R.e. Houseruling. I think the difference is philosophy. When I run something someone else has made, I try to get an idea of what it is they made, what inspired them, and why they made the choices they made before I decide to change anything. Its a principle of parsimony, its good until I run into a problem somewhere. I think that's probably the way to go, and the more complex your system is, the more hesitant you should be to tinker with anything fundamental (which is what made D20 very challenging for neophyte GMs I think).
I think this is true of most everything---the more you take the time to get into the creator's head, and place it in the appropriate historical context, the more the it "flows" and you can fill in missing gaps in a coherent way. You eventually start to "get it".
Beyond D&D (and emphatically music!), this surprisingly even applies to mathematics and physics. Learning a topic, algorithm, or technique is best done in context. You need to know the zeitgeist of the author's times, and understand the problems he or she was trying to solve as well as the other knowledge available to them---then the esoteric just clicks. Building a mental timeline of where and when everything occurred is invaluable for understanding---even with something as timeless as mathematics. Your fellow scientists and engineers---looking at it out-of-context---will be puzzled as to why you seem suddenly so knowledgeable and adept. You kind of absorb the subject---and it changes you. You drop all pretext of detachment and
own it, while it simultaneously
owns you.
[Begin Digression]
Being "cool" was much more a literal word in the American 1950's. Folks who were "cool" literally seemed cold, unconcerned, and disconnected...detached from society. A cold temperament---think James Dean or Elvis, the young outsiders. In contrast (to my mind) is "the Geek" or Nerd. The Geek lets his passions spill over...sometimes in an uncomfortable way. The Geek is not "cool" in temperament, he is "hot and bothered" about stuff---all the time. Even these days, when the word has morphed and twisted around so that geeks now say "things" are cool (as opposed to people)---the "cool kids" still keep their emotional cards close to their chests, and seldom express a passion (just sarcasm and mockery for others' passions)---because it exposes a human connection that can be socially exploited by their rivals. "Cool kids" are stereo-typically above it all---unflappable, unreachable.
In the context of the first paragraph---you can't stand apart from the knowledge, and remain "cool". You have to "geek-out" on it, and allow it to get inside your head. For example, to be a successful engineering student, you have to "go all the way" and become a nerd---with all the associated stigma. There's no holding back or doing it half-way. You have to "try". You have to "care". Otherwise, you will fail into mediocrity.
As
cool as he was, you can't remain aloft like Han Solo as we see him at the beginning of
Star Wars---you have to be
geeky emotionally earnest Luke to learn to use
The Force.
[End digression]
This is what I keep trying (poorly) to convey to you all with regards to the 1e DMG. It does help if you get inside Gygax's head, and the more your experiences parallel his (through extended campaign play), the more what he wrote seems to make sense. So many on the web talk about the poor organization and muddled construction of the DMG---but over time, that melts away. That journey (which I'm still on), is what I was failing to describe in the
Me and the DMG thread. The book---that was confusing and opaque (to me)---starts to thaw and melt when your mind is open to the knowledge.
All of ETOB's seeming "grey-ness" in the term By-The-Book, is also a part of that. You start to get the structure, and the mind-set, such that holes and gaps in how-to-apply-it shrink. You can mentally fill in the gaps in a consistent way. Again, I'm using the 1e DMG as an example---but this is universally applicable to learning. There is very little difference in my mind between a neophyte engineering student complaining about the organization of a Calculus or Dynamics text, and folks new to AD&D complaining about the DMG. In both cases, AFTER the light-bulb has gone off, you will hear folks say things like,
"Why didn't the author just say it like...[how I now imperfectly comprehend it---but language fails me too].". Understanding comes, when understanding comes...there's no short-cut.
Prince is right---starting with AD&D is probably not the way to go. TSR obviously agreed with him and thus published three separate attempts at a Beginner's guide (before eventually throwing Advanced out the window all together). Honestly, if folks are looking for a streamlined AD&D---with cleaner presentation, have a peek at
OSRIC. All that it is, is a faithful attempt to preserve, reconcile, and organize AD&D---
not a Mr.-Fix-It "better" AD&D. It's a book that well compliments the 1e DMG/PHB/MM, in my opinion---a great "study guide" and true
homage.
As another aside, James M at Grognardia is also "looking back" at the 1e DMG in a series of posts he calls "Random Rolls". He picks a page (randomly?) from the 1e DMG and discusses it. I don't always agree with his conclusions---he's clearly attached to the B/X D&D of his youth, and tends to bristle at the AD&D difference. That's fine....but it means we don't share the same sensibilities at some level (I'm come at it from OD&D/Holmes). And yet, in his journey of DMG-discovery, you can see the gears starting to mesh and he's grown less antagonistic towards the tome. Having played a multi-year campaign of Empire of the Petal Throne (while in self-imposed blog exile) has had it subtle effect on his view of the game---bringing it closer to Gygax's, and it's foundations.
Yesterday's post was a familiar topic:
playing monster/demi-human races versus humans**.
Worth a read.
(**In an exercise of adding more pointless antagonism to the world, I've been racking my brain but failed to come up with a smarmy term like "candy classes" for uber-races. "Master-race", while close, has already been taken...and with a very different historical connotation...so I'm not touching that. ) 
