stronghold". Since then all such cards have retroactively been given the Defender ability (which prevents them from attacking), and whenever a subtype specifically matters, it is explicitly stated on the card.
20	** As ''Magic'' was the pioneer CCG, Richard Garfield and his team had ''no'' idea how powerful certain aspects of the games could be, perhaps most notably card advantage, resulting in some absolutely ''absurd'' cases of imbalance in the Alpha set. This could be seen most obviously in the "Boon" set, 5 instant spells of each of the 5 colours that gave you [[RuleOfThree 3 of an effect themed to that colour]] for one mana. This set included Red's Lightning Bolt (3 damage), Green's Giant Growth (+3/+3 until end of turn), White's Healing Salve (3 damage prevention or life gain), Black's Dark Ritual (3 black mana) and... Blue's Ancestral Recall, which instantly let you draw three cards for 1 mana. Ancestral Recall is generally considered one of the most powerful cards in the games entire history (one of the infamous "Power Nine").
21	*** Garfield has said that while they knew some cards like Ancestral Recall were overpowered, but they assumed that making them high rarity would stop the cards from becoming a problem, which still indicates that they didn't realize just how powerful some of those cards were. Still, if players only bought a starter deck and a few booster packs the cards would be much less of an issue, but players [[CrackIsCheaper spent far more on Magic than they anticipated]], and the competitive environment that quickly sprung up was totally unprecedented. In a similar vein, the rule limiting a deck to 4 copies of a given card didn't exist simply because no one anticipated that people would have more than a few copies of a given card anyways. It became an obvious problem very quickly, with decks doing things like running 40 copies of Lightning Bolt to burn the opponent to the ground, or an early tournament where the deciding match lasted only a turn and pitted two players with 20 copies of Channel, 20 copies of Fireball, and 20 copies of Black Lotus against each other, and the rule limiting a deck to 4 copies of each card was created.
22	** The game changed how the cards themselves looked for ''8th Edition,'' its ten year anniversary. This change is also the demarcation line between Modern and Legacy/Vintage.
23	** When Commander was first conceived in 1996, only the five elder dragons from ''Legends'' could be your commander, hence its other name Elder Dragon Highlander/EDH. Nowadays, any legendary creature and most Planeswalkers can be set as your deck's commander.
24	** Before creature types were standardized so that most creatures listed both a race and a class as separate creature types, they generally had only one or the other (for example, "Soldier" instead of "Human Soldier", or "Goblin" instead of "Goblin Warrior"). The changes to creature type necessitated a change to the Lord mechanic - initially, there were several creatures (like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=479376 Goblin King]]) that gave bonuses to a certain creature type, but they would have the creature type "Lord" so that they themselves would not be affected. Since this would make no sense if all creatures of a given race shared that creature type, this was changed to the effect only affecting ''other'' creatures of that type.
25	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
26	** It was initially just ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy RecycledInSpace'' with things like the Eldar being explicitly called "Space Elves". It also wasn't actually called "Warhammer 40 000" until the 2nd edition (the first edition is called Rogue Trader)
27	** Of particular note is the fact that in its earliest incarnation ''40k'' was more than a little campy and silly at times, often feeling like something that wouldn't look out of place in ComicBook/TwoThousandAD. Whereas now the setting is famous for being a DarkerAndEdgier [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Universe]]. Among the fandom, First Edition Warhammer 40k is usually only considered canon from a BroadStrokes point of view since large portions of its background information are no longer compatible with the current 40k universe. Of course even more modern "canon" tends to have [[DependingOnTheWriter difficulties with consistency]], so that's nothing new for the fandom.
28	** The earliest edition of ''Warhammer 40,000'' was also missing some concepts that are now critical to the setting, the most obvious of them being daemons. There were still ''monsters'' in the Warp, but they weren't actually the now-iconic daemons.
29	*** The very concept of Chaos as a faction didn't exist at all in the 1st edition rulebook, either. There were Warp space and Warp monsters that could possess people, but nothing like Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Cultists etc. These elements were added in during the latter years of 1st edition, through the two ''Realm of Chaos'' books.
30	*** Likewise, the current idea of the Emperor engineering the twenty Space Marine Primarchs from his own DNA, and Space Marines being genetically descended from them, did not exist until late 1st edition, when it was added in by the second ''Realm of Chaos'' book, ''Lost and the Damned''. While the Warmaster Horus and his rebellion, the Literature/HorusHeresy, had been a part of 40k canon since the Rogue Trader rulebook, he was simply the Emperor's favoured general and closest friend before ''Lost and the Damned'' retconned him into being a Primarch.
31	** The Slann were a froglike alien race presented as the lingering remnants of an ancient galaxy-spanning empire, the Old Slann, and were a direct adaptation of the then-current ''Fantasy'' Slann as a wider species with strong martial traditions. Over time, the ''Fantasy'' Slann were reinterpreted as a small number of sterile, barely mobile archwizards, and the ''40k'' versions ceased to either resemble their ''Fantasy'' counterparts or fit into the ''40k'' setting, the Old Slann of both worlds were renamed the Old Ones and moved firmly into the ancient past, and ''40k''[='s=] modern Slann remnants were quietly dropped.
32	** The 1st edition of ''40k'' was much closer to an RPG compared to the modern versions, including needing a GameMaster. The game was designed more for a small-scale squad-based combat rather than large armies. The game didn't become a full-fledged wargame until 2nd edtion (although even then the rules were designed more for smaller-scale battles, making larger battles very time-consuming and rather awkward to play).
33	** And then there's the art style. Behold the might of the [[http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2009/12/10/68916_sm-2nd%20Edition%2C%20Copyright%20Games%20Workshop%2C%20Tyranids.jpg Tyranid menace]] and the ''[[http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2009/12/10/68921_sm-2nd%20Edition%2C%20Copyright%20Games%20Workshop%2C%20Tyranids.jpg terrifying]]'' Carnifex! Obviously models have (mostly) gotten a lot better with time, and the campy elements of the setting got phased out for the DarkerAndEdgier elements of today.
34	** Space Marines started out being depicted with slogans printed on their armour that, as ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' put it once, "would embarrass an American GI". If contemporary Space Marines have slogans on their armour, it's [[GratuitousLatin usually Latin]], and one with the older ones would be given a stern talking-to by the Chaplain. The style of writing for the slogans has also changed drastically, from punk graffiti to medieval calligraphy.
35	** In early ''Warhammer 40,000'', [[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Illiyan_Nastase human-eldar hybrids]] were canon. Obviously there's a laundry list of issues with this now, both biological and world-building wise, and any recent Space Marine or Inquisition would purge such an abomination without a second glance.
36	** Orks were very different in the first two editions of ''Warhammer 40,000''.
37	*** They were notably better at shooting, but worse at close combat; they often wore bright and garish colours (as most factions did); they weren't a type of space fungus, but humanoids with an odd reproductive system; their clan system was described in great detail and had substantial effects on game play; they had lots of {{Lethal Joke Item}}s. In the original rulebook they were subject to hatred of all enemies, an element of psychology that was never again part of the rules.
38	*** Orks also ''looked'' incredibly different and acted less impulsive. Modern Orks came about due to the GaidenGame ''TabletopGame/{{Gorkamorka}}'', which codified their ''Film/MadMax'' design and hooligan-style approach to warfare. The older Orks had such oddities as beards, a more streamlined and straightforward look for their tech instead of "cobbled-together scrap that somehow works", resembled the Huns and Mongolians a lot more and used Germanic iconography, including swastikas (one of many reasons why [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] can be legitimately compared to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, since his banner often featured one in official art); and overall Orks looked a lot smaller and wimpier, compared to the hulking monstrosities they became. In fact, Gorkamorka's Ork models, while more muscled, are still somewhat tiny like the Rogue Trader miniatures, compared to later ones. Also, Orks had females and sexual reproduction (both as BrainBleach heavy as it sounds).
39	*** The Snotlings were descended from a once-advanced race known as the Brainboyz, which created the Orks as servants but was overtaken by its creations and degenerated into simple, childlike beings. In modern material, the Orks were created by the Old Ones during the War in Heaven, and the Snotlings were always the primitive beings that they are now.
40	*** There was a much greater sense of Ork "civilian life", as Orks spent most of their time living in permanent towns. Groups and households erected houses out of rock, rubble and clay, fungus was cultivated for food, and more or less organized markets formed where Orks and Gretchin went to argue, haggle and swindle each other. There was also traditional music, and even funfairs where Orks rode (extremely fast, extremely ramshackle and extremely unsafe) contraptions meant to titillate their need for speed and adrenaline rushes. Warlords were also assumed to keep permanent sedentary courts when not out at war. This remained present for some time -- ''TabletopGame/{{Gorkamorka}}'' uses similar setting assumptions regarding the Ork settlement of Mektown -- but later material recontextualized Ork culture as much more nomadic and disorganized, spending most of its time roaming from one battle to another and only forming temporary camps or planetary garrisons.
41	*** Orks who reached advanced age wandered off into the wild, produced a single offspring in a pouch, raised it until it was self-sufficient and then died; the youngster then lived in the wild until or unless picked up by an established tribe. This was later dropped in favor of Orks spreading spores as they live, and more as they die, which produce fungal growths that spawn new Orks.
42	*** Stormboyz were noted to have a tendency to be drawn to new cults, and particularly to exotic war deities such as Khorne. In later editions, they are as devoutly Gorkish (or Morkish) as any other Ork.
43	*** Technically expert Human, Squat and alien slaves played an important role in society. They were responsible for creating most high-end equipment, such power armor and gear mass-produced to a specific standard -- Meks tended to specialize in customizing, modifying, and repairing what they already have, in between big, one-off dramatic projects -- and, while most were forced to work in sweatshops or perform menial labor, some rose in status fairly high if they were good at something that the Orks found useful, even becoming trusted advisors to warlords and performing necessary administrative tasks that Orks didn't feel like doing and Gretchin were too dim for. In modern lore, the Meks have much more technical skill and are directly responsible for the upkeep and construction of most Ork technology, while alien slaves are only used for hard physical labor.
44	*** When Orks defeated an alien planet, they usually just shook it down for tribute and vassalized it, afterwards visiting it semi-regularly when the tribe wanted more weapons, food, or treasure. When an Ork force occupied a world, it tended to have a surprisingly light touch since the Orks didn't care very much about what the locals did and mostly focused on their own internal drama and on whatever external foe required them to set up the garrison. In modern lore, overrun worlds are usually just razed to the ground and either abandoned or turned into full Ork worlds.
45	*** Ogryns sometimes associate with Orks, usually as a result of an Ork warband encountering an uncontacted Ogryn world before the Imperium did. The Ogryns themselves were described as fitting in well with the Orkish culture and combat preferences, but retaining a distinctly Human sense of cultural superiority regarding Ork Kultur, in large part due to looming over even the Orks in size. Modern lore drops this association entirely, and only mentions Imperial and Chaos Ogryns and does not describe Ork tribes as voluntarily associating with non-Orkoids.
46	*** Waaaghs worked differently from how they do in later lore. Firstly, the term "Waaagh" was spelled "Waa-Ork", which in-universe is a contraction of "We're Orks!". Secondly, they were produced by a random impulse among Meks instead of successful warfare. In modern lore, a Waaagh begins when a tribe or warband starts winning more and more fights, prompting physical growth among the Orks, supercharging the Orks' psychic field, and attracting more and more tribes until the group grows into a huge horde rampaging across the stars. A Waa-Ork instead begins when a Mek develops a sudden urge to build a gargant. Other Meks gather to him as they hear about this, resulting in an impromptu construction site where the Meks and their crews labor day and night to build the huge machine. As word spreads, more and more tribes are gripped by this frenzy, and their Meks begin building their own gargants or else start making as many weapons or war machines or ships as they can. This process can last for years, until entire armadas of machinery have been made, the Orks' war fervor has been stocked to a fever pitch, and every tribe and band grabbed by the frenzy unites in a single mass to wage war on the universe.
47	** The original edition was called ''Rogue Trader'' because back then, there weren't army lists; it was assumed that each player's forces would represent a band of mercenaries, space pirates, and hired guns drawn from different races and factions, rather than a formal army. The Imperium was presented as a force that stayed largely in the background and functioned as {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s at best and villains at worst, not the VillainProtagonist faction behind most of the playable armies they are now.
48	** Dark Eldar and Necrons, and the Tau to some degree, also received noticable changes since their original inceptions. The Dark Eldar miniature range was completely redone for 2011 and now makes it clear that they essentially are a race of torture-loving, slave-keeping and ever-hedonistic space vampires, and it's reflected in their spikes, whips, lean bodies and organically-shaped technology, as well as their emphasis on how they have to suck soul energy out of their victims to survive. Necrons were originally unthinking, undead killer robots enslaved by their C'tan masters, while the 2011 release gave them some personality, Egyptian flavour and explained that the C'tan were enslaved '''by them''' and shattered (explaining while the RealityWarper C'tan are so weak in battle - they're not the real deal anymore). It also added some special characters, something they completely missed before, and removed the human-turned-Necron units called "Pariahs" in favour of an all-Necron force. The Tau overall changed very little, but in accordance with the setting became noticeably darker, more oppressive, and their "everyone works perfectly together" outlook shattered when Tau "rebel forces" were introduced who do not share the same opinion on the "Greater Good". This is probably in response to the fans complaining about what was essentially a clear "good" faction which felt out of place in the setting where generally the best you can get is "not as bad", and they're still probably the lightest faction in the setting.
49	** While the concept of the Emperor being a decaying husk entombed in the Golden Throne has existed since ''Rogue Trader'', the idea that this was due to him being mortally wounded in a battle is a more recent invention. The original book implied that the Throne was simply a machine he used to prolong his lifespan, and his corpse-like state a result of incredibly advanced age.
50	** The first release of the Skitarii faction [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo had its unit rules split across two codexes, "Codex: Skitarii" and "Codex: Cult Mechanicus"]]. All subsequent releases would merge the subfactions into a single "Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus".
51	** It took some time for Games Workshop to decide on what a Primarch actually ''was.'' The earliest references use the term to describe the leader of a Space Marine chapter (what would be called a Chapter Master in current lore). Other times, it referred to the founder of a chapter, but it was implied that they were completely ordinary [[SuperSoldier (by Space Marine standards)]] Marines with no particular significance otherwise, a far cry from the god-like beings created personally by the Emperor himself of the ''Horus Heresy'' novels. In fact, the first reference to Roboute Gulliman mentions his bones being entombed on Maccrage -- contrast this with the current storyline, in which he is not only very much alive, but an active player in Imperial politics.
52	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyBattle'' had quite a few things that would be retconned and changed as it aged.
53	** In its earliest incarnation in its first and second editions (sometimes nicknamed "protohammer"), ''Warhammer'' was arguably not even a wargame, but more like a general ''D&D''-style roleplaying game played at a slightly grander scale. The game was also pretty much devoid of any plot and setting until the 1984 ''Forces of Fantasy'' expansion was released.
54	** Lizardmen lore underwent a drastic change in the 5th edition of the game. In the original lore, the Slann and Lizard Men were entirely separate races; the Slann were a race of FrogMen who had come to the ''Warhammer'' world in the ancient past from another world, conquering it and literally reshaping it to their liking, before undergoing a massive social decline to the point they had largely become tribal, warlike barbarians, save for a few city-states still clinging to a {{Mayincatec}}-flavored empire. The Lizard Men were the original rulers of the world, who had been defeated, conquered and reduced to savagery in a war for domination, so their modern descendants were primitive, brutish barbarians who, ironically enough, otherwise fit the same niche that the Skaven later filled -- they lived primarily underground, in a global system of tunnels deep below the diggings of goblins and dwarfs, and often fought with the other two races; they also raided the surface for slaves, kidnapping whole villages in the dead of night. The Lizard Men lived alongside Cold Ones, their bigger and nonsapient ancestors, and Troglodytes, giant, smelly and dimwitted relatives of theirs that were based on the ''D&D'' kind. Slann armies consisted of Slann warriors and heroes supported by Lizard Men vassals, forced to serve their ancestors' conquerors, and lobotomized, castrated, drug-addled human slave-soldiers. 3rd Edition supplements containing rules for creating Chaos champions also allowed for Lizard Man and Slann options.\
55	5th Edition would reinvent these groups as distinct castes of a single race, establishing the Slann as ancient, barely mobile wizard-rulers, the original Lizard Men as the Saurus warrior-caste, reimagining the Troglodytes as the Kroxigor laborers, and introducing the small and clever Skinks as workers and adjutants; the role of the Old Slann would be taken over by the Old Ones, a prehistoric starfaring race that created the Lizardmen as an artificial servant species. Their motivations were also adjusted to center around a single-minded obsession with opposing and destroying Chaos.
56	** In early editions, the Norse were presented as simply a slightly fantasy version of the real-life culture of the same name, and were characterized as a warrior culture driven by hunger for gold and glory but as not being particularly malicious past that. The Chaos Warriors were a distinct entity of unclear origin that periodically streamed down from the North to ravage other cultures, with the Norse generally being the first to be hit by these invasions. Later material established the Norse, now named Norscans, as being Chaos worshipers themselves and the vanguards of the Chaos invasions, while the Chaos Warriors were drawn from the elites of Chaos-worshiping tribes such as the Norscans.
57	** Early versions of the setting, in the 4th and 5th editions, had four major elven cultures: the cruel and piratical Dark Elves, the forest-dwelling Wood Elves, the haughty and reclusive High Elves, and the seafaring Sea Elves. The latter two lived in neighboring homelands, but were distinguished by the High Elves favoring a life of inward-looking contemplation and abhorring labor and danger, and as such having very few interactions with other cultures, while the Sea Elves were traders and explorers who were the most likely group for humans to have formal relations with; this split was also present in the first edition of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'', where elven player characters were assumed to be Sea Elves. Later material significantly deemphasized this distinction and ceased to mention Sea Elves, although a trace of that distinction is still present in Ulthuan, the High Elven homeland, being divided between the very magical, reclusive and haughty kingdoms along its inland sea, such as Averlorn and Caledor, and the more trade-minded and outward-looking ones along its outer shores, such as Eataine and Yvresse.
58	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'', the role-playing game spinoff of the wargame, wasn't renewed for some fifteen or twenty years, thereby preserving a lot of early canon (like several never-seen-again races such as the Fimir, or the Slann being the {{Precursors}} themselves) in places where the WFRP was popular.
59	** In the first edition of ''Roleplay'', Sigmar is mentioned in passing as being a minor deity and the patron of the Empire but not worshipped widely. It wasn't until later that he became the primary deity of the Empire, and it took even longer for him to become the single most powerful and important non-Chaos god in the entire setting.
60	** Instead of the Big Four of Chaos Gods, three were described in first edition rulebook: Khorne, Nurgle, and ''Malal''. Their primary opponents were the Gods of Law, who were as alien as their counterparts but also much stuffier. This OrderVersusChaos angle was later simplified into "Chaos versus the mortal realms" and the Gods of Law were dropped from the roster, while Malal was removed due to a bad case of copyright issues. Furthermore, unlike later materials which focus on the Big Four almost exclusively, early on they were understood to be just the bigger figures among many.
61	** The Slann weren't the bloated magical overlords of Lizardman cities, but members of the original race of {{Precursors}}, left stranded on the Warhammer planet and degenerated down to a stone-age tribal existence. Meanwhile, the Lizardmen were a separate evil-aligned race who had nothing to do with the Slann.
62	** Bretonnia was almost unrecognizable: instead of its High Middle Ages, Arthurian incarnation, it was a rotting, decadent kingdom patterned off pre-Revolutionary France whose biggest strength was its navy.
63	** Albion and Kislev, although generally OutOfFocus and little discussed, were described in rather LowFantasy terms as relatively mundane human kingdoms... although Kislev's exposure to Chaos also resulted in weirdness such as screaming faces embedded in urban stonework. Norsca was already associated with Chaos and Vikings early on, but in terms loose enough to leave a space for a functioning human realm.
64	** Instead of an assumption that player characters will have to deal with a limited set of usual villains (Chaos cults, Skaven, Beastmen or goblinoids, necromancers and the undead), the bestiary was chock-full of all manner of weird creatures natural and unnatural, from Amoebas through Jabberwocks to Zoats.
65	** While not in the core book, supplements for the first edition of ''Role Play'' had gnomes as a playable race. These were quickly dropped from the setting, and when modules from first edition were reprinted for second, gnome [=NPCs=] were quietly replaced with halflings.
66	** The 1st Edition core book was written before the developers worked out all the kinks of the setting, and many of the game's staples only appeared in supplementary materials. Although it would later come to be seen as a default premise for a Warhammer scenario that the player characters spend their time on low-powered urban investigations, the 1st Ed. core book provided random generation charts for settlements and treasure (including powerful magical weapons) in a way more consistent with travelling around and dungeoncrawling. It was also written in a manner open to the idea of a standard multi-racial fantasy party, unlike the later assumption that any character who is not a human Imperial subject is a rare and unusual outlier.
67	* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' was introduced with temporary lists for previous ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' factions, which were heavy on goofy joke rules such as a man who [[ConsultingMisterPuppet thinks his horse is his advisor]] requiring you to talk to the miniature, or Dwarf units that encouraged you to complain. This was combined with a deeply awkward movement system that, in order to be base-agnostic for the players who still had the older square-based miniatures, required you to measure from specific points on the model to determine things like turning...and a total lack of army balancing rules or points values, in an effort to aim the game towards exclusively casual play. None of these things would survive the development of the game: future army lists would be more straightforward and serious, without expecting players to act ridiculously for combat bonuses, and would include an actual balance system because all but the most casual players still didn't like trying to ''guess'' whether the battle was fair, while the movement rules were revised in order to decouple the movement of the unit from the positioning of the model as AOS started to build its own world and produce its own armies instead of relying exclusively on the miniatures people already owned and the kits in the starter set.
68	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has had multiple editions over the course of its existence, and each edition is a significant departure from the previous versions.
69	** The Original ''Dungeons and Dragons'':
70	*** The original game was a spinoff of a tabletop wargame called ''Chainmail'', so the very first books required possession of the ''Chainmail'' game and the Avalon Hill game ''Outdoor Survival'' (which was used for overland adventuring). The basic concept of the game is much more like a wargame than the interactive storytelling experience of later editions.
71	*** The manual recommends that there be about 1 "referee" per 20 players, anticipating that the players in each session would be drawn from a larger pool and never stay consistent from game to game. Modern [=DM=]s would probably have a nervous breakdown at the idea of having 20 different players to deal with.
72	*** The game explicitly steals names from Creator/JRRTolkien's works (such as ent, balrog and hobbit) before being sued by his estate, causing the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute creatures that have become standard (e.g. treant, Type VI demon [balor] and halfling) to be introduced.
73	*** The CharacterAlignment system in the first boxed set only had three alignments: [[OrderVersusChaos lawful, neutral, and chaotic.]] The nine alignment system the game is famous for didn't show up until First Edition proper.
74	** ''Basic Dungeons & Dragons'': This version was released was published concurrently with both editions of AD&D. The intent was to serve as a simplified alternative to D&D intended for beginners.
75	*** As part of preventing the game from getting too complicated, different levels of gameplay are broken up into different boxed sets; Basic (levels 1-3), Expert (level 4-14), Companion (15-25), Master (26-36) and Immortal (Godhood, beyond 36th level).
76	*** Nonhuman races are considered their own class, so one is simply a 2nd level Elf rather than Elf Fighter or Thief. Though later {{sourcebook}}s do implement the idea of "race plus class" as variants, allowing for players to play things like Dwarf Clerics or Elf Shamans.
77	*** ''TabletopGame/{{Mystara}}'': The Gazetteers for ''Basic'' made it clear that references to characters speaking "the common tongue" referred to the language that was most common ''where that character came from;'' the implication was that if they traveled to another part of the world, they wouldn't necessarily understand the language there. Due to a common misconception sticking and simple [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality play convenience]], later editions replaced this with a single universal language called "Common" that was spoken by most civilized beings.
78	** ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'': This version is more complicated than what came before and very different from what came after.
79	*** One of the more famous departures is the combat system, in which players determine what number they have to roll above by taking their character's [=THAC0=] score and subtracting their target's Armor Class. Thus, the lower your [=THAC0=] and Armor Class, the better. This also introduced many players to the concept of subtracting negative numbers.
80	*** Characters are limited in what classes they could take based on their race and attributes. Nonhuman races have a [[{{Cap}} Level Cap]] on the classes they can take, but can also Multi-Class. Humans have no level restrictions, cannot Multi-Class, but can Dual Class, which is essentially abandoning your current class and starting over at first level in another class.
81	*** The Bard class cannot be taken at 1st level. Only humans and half-elves with very high stats who pass a variety of difficult in-game challenges can become Bards, making it the most rare and prestigious class in the game.
82	*** Warrior classes can have Exceptional Strength, which is a percentile score "between" 18 and 19 (18/59, for example).
83	*** Weapons have different damage ranges depending on the size of the target. In general, blunt weapons do less damage to larger creatures, slashing weapons do more, and piercing weapons do the same.
84	** ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition'': This version revised some of the rules of the first edition AD&D.
85	*** Some of the core races and classes are removed, such as Half-Orcs and Monks.
86	*** Bards are changed to just another class available at 1st level.
87	*** The Proficiency system, which was introduced in several 1st Edition supplements, was optional in the 2E main rules. In later 2E supplements, it was so useful that it was considered to be a core game mechanic.
88	** ''Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition'': This is a complete overhaul of the game, retaining the game's spirit and hallmark elements, but discarding most of the former editions' game mechanics in favor of the new open-license D20 system.
89	*** Checks such as attack rolls, saving throws and skills are all standardized, determined by rolling a D20 and adding all of the character's relevant attribute, ability and item bonuses in an attempt to meet or exceed a target number determined by difficulty.
90	*** Armor Class is now simply the number that an attack roll needs to meet to score a hit, so the higher it is, the better. Characters also have multiple values depending on the type of attack and the character's awareness of it.
91	*** Multiclassing is completely changed so that instead of characters being a single class for their whole existence or several classes at the same time, characters can mix and match levels of any class they like each time they level up. Each class is broken up into levels so that when you take a fourth level of Rogue(the new name of the Thief class, from 3rd Edition on), you just add that level's bonuses onto your character's existing stats.
92	*** Concepts such as Feats, Prestige classes and Creature Templates are also completely new to this edition of the game.
93	*** Combat is based on 5' squares, with very specific rules about movement actions, weapon reach, threatened squares and attacks of opportunity, all making combat much more tactical and wargame-like than AD&D.
94	** ''Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition'': Like ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd Edition, this edition was basically a collection of rules patches for problems that became apparent in the 3rd edition. One example includes changing the ''Haste'' spell so that it only gives an extra attack as part of a full attack, instead of a second Standard Action.
95	** ''Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition'': This version was another large overhaul, intended to tone down the considerable numbers-crunching of 3.0 and 3.5 editions and create a more balanced game, instead of one where class efficiency [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards was as wildly divergent as it had been in 3e]]. It also was the first edition to explicitly assume the players were using a battle mat, with movement and ranges being given in "squares" rather than distances. It was also arguably intended to appeal to a more casual crowd who had grown up on {{Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game}}s, but this is a highly contentious claim that [[BrokenBase provokes a lot of argument]], especially over whether or not that's intended to be a negative thing.
96	*** All character abilities are grouped into "At Will", "Per Encounter" and "Per Day", much like the common cooldown mechanic of MMO games. Although "per use" abilities were hardly an innovation (going all the way back to the earliest editions), this made classes share the same basic engine, instead of spellcasters having their own, entirely separate subsystems for spellcasting. This was intended to result in classes that were much more closely balanced, but also had the secondary effect of making all the classes feel somewhat similar, particularly those that filled the same role.
97	*** Healing is primarily done through "Healing Surges" that all characters receive, making a dedicated healing party member less necessary.
98	*** This version introduces a number of rules and abilities around status effects and forced actions, including abilities that require an enemy to do something (such as attack the Fighter rather than another character) or face a penalty. This builds upon the 3rd editions' conversion of combat into a tactical wargame.
99	*** Will, Reflex and Fortitude saving throws from the previous edition now function as static defenses which attacks are rolled against, just like armor.
100	** ''Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Essentials'': This version was an attempt at being to 4e what 3.5 had been to 3.0. It offered simpler classes that intended to invoke more of a nostalgic feel, mostly by cutting out most of the freeform power selection and giving the player less abilities in general to deal with. The result was an even bigger BrokenBase than 4th edition had elicited, and even its fans tend to admit that Essentials makes some crucial mistakes.
101	** ''Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition'': This version, the latest so far, focuses on attempting to streamline play whilst still invoking the nostalgic "feel" of AD&D and 3e.
102	*** The bonuses applied to most rolls are determined solely by attribute and level rather than by a large number of class, ability and item-based sources.
103	*** All circumstances that affect the likelihood of success on a roll are boiled down to "Advantage" or "Disadvantage", so that when a character has the Advantage, he rolls twice and takes the higher, while doing just the opposite with a Disadvantage.
104	*** Armor class has returned to a single universal number.
105	*** All classes now have a mandatory "subclass" choice, made between 1st-3rd level, which provides roughly half of the class's features.
106	** The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' campaign setting was originally a more lighthearted and less serious setting. It was connected to Earth via magic portals- the Forgotten Realms cultures that seemed like {{expies}} of Earth cultures actually were the result of people finding their way through portals and becoming trapped in the Realms. Elminster, in early Realms lore, had NoFourthWall and ''knew'' that he was talking to the reader. He also had a habit of using magic to transport himself over to Ed Greenwood's house to meet up with wizards from other campaign settings in order to shoot the breeze and steal leftovers from Ed's fridge[[note]]This mostly happened in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'', though, and ''Dragon'' in the nineties loved DirectLineToTheAuthor articles in general.[[/note]]. As 2nd Edition progressed, these details started getting used less and less, and by 3rd Edition they were out.
107	** The ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} Campaign Setting'' from 3.5 contains a significant number of elements that have since been discarded, ranging from [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale specific, if absurd, population figures]] to connections between, say, changelings and doppelgangers that are now a lot vaguer than they used to be. Most notably, ''every single detail'' of the Blood of Vol religion has been tweaked, changing it from an unambiguous ReligionOfEvil to a faith with [[NayTheist harsh but mostly defensible]] tenets.
108	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' started as a spinoff of Dungeons & Dragon's 3.5 Edition, and while the rules were very similar, the tone of the game was very much DarkerAndEdgier. Due in part to the writers taking more inspiration from [[TwoFistedTales pulp fantasy stories]] than their predecessors, in the game's default campaign setting of Golarion, everything common to 3.5 Edition was dialed up to an extreme. Slavery was common and fighting against it was seen as ridiculously naïve, entire races were depicted as being [[CompleteMonster Complete Monsters]] [[AlwaysChaoticEvil down to the individual]], and the writers didn't shy away from portraying the origins of half-orcs as being [[ChildByRape children by rape]]. In the very first Adventure Path, some of the first villains are ''hillbilly rapist necrophile cannibal incestuous ogres'', just to illustrate the level of shock value. Nowadays, the game has a [[LighterAndSofter much broader appeal]], and the creative team readily admits that the early lore was handled poorly, either to a [[{{Narm}} embarrassing]] or [[CreatorBacklash offensive]] degree.
109	* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' was a vastly different beast in First Edition (1991-1992) and the earliest parts of Second Edition (around 1992-1993, though 2e as a whole continued until 1999). The biggest example of this is the total lack of a {{Metaplot}}. There were other key differences between First Edition and the later editions of the game.
110	** Vampires were less ObviouslyEvil and more mired in BlackAndGrayMorality.
111	** The Sabbat were less of a more evil counterpart to the Camarilla and more of a mysterious boogeyman that you did NOT want to meet (The few Sabbat characters mentioned before 1993's Guide to the Sabbat had Humanity 0, high discipline levels, and had Sabbat listed as their Clan instead of Sect). In fact, the main conflict in First Edition and early Second Edition was between the Camarilla and Anarchs.
112	** The player characters were assumed to be either Anarchs or have Anarch sympathies
113	** There were two heroic vampire sects: The Children of Osiris and the Inconnu. Neither were mentioned ever again in Second Edition, and Revised Edition outright killed off the Children of Osiris in their mission to be DarkerAndEdgier than previous editions.
114	** The Independent Clans were sidelined and marginal, and assumed to be extremely rare.
115	** The other denizens of the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness were less defined. Werewolves and Mages were insanely powerful boss monsters whose motives and backgrounds were completely unknown. Ghosts and Faeries were also alluded to, and Faeries were even more dangerous than either Werewolves or Mages to the point that they did not have concrete stats, only suggestions for the GM. Mages were less about reshaping reality and more like traditional wizards with insanely high levels of Thaumaturgy and other spells.
116	** Related to the previous note, the Antagonists section of the 1e Corebook emphasized that humans were the biggest threat. The majority of the antagonists in the section were human (mostly law enforcement and military personnel, although you still had traditional VampireHunter characters as well). In Revised Edition, the only human antagonists outlined were VampireHunter characters who already knew about the supernatural, specifically the Inquisitor, the Government Agent, and the Arcanum Scholar.
117	* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Fantasy'' wasn't originally a generic sourcebook. It instead presented a specific fantasy setting. By the fourth edition, ''GURPS Fantasy'' was revamped to work in any fantasy campaign, and the older material was continued with ''[[TabletopGame/GURPSSettings GURPS Banestorm]]''.
118	* ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech''
119	** The game was originally called ''[=Battledroids=]'', but [[Creator/GeorgeLucas someone else]] owns "[[DisneyOwnsThisTrope droids]]"). It started out with a much [[DarkerAndEdgier darker background]] than its later material - [[HumongousMecha BattleMechs]] were ''literally'' irreplaceable, along with all the [[LostTechnology interstellar technology being irreplaceable]]. [=ComStar=], the cult that maintained the SubspaceAnsible system was completely absent. Later editions retconned the total destruction of the tech base in the [[ForeverWar Succession Wars]] to simply being crippling - there's still factories to produce Jumpships and mechs and the like, they're just very rare and heavily guarded. InUniverse, the situation also became better with the rediscovery of lost technology through the Helm Memory Core.
120	** ''Battledroids'' also shipped with two alternate rule sets missing in later editions. "Expert" rules formed the basis of later editions rules. "Advanced" rules removed piloting checks, fall damage, aimed shots and pushing attacks. "Basic" rules completely changed how the game played; rather than [[SubsystemDamage individual armor sections which could be damaged]], mechs had fixed armor points, and [[CriticalExistenceFailure would be destroyed once all armor was gone]]. Weapon systems could not be individual fired or aimed, instead all attacks were an AlphaStrike with one dice roll. {{Overheating}}, ammo expenditure, and physical attacks were absent.
121	** In the early ''Franchise/BattleTechExpandedUniverse' novels', mechs were portrayed as being extremely nimble, being capable of [[ImpossiblyGracefulGiant doing rolls and such]], which they [[RealRobot sure as hell can't do]] in later novels or in the boardgame. Another shift, albeit a much smaller one, was that infantry-carried laser weapons were originally described as requiring bulky [[Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}} Ghostbusters]] style backpacks as power sources, which was quickly changed to using more standard pistol and rifle type laser weapons that weren't any larger than gunpowder firearms.
122	* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'':
123	** In the very earliest version of the game, a ruleset similar to the manga was used: no Tribute Summons, Spells and Traps can only be played once per turn, and Fusions require their materials on the field. Only a few months into the game's existence (in the Official Guide Starter Book), an "Expert" ruleset was introduced, which went on to show up in the manga as well, creating the game people are familiar with today.
124	** Spell Cards were originally Magic Cards, which was changed several years in to avoid copyright infringement of a certain ''other'' type of [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering magic card]]. (They're still called "Magic Cards" in Japan, though). This resulted in a large-scale {{Retcon}} of an entire expansion name ("Magic Ruler" was reprinted as "Spell Ruler").
125	** Ritual Monsters, Counter-Traps, Continuous Spells and Traps, and Quick-Play Spell Cards were all not present in the starter decks or the first set. It was not until the Japanese "Magic Ruler" set that all of these card types were fully implemented into the game. Equip and Field Spells had existed before, but it wasn't until "Magic Ruler" that those cards got their own icons to designate them as such. And when different categories of Spell Cards were introduced, Equip Cards had ''[[https://ms.yugipedia.com//f/fc/AxeofDespair-MR-JP-SR.png "(Monster)"]]'' in parentheses after their icon, apparently indicating that you were supposed to equip them to a monster, instead of... whatever else you would be equipping them on.
126	** The OCG used a [[https://ms.yugipedia.com//c/c4/BlueEyesWhiteDragon-SB-JP-UR.jpg very different layout]] for its cards for its first few years (including having the ATK and DEF take up a much larger portion of the card). After first switching to a [[https://ms.yugipedia.com//a/a5/BlueEyesWhiteDragon-SM-JP-UtR.png modified version]] of this layout which abbreviated "Attack Power" and "Defense Power" down to one character, the game eventually took on [[https://ms.yugipedia.com//e/e9/BlueEyesWhiteDragon-TRC1-JP-HGR.png roughly the modern design]] (though changes have been made since then) in "The New Ruler" (which Westerners would recognize as the second half of "Pharaonic Guardian"). Other territories skipped this, due to getting the game after the changeover had happened.
127	** The ban-list was still not fully-enforced in the first few months, with certain cards not restricted or limited as they are now.
128	** There was a greater emphasis on monsters without effects in the early years of the games, with Effect Monsters often being much less of a staple of decks. What was more, the entire initial lineup of Effect Monsters in the OCG consisted of Flip Effects, which seems to have been influenced by early videogames.
129	** In addition to almost all being Normal monsters, most monsters from the early game also tended to have low stats for their level. It was fairly common for Normal monsters with only 1500 or 1600 ATK requiring a sacrifice to summon. Additionally, many Fusion monsters also tended to have lackluster stats and no effect to make up for how difficult they were to summon. Conversely, Spells tended to be unusually powerful.
130	** The concept of Archetypes (groups of cards that are tied together by naming scheme, theming and playstyle) barely existed for quite some time, and the few that existed (Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician, Harpie Lady) had nowhere near the type of support cards they often needed to make them worth running in a dedicated strategy, especially due to lack of an ability to easily Special Summon them. True archetypes (that care about a portion of the card's name) weren't introduced until a couple of years into the game, with Gravekeepers. And for a few years after that, it still talked about 'cards with "X" in their name' instead of the more streamlined '"X" card.'
131	*** Particularly odd are Toons--the first deck to fit the modern idea of an archetype, that being a group of cards designed to synergize primarily with one another, that even all have a word in their name to set them out. For some reason, though, the designers decided to make them a special category of monster on top of that (so Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon is a Dragon/Toon/Effect monster), even giving them a special section in the rulebook. Every other time this has happened, the cards in question were usually much more generic and spread out over many different types (Tuner, Gemini, Flip, Union). This has very little effect on Toons as a whole, aside from the fact that their support cards don't have to put "Toon Monster" in quotation marks.
132	** The art style for monsters shifted from a slightly darker, more Western-style appearance to much more manga-ish and zany. While ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' has always run on lots of RuleOfCool and NinjaPirateZombieRobot in terms of monster design, [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Horn_Imp several]] [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Ryu-Kishin monsters]] [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/LOB-070 looked]] like they could have come out of a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Monster Manual, while many newer monsters have a significantly more cartoony style.
133	** In the early days, there was some issue with templating. A lot of this weirdness got resolved with Problem-Solving Card Text which standardizes how effects are written and makes it easier to see the fine details.
134	*** The original printing of Flute of Summoning Dragon was the first card to reference another card by name in its text, and it's the only one where that name is not enclosed in quotation marks.
135	*** Flower Wolf had the word "FUSION" in its text box before listing its materials.
136	*** A lot of old effects have text rendered superfluous. Monster Reborn, for instance, used to say "Place a monster from either player's Graveyard on your side of the field in Attack or Defense Position, face-up. Treat this as a Special Summon". The modern printing is more concise, and the inherent rules on Special Summoning rather than the card itself now dictate what can or can't be done.
137	*** Polymerization initially said "Fuse two or more fusion material monsters to form a new fusion monster", without actually explaining how you are supposed to do that. (The explanation was in the rulebook, since at the time Polymerization was the only way to get out any fusion monsters- thus, the card's effect needed to be explained alongside fusion monsters themselves).
138	** When it came to adapting cards from the anime and manga, cards tended to be decidedly random. Some cards that were Main Deck monsters in the manga were turned into Fusions (Flame Swordsman, Giltia, Bikuribox), Larvae Moth went from the base form of the Moth archetype to one of its (impressively useless) upgraded forms, Castle of Dark Illusions and Pumpking gained effects which relied on each other (they have no relation whatsoever in the anime; if anything, the effect Castle got is closer to the effect Pumpking had there), and Toons went from regular monsters under the effect of a defensive Spell Card to a GlassCannon archetype of distinct monsters with a whole ton of mechanics unrelated to anything they did in the anime. Though anime-original cards [[CCGImportanceDissonance still usually change on their way to the game,]] it's usually in the direction of buffing or nerfing them, rather than making them do something completely unrelated.
139	** The vast majority of early Fusion Monsters that didn't debut in the anime [[FusionDissonance looked nothing at all like their materials]]--at most, they were a generic monster that had vague aspects of their materials in their concept. For instance, Flame Swordsman looks nothing at all like Flame Manipulator or Masaki the Legendary Swordsman other than the broad concept of "is a warrior" and "uses fire" (which makes sense, as it was not a Fusion at all in the manga and anime). At most, they had the proper Type and Attribute combinations to make something broadly fitting the monster's concept, which led to some baffling combos like two female mages fusing to become a male musician, a medusa ghost and a zombified dragon resulting in a fossil mammoth, or two green serpentine dragons making an orange dinosaur-like one with two mouths. This originated from the games, which preceded the early card game and featured a fusion mechanic where fusing any two monsters that fit the concept (for instance, Flame Swordsman could be made with any Warrior and any Fire-type) resulted in something; for some reason, the card game decided to make those materials specific instead. Game-original fusion monsters that seemed to be truly combinations of their components didn't show up until Struggle of Chaos/Legacy of Darkness, and when generic-looking Fusions showed up again, they also had broad requirements, reminiscent of how the videogames did things.
140	** Many cards in the early game were {{Palette Swap}}s of each other--they usually had different stats, types, and attributes, were in completely different poses so the artwork had to be redrawn, and they often had different Japanese names. It's uncertain why this is. The English game had a habit of giving these monsters the same name--for instance, Fortress-Protecting Winged Dragon and its PaletteSwap Wyvern became Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress #1 and #2 (even though #2 is a Winged Beast). Funnily, this also resulted in the English game often giving these numbered signifiers to unrelated cards - for instance, Ogre Rock and War Earth look nothing alike, but still got turned into Rock Ogre Grotto #1 and 2.
141	** Cards with some kind of lore or connection to each other, outside of what was established in the anime, were extremely rare, and what connections did exist were usually very random. It was only around the middle of ''Duel Monsters'', in Legacy of Darkness, that cards with clear relationships and references to each other started showing up (i.e. Marauding Captain or Dark Ruler Ha Des).
142	** For a while, the Extra Deck (then called the Fusion Deck) was much less of a focus. Boss monsters in general were usually AwesomeButImpractical, and most of the first wave of Fusion Monsters were so weak as to not even be awesome. It wasn't until the introduction of the Gladiator Beasts, 5 years in to the game for the west, that there were any decks at all that could reliably pull from it, and not until Synchro monsters were introduced that summoning bosses from the Extra Deck became the core gameplay mechanic that it's been for over a decade now.
143	** Due to the differing focus on the Extra Deck, a lot of cards that would almost undeniably be Extra Deck cards were they released today ended up being turned into Main Deck effect monsters. For instance, Valkyrion the Magna Warrior was very clearly intended to be a Fusion Monster, to the point that De-Fusion worked on it in the manga and anime, but as the method used to summon it (tributing monsters on the field, instead of using Polymerization) did not exist at the time, it was turned into a Main Deck monster. Just two years later, the XYZ lineup of monsters came out as true Fusions with their non-Polymerization mechanic replicated in the card game. Even into the GX era, it wasn't uncommon to see monsters like Neos Wiseman and Ma'at, who were undeniably Fusions, even down to getting summoned by a Fusion Spell, get turned into Main Deck cards.
144	** For quite some time, it was normal for any card to appear in the anime and manga with powerful effects to receive [[CCGImportanceDissonance some heavy thwacks from the nerf bat]], which in many cases rendered intended-to-be-iconic cards borderline unplayable (most infamously, Winged Dragon of Ra). Roundabouts the midpoint of ''ZEXAL'', it became much more common to simply print cards more or less as-is (usually only changing their effects to be once-per-turn), or even outright buff them.
145	* ''TabletopGame/{{Bakugan}}'' didn't have any of the Battle Gear gimmicks or Ultimate Formations that later rebranding would introduce. In addition, the Ultimate Formations were initially CombiningMecha rather than the MoreDakka the later ones would become.
146	* Less play-based and more collector-based, but in ''TabletopGame/{{Pokemon}}'' Base Set, all rares were either always holofoil (most rare Pokémon) or never holofoil (all rare Trainers and a few Pokémon). Future sets would have foil and non-foil variants for all rares.
147	* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
148	** In the first edition Storyteller's Companion, the Sidereals were presented as being based in Creation, relying on mundane methods of disguise to hide themselves; it was their first edition splatbook that would base them out of Yu-Shan, and give them Arcane Fate so mortals couldn't remember them.
149	** The 1e Storyteller's Companion also had Abyssals as champions of death and the Underworld, chosen from those who lived near shadowlands. There were a multitude of Deathlords in the Underworld, competing over who could recruit the most souls as a measure of power, and Exalting an Abyssal put significant strain on a Deathlord. Come their first edition splatbook, the Abyssals became more champions of Oblivion and the destruction of everything, chosen from those on the verge of death. There were thirteen Deathlords (with nine detailed and four left open), pursuing the Neverborn's wishes in various ways, and Exalting an Abyssal had no effect on a Deathlord.
150	** The Lunars' role in the setting has changed with every edition, from anti-civilization barbarians in 1e to covert social engineers in 2e to the primary resistance against the Dragon-Blooded Realm in 3e.
151	** Third edition also throttles back some of the PowerCreep that'd crept in over the previous editions; the Exalted are still powerful, but not so much so that mortal Creation becomes irrelevant before them, and elder Exalted are no longer so powerful younger Exalted have little to no chance against them.
152	** First edition held a lot of allusions to Creation being [[TheTimeOfMyths Earth in a past age]], with the various types of Exalted corresponding to the various WOD cliques: Lunars to werewolves, Sidereals to mages, Solars to hunters, and Abyssals to vampires.
153	* The rules of TabletopGame/{{chess}} went through several changes until they reached the ones we're familiar with today. In the old Indian and Arabic versions of the game, the bishops were elephants and could only make short moves (although they were able to jump over pieces like the knights), the queen was a vizier (and the weakest piece in the game, as opposed to being the strongest nowadays), pawns couldn't move two squares on the first move, there was no castling or en passant, pawn promotion was limited in different ways, etc. The pieces didn't gain all of their modern characteristics until the late 1400s, although even as late as the 19th century either black or white could move first, stalemate rules were different, and (at least in some regions) ''[[GameBreaker the queen could move like a knight]]''. In the earliest versions of chess, it even had four players.
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Context EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / TabletopGames