So as our AD&D game gets going, I’ve decided that I would like to have an electronic and searchable version of the rules available for use as needed. Now, I won’t try to pretend that I’ve never done an internet search to find less-than-legal versions of the books, but I’ve not been at all impressed with the quality. Even worse, from what I’ve gathered, the crappy PDFs I’ve dismissed as, well, crappy PDFs are, in fact, the PDFs that were offered for sale by Wizards. If I’d paid money for those, I would have been less than thrilled.

Anyway, I’ve been grabbing a few copies of the 1e AD&D books off of eBay, and I’ve now got a total of four playable Players Handbooks. One of the sellers I bought from had another chewed-up copy which I scored for next-to-nothing, so I nabbed that as well and immediately chopped the cover and lopped off the binding. The pages are in good shape and I’m now involved with scanning it in for my own use.

At some point I’ll be doing the same with cheap copies of the MM and DMG.

I cringed at cutting up one of the finite number of PHBs left, but the cover was totally shot and this will come in quite handy. It was an eighth printing.

Tags: AD&D

Here’s another AD&D rule that I came across in the section on doors that I don’t ever remember using:

Regardless of how a door opens, it is usual that its weight and condition require that force be used to swiftly operate it. This is represented by the roll of d6 for each person involved in pushing, pulling, lifting, sliding, or whatever. A roll of 1 or 2 typically indicates success, anything above indicates the door still remains unopened. (Cf. PLAYERS HANDBOOK, Character Abilities, Strength.) Very heavy doors might reduce chances by half. Locked doors might only open if two or even three simultaneous 1′s are rolled. (DMG, page 97)

Note the bolded sentence. I’m positive that I would not have allowed a locked door to opened. Broken down, but not opened. The wording of this and the description of Open Doors under Strength in the PHB seems to refer to opening (“operating”) doors, though I know some people (and maybe the rules of some editions) indicate that the result may be a broken open door.

I’m sure I read this many times back in the day, as I read the book cover to cover several times and often just opened up to a random page and started reading. But I don’t specifically remember it.

Did/does anyone play that rolling a couple 1s on Open Doors checks opens a locked door?

Tags: AD&D

While re-reading the 1e AD&D books, I came across this in the Players Handbook section on hit points:

In some campaigns the referee will keep this total secret, informing players only that they feel “strong”, “fatigued” or “very weak”, thus indicating waning hit points. (PHB, 34)

I remember reading this back in the day and I think I may have even tried it for a game or two, though I can’t remember for sure.

In concept, there are things I like about the idea. Players would be less certain about the exact condition of their characters and would be more likely to play their wounded as such due to moving the 1-hit-point-perfectly-fine-but-0-hit-points-means-dead issue “behind the screen.” The story/role-playing element of the game would probably be enhanced by this approach.

However, the book keeping burden on the DM would increase and damage rolls for monsters would probably have to be rolled behind the screen. Plus, and this is no small point, IT’S A GAME. Game-isms are allowed.

After all, if I do this with hit points, why not with ability scores? I could simply roll up PCs’ ability scores for them and tell them if they are “weak”, “average”, or “strong” and “dumb”, “typical”, or “smart”. And when they buy armor I could just tell them to write “unarmored”, “moderately protected”, or “well armored” on their character sheet while I keep track of their actual AC. In fact, I would probably have to keep their character sheet for them. They could just have a piece of scrap paper with a couple of notes on it.

Okay, that’s getting a little extreme. Even with a perfectly fair DM who was capable of keeping up with everything, I think most players would be frustrated with that style of play, at least in a game like AD&D or even the basic versions of the game. For an ultra-simple intro-type game for new gamers, maybe something like that would work.

Anyway, has anyone ever tried the keep-hit-points-secret method?

Tags: AD&D

I might be the last person on earth to know about this, but all of the Sage Advice columns from Dragon Magazine issues 31-134 are available online. This covers the 1e AD&D period nicely and will be a useful resource.

Here’s one from Dragon #39 that should help settle some arguments:

Aside from the obvious ones (pole arms and bows), which of the listed weapons are two-handed?
A battle axe, spear, morning star and bastard sword can be, and a bo stick, quarterstaff, two-handed sword and a trident always are.

Straight and to the point. Often, however, the response includes details which can give a little insight into the thinking behind the rule. Here is one from Dragon #42:

How much experience are the various Girdles of Giant Strength worth? I seriously doubt 200, when Gauntlet; of Ogre Power are worth 1,000.
The Girdles are only worth 200 points for several reasons. First, while they do add to the strength of an individual, they do little to add to the intelligence or cautiousness of that being. Secondly, while the strength of a giant is given, the giant’s innate toughness is not conferred upon the wearer. This means that while a giant could smash its fist through a wooden door, a human would break bones when doing it. While a giant could hurl bars apart, a human would rip flesh in the attempt. The gauntlets, on the other hand, offer a great deal of protection for the hands and arms and thus are worth more.

That’s official, even though I don’t necessarily buy it.

And page numbers are often referenced.

Tags: AD&D

We’re going to go mostly by-the-book in our new 1e AD&D campaign, emphasis on “mostly.”

Here are two passages from the Gygax himself on generating ability scores:

The range of these abilities is between 3 and 18. The premise of the game is that each player character is above average — at least in some respects — and has superior potential. Furthermore, it is usually essential to the character’s survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics. (PHB, pg 9)

While it is possible to generate some fairly playable characters by rolling 3d6, there is often an extended period of attempts at finding a suitable one due to quirks of the dice. Furthermore, these rather marginal characters tend to have short life expectancy — which tends to discourage new players, as does having to make do with some character of a race and/or class which he or she really can’t or won’t identify with. (DMG, pg 11)

The Dungeon Masters Guide then goes on to list Methods I, II, III, and IV, all of which are likely to get a PC with better average scores than straight 3d6. Methods I and II and also give the player control over which scores go where. While I freely admit to using all of these methods back in the day, and several others besides, I have come to believe that the distribution of 3d6 is superior.

However, the points about survivability and player satisfaction are not completely without basis. Though I have no issue with the game being lethal, I’ve also grown tired of spending so much of our time rolling up new PCs and starting over at 1st level so often. And as this is a GAME that we play for ENJOYMENT and FUN, I don’t have any problem with players having at least a little control over what sort of character they’re going to play.

As for the ability of low-level PCs being able to survive, we’re addressing that by having all PCs begin play at 3rd level. The increased hit points, combat ability, and spell availability means that PCs should be able to have good chance to get out of bad situations before half the party is dead. PCs will start with no XP, however, so they’ll still have to earn their way to 4th level. I think this will make the game more fun for everyone involved without doing significant damage to balance.

For ability score generation, we’re going to use

Method K:
3d6 are rolled seven times, generating the scores STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON, and CHA in order plus a bonus roll. Any two scores, including the bonus roll, may be swapped. Then the seventh score is dropped.

This preserves the results curve of 3d6 and the creativity-inducing randomness of rolling in order while allowing players to possibly eliminate a real low score by swapping it with the bonus roll or putting their best score in the ability of their choice.

For instance, say a player rolls the following:

STR 9
INT 16
WIS 10
DEX 9
CON 11
CHA 10
BONUS 13

If the player wishes to play a magic-user, great. Swap that bonus roll with one of the other scores and get on with it. But say the player wishes to play a fighter. Suddenly a decision needs to be made. Does he swap the 16 INT for the STR 9? That would get him come positive combat modifiers, but it leaves that bonus roll of 13 unused.

This is pretty much what we used in our Labyrinth Lord games, and we’ve been pretty pleased with the results. We’ll see how well it translates to AD&D. I’m expecting it will work just fine.

Tags: AD&D