OSRIC, the Usurper

Against all intuition and spurred by willful nostalgia, I went out and bought the 4th (5th?  18th?) Edition Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide.  I remember the halcyon days of yore, when I would spend hours of nerdy bliss reading about spheres of annihilation or various bits of Vecna–and even occasionally playing the games with others (which, in my experience, invariably proved that CRPGs didn't turn gaming into a manic-obsessive tactical combat and resource gathering exercises, it ...