D&D first Edition Question.

[cryptoron]

"It would have been far easier to simply let low initiative go first, with action beginning on the segment of the initiative die, and the actual segment of the attack would be initiative + weapon speed or spell casting time. In fact, this suggestion was made in Dragon magazine not long after the DMG was published."
Fromhttp://rdushay.home.mindspring.com/Museum/Fantasy/ADDrevw.html

Did anyone actually use Weapon Speeds?  Looking back I think we ignored them, but this seems like a cool way to do it. 

[PhoenixFire]

Did anyone actually use Weapon Speeds?  Looking back I think we ignored them, but this seems like a cool way to do it.

I never played 1st, but we ignored weapon speeds and casting times in 2nd. Looking back we probably should of since it made casters a bit overpowered being able to get off a high level complex spell before anyone could do something about it as long as the caster rolled well on initiative

[SyRael]

I have always used weapon speeds and do think that they work well. Two issues that I have run into; using calculated speeds seems to make combat rounds go that much longer because every player has to figure out a new number before they do anything and numbers by the book at times need to be modified to make them playable. I also make players create casting times when research and developing new spells.

Brandon

[Librarian]

my group allways used weapon and casting speeds, but most people I played with tended to stick to one or two weapons making there init easy to figure out, I was often a mage but I tend to decide what spell I am casting well in advance of my next turn.

weapon and casting speeds helped some character concepts, the big slow two handed weapon was actually slow, the dagger fighter tended to go early in the fight. Some spells benefited from it too, the power word spells where impressive due to there init 1, where as most spells had an init equal to there level. Adding 1 instead of 9 is what made power word kill despite its other weaknesses a valuable spell, a status it lost in the later editions where it was just a very high level death spell.