How's Advanced D&D?

In my attempt to experience oldschool rp I'm being tempted to buy the AD&D rulebooks. How's the edition? Is it more complex (in a good way) than 3.5? Should I get the second edition books or the revised editions?

>oldschool RP
Just download any of the older editions. AD&D 1E, Basic Moldvay, OD&D.
Or a retroclone, Labyrinth Lord (Basic D&D with some AD&D stuff through the Advanced Edition Companion), Swords & Wizardry Core rules (OD&D with some arbitrary changes like asending AC), Swords & Wizardry Complete(OD&D with some AD&D stuff bolted on) or OSRIC (relatively pure AD&D 1E reference with some rearrangements). They all attempt to emulate their respective editions of D&D but with better layout and simpler phrasing.
>is it more complex
No, all of the old editions are much lighter and much more quick to actually play than 3.5E. AD&D is the heaviest of them but even then, even if you don't do as most do and ignore the rules you don't want to use, if you run it by RAW it's still a lighter system for the most part.

2E (Revised or not) is sort of in a funny place in that it is the least respected oldschool edition due to a lot of stuff that was sort of moving towards 3E like splatbook bloat, dumb skill subsystems, pseudo-prestige classes and optional build systems. It has a couple of "cool at first glance but horrible to play" settings published for it though.

>It has a couple of "cool at first glance but horrible to play" settings published for it though.

Like what ?

Not really. 3.5 is way more complicated in my opinion, but AD&D carries the concept of THAC0, which for some reason, all my groups have had a really hard time grasping. Once you get your group past that hurdle, it becomes a breeze to play.

I play the first edition, and their are drastic differences between the two, but AD&D is fun, fast-paced, and deals with little of the bullshit in later editions. For example, you can control how powerful your magic-users can get through their spellbook; it contains a limited amount of space for spells, and in order to get new ones, you have to cast Read Magic on spells found in the world, then Write Magic them into the spellbook.

Planescape, Birthright, Dark Sun, Council of Wyrms, Ravenloft.
All of them are "cool on paper" but tend to be horrible or need serious reworking to actually play on the table.

Care to elaborate ?

Dark Sun is great if you use the revised Psionics rules instead of the original Psionics rules. That's really the only actual issue with it.

I'm pretty much in agreement with you on 2e, though. It's a lot better if you ignore everything that's labelled "optional."

What's to elaborate?
They're made for reading and you can tell once you try to run them. From assumed "storylines" to adventure locales that require high-level spells to even trek through, much less actually adventure in, filled to the brim with high-level hostile or semi-hostile NPCs that make the Forgotten Realms seem tame in comparison.

Some grogs like to bitch about 2e not being truly old school, but without supplements, that's really more down to evolving playstyle than it is to actual rules. I'm personally more fond of 1e and think it has more wild creativity and energy, but that's more a matter of coming first, and its organization is a mess, and it has a bunch of wonky rules that people tend to ignore. 2e takes 1e and tidies it up considerably. It does also incorporate a fair bit of material from the supplements into the core, and some of it is subpar in design (like the nonweapon proficiencies), but compare that to 1e shit like alignment languages or separate attack adjustments for each weapon vs. each individual armor class and it doesn't end up looking so bad.

Moldvay / Cook Basic is generally superior to AD&D in the rules it has, but it is more simplistic, and may leave some people wanting for that reason. Still, it doesn't have a lot of the unnecessary clutter of AD&D, and you might want to check out Labyrinth Lord's Advanced Edition Companion if you want AD&D's options without quite as much of that clutter. It tries to retain Basic's simpler core system while giving you AD&D's expanded options. I still think it's a bit over-cluttered, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Oh, and I should mention that old school D&D can be more than a little ad hoc, having developed more or less organically. There is no central mechanic like new school D&D, and different subsystems work differently (d6 for surprise, d10 for initiative, d% for thief skills, d20 roll over for to-hit and saving throws, d20 roll under for ability checks, etc.). Despite this, it still tends to be a lighter, easier-to-run game. There is, however, considerably less character customization, at least in terms of mechanics. Of course, back in the day, you tended to improvise situational bonuses based off background and so forth--DM fiat, rulings not rules, and so forth.