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I realize you may both know and not care, but your three images of D&D Basic aren't in chronological order -- the Erol Otus cover (3rd pictured) was the earlier revision of the original.
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# ¿ Jul 10, 2012 19:11 |
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# ¿ May 16, 2024 18:40 |
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Illvillainy posted:As 3.xE was my first exposure to D&D beyond the BG series, BECMI's this intriguing cypher to me, how did it differ in tone/purpose to AD&D and how is it's legacy ignored by modern D&D? Basic was meant to be a dungeon crawl game. Race and class were unified, as were alignments (there was lawful, neutral, and chaotic). Emphasis was on exploration of a dungeon or wilderness location, not a campaign world. Clearer prose, bigger font, fewer charts than AD&D. This is how alignment matters in BE(can't speak for CMI):
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# ¿ Jul 11, 2012 19:16 |
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Hellequin posted:I recently picked up a bunch of AD&D 1e books for really cheap at a flea sale (Monster Manual I & II, Player's Handbook, Unearthed Arcana and Deities and Demigods all for ten bucks, then I ordered an extra PH and DMG). Finding them was what I needed to rekindle my (and coincedentally my friends') love of D&D, and we've decided to run a campaign. I would ignore weapon speed factors, spell components (except when they are very rare/expensive or when the spells have a material component at all and the caster is missing his or her gear), weapon vs. armor type, psionics, and initiative (that linked one is great, watch out for spells that should take more than one round to cast; I don't remember whether they exist officially, but if they do, those are "balanced" for that). I am a fan of what the new Gamma World did: 18 in one stat and 16 in another, roll 3d6 for the rest. Allow them to distribute them after they're rolled.
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# ¿ Jul 30, 2012 19:09 |
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VacuumJockey posted:Can't see why not. You may want to reroll initiative every round instead of letting it ride, though. It could get rough on spellcasters. Alternately, have the whole party roll initiative as in later D&Ds, but let them choose who acts on which initiative count each round.
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# ¿ Jul 30, 2012 20:07 |
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Hellequin posted:Everyone rolled up their characters the other day (one person even managed to roll a 18/00 for their fighter).
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# ¿ Aug 1, 2012 15:03 |
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Babylon Astronaut posted:I just realized that a level 1 character would need a 2 to hit AC19 at long range with a missile weapon. So I guess that matters. So it's really more like the AC of a bedridden old man wearing a -3 cursed shirt, and he is also the size of a barn.
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# ¿ Jun 2, 2013 15:29 |
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Cocks Cable posted:Is there a reason why demi-human classes in BECMI only go up to level ~10 while the human classes go up to 36? I never understood that disparity. Demi-humans are better than humans so capping the level is "game balance."
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# ¿ Jul 9, 2013 18:19 |
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PeterWeller posted:Because it loving owns. Pauser's Gate (as a franchise) is Hall of Fame good (and, like Bard's Tale-influential). Without it, probably no Planescape:Torment.
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# ¿ Oct 23, 2013 20:55 |
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Evil Sagan posted:I gotta gush and this seems like the likely place. You probably know this, but the Deities and Demigods with Cthulu in it is rare and worth more, so take good care of it! Only the first print run had it, because they were threatened with legal action by the Lovecraft license holder. Against the Giants is one of my favorites from back in the day (the other being Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth).
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# ¿ Nov 3, 2013 06:46 |
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PeterWeller posted:E: Rulebook Heavily is right. No reason to get personal. I want to add that Vornheim is a really great "little" supplement and I would buy a lot more things like that if there were a lot more of them to buy.
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# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 19:04 |
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BrainParasite posted:Is Vornheim worth reading even if you're not a fan of Zak's posting style? They may as well not be the same person.
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# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 19:59 |
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OtspIII posted:I don't suggest ever just showing them a map, but you should experiment with different levels of abstracting traveling to places they've already been--getting lost as you try to escape the dungeon can be really fun, it can be campaign-quittingly frustrating.
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# ¿ Jan 26, 2014 16:30 |
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VacuumJockey posted:It is considered a classic - check out what Jamie Mal had to say about it: http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/12/retrospective-caverns-of-thracia.html Mike Mearls, of all people, on that page posted:You're on to something about the lack of exploration in modern adventure design. I've seen several comments to that effect regarding the current crop of 4e adventures, and it's a trend I'd like to reversed. I guess they did do the Undermountain thing at the very end.
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# ¿ Apr 25, 2014 14:19 |
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aldantefax posted:Was Vornheim actually worth reading? The author aside I've heard the actual ideas in it for a citycrawl seem to be fairly well thought out (but I cannot vet any of the sources that go one way or the other on it with a critical review). The other stuff in both OSR bundles seem neat though. I like everything about Vornhiem as a product and wish there were more like it.
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# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 23:03 |
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I had a dream where your AC dilemma was solved by having it equal the number of rounds until that monster gets off a special attack. Then I woke up, thought about it, and realized it doesn't map well for all B/X monsters and obviously doesn't do anything helpful when there's a negative AC.
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# ¿ Dec 4, 2015 21:18 |
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# ¿ May 16, 2024 18:40 |
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Payndz posted:Compared to the monsters. The test characters were only the equivalent of B/X level 2, but the warrior absolutely annihilated everything, to the point where I put him 10-1 against orcs and he still came out with half his HP intact. Also, you could have special attacks be powered by the results on the monster attack rolls (which the players could roll, if it's important to give the players dice). Fighters could power up by filling in certain patterns, rogues get a vital strike in on attacks that miss by a certain number, clerics could do specials when their holy number or numbers come up.
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# ¿ Dec 4, 2015 21:20 |