AD&D H1-H4 Bloodstone Adventures: Advice?

[Bathnor]

Greetings everyone, I am planning on running my group through the Bloodstone series of adventures. We are taking a break from 3.x games and want to go back to 1E for a change of pace. We have all played first edition before.

So my question is, has anyone run these adventures before and have any advice for them? Have any players gone through the series and lived? Were there any house rules involved?

I also have a question about the Battlesystem rules. I got my boxed set last week and it is in great condition. I ahve never played/run a Battlesystem game before. In the rulebook it tells of making "stands" of the armies so the units are easier to move around the battlefield. Would using tiles, like the ones WotC makes work for placing armies? Or do you use something else?

 

[Treebore]

All I can say is, your players better be good at thinking "outside the box" or they are going to die, or worse. Paladins and like minded Clerics are pretty much screwed once you go into the Abyss.

Still, it was tons of fun, and well worth running. Sorry I can't give you more than that, but I ran if about 20 years ago and do not remember anything well enough to give specific advice.

 

[Stormonu]

Good luck with this - I've only read but not palyed these modules and the later ones (H3, H4) struck me as horrible modules, either with poorly thought out encounters or too much "chain down the spellcasters" to make them challenging.

Battlesystem sucks - you'd be better off converting the stats to Warhammer fantasy battle rules. If you will be using minis or counters, movement trays or placing the figures on top of dungeon tiles will be a great help in speeding up movement in the game.

 

[Bathnor]

I have never played Warhammer, would it be a hard conversion to make?

And yes my players can think on their feet, they survived the entirity of the WLD.

 

[grodog]

I ran H2 BITD, and it was fun, although I modified it significantly IIRC.

 

[MerricB]

Would using tiles, like the ones WotC makes work for placing armies? Or do you use something else?

Yeah, that'd be fine. It's worth noting that the bases on the old Battlesystem rules are a lot smaller than the bases on the D&D Minis of today. I'd tend to use the counters more than anything else now.

Cheers!

 

[Treebore]

I don't recall the battles having that many units to really take up all that much time to move them, but I may have had each tile represent more than one unit. Like I said, too long ago to remember such details.

 

[Stormonu]

I have never played Warhammer, would it be a hard conversion to make?

If you haven't played Warhammer before, I would say it would be - it only uses d6 for all combat resolution. Since it sounds like you already have the battlesystem rules at hand, it might be better just to go with what you have.

 

[Bathnor]

Well we wrapped up the Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. I'm going to be DMing again and running these series of adventures. Some of you have mentioned having made house rules for Battlesystem. What were the house rules? I have made some house rules for 1E, but havn't thought of any for the Battlesystem. I thought having ideas ahead of time may speed up play and help deal with issues before they come up.

I also have a question about pass through fire. I know that it has to be done when the enemy is moving, and I am sure that they must have line of sight/effect for it to work. Is it just moving that triggers pass through fire?

 

[Dragonhelm]

I've never gotten through H4 Throne of Bloodstone, let alone tried any of the others. From what I remember, though, H4 could easily be a campaign within itself. I want to say it's very combat-driven.

My advice would be to take the series, boil it down to its core themes, then make it your own. That way, you don't have to deal with Battlesystem if you don't want to, and you can focus on story (if that's what you want to focus on).