D&D 1E Old Timers: How was D1 supposed to be run/go down?

[Stormonu]

Early 1E was written a lot of times that getting into combat was a fail state for the party - they'd failed somehow to properly prepare for the threat ahead. That initial D3 encounter wasn't something characters were expected to slog fight their way through. Instead, they'd have to use their wits, magic, followers and whatnot to approach and most likely sneak their way through. There's even a specially called out note that this is the only encounter the group can Teleport past!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It is not an ideal in module writing, which is a very different thing. A writer must decide how hard the challenge is and how many possibilities for resolution they are going to accommodate in explicit writing.

However you think modules should be written now, this certainly wasn't part of module design back when D1 was written. Back then is was considered perfectly reasonable for the PCs to blunder into an overwhelming challenge and all die.

Gygax wrote it from "this I how many troglodytes I think would inhabit the area". His modules where never written guessing what the PCs would do in any particular circumstance. Love it or hate it, you see it in every module he wrote. The only exception being Tomb of Horrors, where he tried to guess what the players would do and then punish them for it.

Because of the pace of 5e, I would say it would be pretty much impossible* to run D1 with 5e rules without making significant changes. You might try treating squads of troglodytes as an enormous swarm.


*or at least vey unfun.

 

[David Neuschulz]

If anyone knows of stream of D1 being run as per written (1e), please do pass along. My google-fu is weak, here -- I haven't found any.

 

[David Neuschulz]

As I can recall, invisibility and silence 10’ radius (usually cast on pebbles which were then carried and could be thrown if needed) were employed to get past checks. Area of effect spells like ice storm and fireball.

This seems to answer my question pretty well.

A TPK is a completely reasonable outcome! I know, heresy, right?

I think I alluded to that idea -- the idea that TPK was more acceptable back then. What seemed unreasonable with that first D1 encounter was that was the first and explicitly unavoidable and seemed to me to be a TPK if combat was chosen. I have been disabused of that last idea (not 100% a TPK), so, yeah, all good. So duplicity, stealth, and combat were all written-in as viable strategies.

 

[GuyBoy]

It never occurred to me at the time, but looking back I wonder why an evil wizard would go through all the rigmarole of attaining lichdom just to lay down in his pyjamas in a random tunnel in the middle of the Underdark, surrounded by only a few magic mouths:

 

[Yora]

The battle with the lich is still memorable.

Greatest battle report I've ever come across.

 

[GuyBoy]

Greatest battle report I've ever come across.

Fair point; it was a bit limited.....but my 40 year recall is that;
Pyjama-lich was awakened by his magic mouths, Valon the Priest attempted to turn the undead horror but failed, at which point the lich disintegrated Blagdrog the henchman fighter (where did that name come from?). Celetan the wizard did something impressive and then the one-handed PC fighter finished off the lich. I can’t remember the fighter’s name, but the lad who played him is now a maths professor at Leeds University, and his hand had been cut off by King Snurre’s Sword of sharpness.
Pyjama-lich was dead.

There you go. Enjoy!

 

[David Howery]

ah, the lich. I think the DM who ran us through D1 messed up something, because when we ran into him, he didn't really use some of the best spells he had, hitting us with fireball or something that did damage, but not much else (I'm pretty sure he had better spells he could have used). Next round, our party won initiative. The paladin with a vorpal blade took the first swing. Natural 20. Bye bye lich.
as for the rest of the cavern, I vaguely remember plowing and fireballing our way through the hordes of humanoids. My 12th level ranger did the 'two weapons/long sword and hand axe' thing and mowed down zillions of them.
I can remember that the good aligned members of the party had some way of hiding their alignments from detection magic, and we bluffed our way through most of the drow outposts....

 

[GuyBoy]

Greatest battle report I've ever come across.

Just read the link one. Agreed. Truly awesome battle report. With mastodons!

 

[David Neuschulz]

Greatest battle report I've ever come across.

O, if only that had been captured on video.