TSR [Let's Read] Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules, by Tom Moldvay

Experience
First off, of course it's 1 gp = 1 XP, but Moldvay notes that XP is not given for magical items. Conceivably if you found a non-magical weapon you could sell that for gp and thus XP. One thing to note is that while XP is the same as treasure in gp, treasure is split by the players, while the DM handles splitting the XP. That has implications for retainers, because it means you can offer them a full share and not get hit hard in the XP department.

XP is also given for monsters, but it's interesting how in Moldvay this is almost an afterthought. As we'll see when we get to Monsters, B/X monsters don't even have XP listed in their stat block. XP for monsters is figured using a table in this section. Monsters award a Base Value of XP based on their HD, and if they have an asterisk after their HD, it represents special abilities, and an additional Special Abilities Bonus is added to the Base Value for each asterisk. This table is the same as in Holmes Basic, although it goes up to 6 HD to Holmes' 5+, and Holmes lacks the asterisks to indicate special abilities. Unfortunately, monster HD in Basic goes up to 11! It's not hard to figure out the math -- both Base Value and the Special Abilities Bonus keep increasing by 50 XP/HD after 4 HD, but it's still a pain. It's rather remarkable how low the monster XP is. Goblins are only worth 5. An old red dragon (13 HD**) is 2,675 XP. By comparison, the AD&D 1e DMG provides an example of XP calculation using a 12 HD ancient red dragon, and it comes to 7,758. I haven't checked my Monstrous Manual, but I'm pretty sure red dragon XP in that HD range would be 5 figures.

OD&D and Holmes have XP run through a monster level/dungeon level fraction, so that you only get 1/2 XP if a 1st level monster is on the 2nd level of the dungeon. Moldvay suggests nothing so concrete, but the Adjustments to XP paragraph is interesting enough to quote in full:

Moldvay said:

ADJUSTMENTS TO XP: The DM may treat an unusually "tough" situation or monster as one category better (use the next line down). Situations might also allow the DM to give partial experience if the characters learned from the encounter without actually defeating the monster. The DM may also award extra XP to characters who deserve them (fighting a dangerous monster alone, or saving the party with a great idea), and less XP to characters who did less than their fair share ("do-nothing" characters). The DM should consider the character's alignment and class carefully, and should remember that guarding the rear is an important role in any party.

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I could see docking XP for playing out of class or alignment, if the players were game for it, but docking someone for being a "do-nothing" character sounds like a recipe for arguments, hurt feelings, and broken groups.

When dividing XP, all party members, PCs and NPCs get an equal share, although the DM may give retainers only half of their share. Bonuses are of course figured after the shares are divided. Characters can only advance one level at a time, no matter how much XP they get at once. A character who gets enough to advance two levels stops 1 XP short of the second level. Characters can't go up in level until an adventure is over, here defined as "when XP are awarded by the DM."

Bullgrit said:

Something that didn't seem to phase me at the time, but now strikes me as very odd, (even misleading), is how the artwork often didn't match the actual game. Often it was one or two characters fighting a dragon, when the game was actually designed for many characters fighting things that are not a dragon. Even the forward describes one character fighting a dragon.

I don't think any Basic (levels 1-3) modules had a dragon as a monster encounter. The adventure that comes with the Basic box (B2) has just about every monster from the rule book, but no dragon. (The cover of B2 is actually a good representation of what Basic D&D looked like.)

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Creature of the Rhyll, an early Dragon magazine adventure, was a dragon hunt for 1-3 level BD&D characters.

I too got my D&D start with this rules set, and I appreciate the read through. It has been years since I picked the rulebook up but it comes back quite clearly -- I spent many hours of my youth reading and re-reading the rules, and there were things I didn't understand until years later. Alignment, in particular, was confusing -- Law/Chaos I didn't grok until reading Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone as an adult.

Also, I wonder if the later lack of interest in clerics started here with clerics not having spells at 1st level? That always bothered me and prevented me from playing a cleric since you basically spent a level as a gimped fighter; I preferred the AD&D cleric who at least could do one cure wounds per day at start.

And, Olgar, it was even a bigger eye opener for me, because usually my cleric had a fairly decent Wis, so, I was like, "I not only get a spell at first level but I get THREE!! Wahoo!" AIR, it was a bit worse though because we sort of misread the table for a long time and thought it was FOUR bonus spells for an 18 Wis (with 3, 2 and then 1 bonus spell for the next three spell levels. Didn't really know what cumulative meant at the time. ).

Re: Experience -- gp = xp

It's interesting to look at the end result of xp for gp in BD&D. The classes needed thousands of xp to gain levels, so treasure had to be in the thousands of gold (times the number of characters in the party -- x2-8?). And there was no official idea/guidance/or even a hint at buying magic items in BD&D. It wasn't until name level (9-10) that things like castles and strongholds came into play (if anyone wanted that). So adventurers usually had heaping piles of treasure stored around somewhere (written on their character sheets). In the rulebooks, there really wasn't anything to spend all that gathered wealth on. Just castles for the characters who want to settle down, or maybe a sailing ship for those who want to take to the seas. And even then, it would take a huge castle or a fleet of ships to really spend all the gold a name-level character had accumulated in his/her career.

Consider that a 3rd-level fighter, working with a 4-member party, has probably seen around 16,000gp in his short (still Basic) career. At 5th level, he's probably seen 64,000gp in his still relatively young career.

I've often wondered why the designers didn't just slash the xp requirements by, like, 10. Instead of needing 2,000xp to gain second level, make it 200xp. That way a treasure of 500gp would be seen as a hoard, rather than just a drop in the bucket.

But I do like the xp for gp idea, to an extent. Made exploring and looting the goal rather than just monster murdering.

Bullgrit

The game was always about BIG PILES OF GOLD.

This was an end, not a means.

I think training was introduced in 1E to siphon some of it off.

As I noted recently in another thread, Dave Arneson had the wine, women, and song rule so that you got XP for spending gold.

Those, plus a castle fund, would probably be good enough!

I blame Tolkien -- Smaug's hoard and all.

Of course then you should have the multiple armies show up to take it.

TerraDave said:

As I noted recently in another thread, Dave Arneson had the wine, women, and song rule so that you got XP for spending gold.

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Can you link to that? I was unaware that Arneson used such a rule - I first saw it only recently in (if I recall correctly) Iron Heroes (a shout-out to Arneson, perhaps?).

Alzrius said:

Can you link to that? I was unaware that Arneson used such a rule - I first saw it only recently in (if I recall correctly) Iron Heroes (a shout-out to Arneson, perhaps?).

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See, for example, the 6th paragraph here:

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/04/retrospective-first-fantasy-campaign.html

The Encounter, part 1
This section introduces the Order of Events in One Game Turn. What I'm going to do for this installment is use that as a base. Next time we'll explore Combat via the Combat Sequence.

1. The DM rolls for wandering monsters (1d6, see page B53).
I'll get into more detail when we get to page B53 in its own time, but I'll note here that the basic system is a DM rolls 1d6 every two turns. A result of 1 means a Wandering Monster on the next turn. The DM rolls 2d6x10 for the distance away in feet and chooses from what direction it's approaching the players.

2. The party moves, enters room, listens, and searches.
Basically the things covered in chapter 4. Movement is based on encumbrance, doors may need to be forced (by rolling 1-2 on a d6), and listening is 1 in 6 normally, 2 in 6 for demi-humans, and up to 3 in 6 for thieves. In terms of searching, there are no rules other than dwarves' and elves' special abilities. Going by the example of play at the end of the book, basically the player says where they are searching, and if there's treasure there, they find it. This is often criticized as "pixel-bitching", but the example of play, at least, does not demand such detail. I do seem to recall treasure in modules sometimes being hidden unless players did something terribly counter-intuitive. The +1 shield in B2, for example.

3. If monsters are not encountered, the turn ends. If monsters are encountered, the DM rolls for Number Appearing.
This is gone into in a bit more detail in the Monster's section, but on this page it notes that this may be rolled randomly or decided by the design of the dungeon. The ranges for number appearing are supposed to be used for monsters appearing on a dungeon level equal to their own level (HD). If there's a number in paranthesis after the range in the monster's entry, this is for either a wilderness encounter (explained in the D&D EXPERT SET), or an underground lair.

4. The DM rolls 2d6 to check the distance between the monsters and the party.
Actually this only rolled if the DM isn't certain. Distance will basically be decided by situation. "A monster seen 'coming around a corner' 20 feet away, for example, is encountered at that distance."

5. The DM rolls 1d6 for both the monsters and the party to check for surprise.

The DM and party roll 1d6 for initiative to see who goes first.
Surprise only happens when the DM deems it possible. Multiple attempts to force open a door will mean any monsters therein will not be surprised. The roll is a 1-2 on a d6. Results are pretty straightforward: both parties surprised mean they cancel out, with no moves or fighting for that round. One side surprised means the non-surprised side gets a free round of actions. Neither surprised means initiative is rolled.

Initiative has changed quite a bit over the years and editions. In fact 3e and 4e may be the first time it's remained essentially the same. In B/X, the default is side initiative, rolled on d6, every round. Ties can be rolled again or happen simultaneously, at DM's discretion. One thing that is interesting is that while initiative has become synonymous with combat, in Moldvay it is not exactly about that. It is an encounter mechanic, but it maintains more of its broader meaning, rather than just order of attack. Moldvay writes:

Moldvay said:

The side "with the initiative" has the first choice of actions. Members of that side may choose to fight, run, throw a spell, take defensive positions and wait to see what the other side does, start talking, or do anything else that the players or DM can imagine.

If combat occurs [my emphasis - JR], the side with the initiative always strikes first in that round.

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So here we see initiative also acting as a social mechanic. The side with initiative can set the tone. This is not quite how it is portrayed in the example of combat at the end of the chapter (the DM doesn't call for initiative until a bad reaction roll leads to a hobgoblin charge), but it is how it is done in the example of play at the end of the book. The DM rolls for surprise (no surprise), rolls for initiative (goblins win) and rolls for reaction (goblins attack).

Moldvay also includes paired combat as an optional rule, which allows for Dex mods, Halfling mods, and ostensibly two-handed weapons (more on that later) to come into play. However, monsters don't come with Dexterity scores, so it's up to the DM to give them modifiers for speed, if he or she wants to.

6. The DM rolls 2d6 for Monster Reaction.
This is the DMs option. Some monsters, like zombies, always act in the same way. The table is pretty simple, leaving much to DM discretion. Mentzer introduced a more detailed table. For example, here a 3-5 is "Hostile, possible attack." In Mentzer, 3-5 is "Possible attack, roll again". After another round of negotiation, the roll is made with a 2-8 indicating attack, and 9-12 indicating uncertainty. If a 9+ is rolled, there is another round of negotiating, and then a roll with 2-5 indicating attack, 6-8 indicating monsters leave, and 9-12 indicating they are friendly. Mentzer's system seems easier to handle, but Moldvay's seem more organic.

7. The party and the monsters react:
If both sides are willing to talk, the DM rolls for monster reactions and initiative, as necessary.
If one side runs away, the DM should check the chance of Evasion and Pursuit.
If combat begins, the DM should use the Combat Sequence to handle combat.
Again, here we have the idea of initiative being rolled from round to round during social interaction. I find this fascinating. I've just checked Mentzer and that is not how its written. The order of events in an encounter are No. Appearing, Surprise, Reactions, and Results. Initiative is only included in the order of events in combat.

Evasion and Pursuit: If the evading side is faster than the other side, evasion is automatic. If not, the pursuing side must decide if they want to give chase. Players decide this themselves, of course, while monsters make a reaction roll (low = pursue, high = let go). If pursuit is chosen, both sides are running. Monsters give up the chase when PCs are no longer in sight. Unintelligent monsters stop 50% of the time if food is dropped, while intelligent monsters stop 50% of the time when treasure is dropped. Important dungeon safety tip.

8. End of turn. where necessary, the DM should check the character's remaining hit points, whether or not they need rest (see page B24), any changes in the party's marching order or possessions, their encumbrance (see page B20), their sources of light, the durations of any spells in progress, and the total time the party has spent in the dungeon.
Turn time is 10 minutes/turn, and round time is 10 seconds/round. While combats are highly unlikely to reach the 60 rounds that equal 1 turn, the remaining time is considered time spent resting, catching one's breath, cleaning weapons, binding wounds, and so on, so 1 encounter will generally take 1 turn. The note on resting refers to the rule that 1 turn must be spent on rest after 5 turns of exploration, as well as the Running rules. Characters can only run for half a turn (30 rounds = 5 minutes) and then must rest for three complete turns (30 minutes).