About us
My family and I recently moved to the Kingdom of Tonga, a small group of islands in the South Pacific. With the move came a SHORTAGE of opportunities to play D&D. My son and I were going crazy. Luckily, my wife and daughter decided to alleviate our suffering, and have started playing D&D with us. We are currently running a 1st edition AD&D game because my son (who is 18) wanted to play the edition that I “grew up” on. My daughter (14) and I take turns DMing.
When the playtest was announced, I asked them if they would be interested in participating and they all agreed. My oldest son is coming to Tonga in July and he'll be joining our playtest then.
The DM
I am a 41 year-old college professor who has played D&D since the early 80s. I’ve played all editions from the Moldvay rules to 4th edition. I play a Drow wizard in our 1st edition AD&D game. I've enjoyed all editions of D&D and don't get hung up in edition wars. My motto is, "play what's fun and support the hobby."
The Slayer
(My wife) She and I have been married for 22 years. She has never played D&D consistently until recently. Prior to this year, she had played D&D about 5 or 6 times, but never really enjoyed playing the game. However, she has been playing an elf thief in our current 1st edition AD&D game and has become much more involved.
The Cleric of Moradin
(My daughter) She is 14 years old and is an avid video game player (Halo, Skyrim, Dynasty warriors, etc). She has played 3.5 and 4e, but not very often. She has been playing a Drow cleric in our weekly 1st edition AD&D game. Her main motivation in playing is to make dad happy, lol. However, there are times when she really enjoys the experience, and she REALLY enjoys DMing... a little too much in fact
The Elf Wizard
(My son) He is 18 years old and has been playing D&D since he was 10 (starting out with 3.5 and then moving to 4e). He is an avid D&D player and has always been curious about “the good old days.” That’s probably because I’ve used my old PCs from my gamer days as NPCs in my games with sons and their friends (I have two sons, but the oldest, who is 21, is not at home). That's why we are playing a 1st edition AD&D game now.
Our session
We were only able to play for an hour or so, but the following is the summary of our first playtest.
The PCs were attacked by (4) kobolds just outside of the caves of chaos. The three PCs dispatched the Kobolds easily and headed into entrance “D.” They weren’t at all stealthy. They entered area 18 and, since the goblin heard them coming, I sent one goblin to get the Ogre from area 22 and had the rest waiting for an attack. These are some notable elements from our combat:
We used minis because my wife absolutely HATES TotM. She has a very ‘precise’ personality, and simply prefers working with a representation of the action.
Did the rules let you play D&D the way you wanted to play it?
All three of the players answered this question with a resounding “yes.”
Did the rules let you play the adventure the way you wanted to play it (interact with the environment and creatures)
All three players answered “yes.”
Did the rules allow you to play your PC the way you wanted to play it?
All three players answered “yes.”
I then asked the following questions: What did you like, what didn’t you like, and what changes would you make? Here are their responses:
My wife, the Dwarven Slayer
Likes
Dislikes
No real dislikes. Everything was fun and easy to play
Changes
No real changes so far
My son, the Elven Wizard:
Likes
Dislikes
Changes
No real changes yet
My daughter, the Cleric of Moradin:
Likes
Dislikes
Changes
No changes so far
Me, The DM:
Likes
Changes
All in all, the rules at this stage seemed to allow us to play the way we wanted to play while still managing to “feel” like D&D. I’m going to start modifying the caves of chaos so that there is more exploration and interaction, right now the players are treating it like a hack & slash.
My family and I recently moved to the Kingdom of Tonga, a small group of islands in the South Pacific. With the move came a SHORTAGE of opportunities to play D&D. My son and I were going crazy. Luckily, my wife and daughter decided to alleviate our suffering, and have started playing D&D with us. We are currently running a 1st edition AD&D game because my son (who is 18) wanted to play the edition that I “grew up” on. My daughter (14) and I take turns DMing.
When the playtest was announced, I asked them if they would be interested in participating and they all agreed. My oldest son is coming to Tonga in July and he'll be joining our playtest then.
The DM
I am a 41 year-old college professor who has played D&D since the early 80s. I’ve played all editions from the Moldvay rules to 4th edition. I play a Drow wizard in our 1st edition AD&D game. I've enjoyed all editions of D&D and don't get hung up in edition wars. My motto is, "play what's fun and support the hobby."
The Slayer
(My wife) She and I have been married for 22 years. She has never played D&D consistently until recently. Prior to this year, she had played D&D about 5 or 6 times, but never really enjoyed playing the game. However, she has been playing an elf thief in our current 1st edition AD&D game and has become much more involved.
The Cleric of Moradin
(My daughter) She is 14 years old and is an avid video game player (Halo, Skyrim, Dynasty warriors, etc). She has played 3.5 and 4e, but not very often. She has been playing a Drow cleric in our weekly 1st edition AD&D game. Her main motivation in playing is to make dad happy, lol. However, there are times when she really enjoys the experience, and she REALLY enjoys DMing... a little too much in fact
The Elf Wizard
(My son) He is 18 years old and has been playing D&D since he was 10 (starting out with 3.5 and then moving to 4e). He is an avid D&D player and has always been curious about “the good old days.” That’s probably because I’ve used my old PCs from my gamer days as NPCs in my games with sons and their friends (I have two sons, but the oldest, who is 21, is not at home). That's why we are playing a 1st edition AD&D game now.
Our session
We were only able to play for an hour or so, but the following is the summary of our first playtest.
The PCs were attacked by (4) kobolds just outside of the caves of chaos. The three PCs dispatched the Kobolds easily and headed into entrance “D.” They weren’t at all stealthy. They entered area 18 and, since the goblin heard them coming, I sent one goblin to get the Ogre from area 22 and had the rest waiting for an attack. These are some notable elements from our combat:
We used minis because my wife absolutely HATES TotM. She has a very ‘precise’ personality, and simply prefers working with a representation of the action.
- My son was giddy over shocking grasp, lol
- My wife wanted to charge on every chance she could. We talked about what seemed fair. These were some options we discussed (I like the idea of having charge grant two types of effects – attack bonus or movement bonus, with respective costs later on):
- +2 in movement, but you gain disadvantage on the attack (she tried this option because she was 35 feet away and wanted the extra 10 feet)
- Normal movement, but you gain advantage on the attack in exchange for being disadvantaged on the following round (she tried this option because she felt like she could take the gamble. It did NOT pay off and she was hit for significant damage).
- Normal movement, but you gain extra damage on the attack in exchange for being disadvantaged on the following round
- +2 movement, but you can’t move on the following round
- I had two goblins rush the wizard and attempt to grapple him to the ground. Here is how I resolved the action
- Goblin A moves to the wizard and readies an action to aid goblin B when it arrives.
- Goblin B arrives and engages in a strength contest with the wizard. Since goblin A is aiding goblin B, I gave goblin B advantage. The goblins are now grappling with the wizard.
- The slayer was DEADLY and my wife enjoyed every minute of it (she was describing her attacks. For example, she noted that her mini was “skull high” with my Harbinger set Ogre mini. If you know that mini, you can imagine what she said she hacked-off with her axe, lol. (It was still a PG game)
- On my son’s turn, he wanted to cast a spell while being grappled by the goblins. He decided to summon his familiar and cast shocking grasp through it (since his hands were held by the goblins). He summoned the familiar and attempted the CON check to cast the spell, but he rolled a 5.
- On the following round, Goblins B, aided by Goblin A, took the wizard to “prone” (clawing and biting and keeping him from casting spells – but no real damage).
- The Ogre came into the room, but after its initial appearance, the threat factor was pretty low. The slayer almost soloed the ogre and the Cleric of Moradin saved the wizard from the grappling goblins.
Did the rules let you play D&D the way you wanted to play it?
All three of the players answered this question with a resounding “yes.”
Did the rules let you play the adventure the way you wanted to play it (interact with the environment and creatures)
All three players answered “yes.”
Did the rules allow you to play your PC the way you wanted to play it?
All three players answered “yes.”
I then asked the following questions: What did you like, what didn’t you like, and what changes would you make? Here are their responses:
My wife, the Dwarven Slayer
Likes
- “This PC feels very “Dwarven.” Dwarves are known as being good fighters and being tough, and this character feels like that.
- I also like how you can still deal damage on a miss. It makes me feel like I’m still doing something – like a dwarf should.
- Combat is much easier to resolve than in 1st edition AD&D where you have the combat matrix, armor adjustments and negative AC.
- I liked the pregen characters.
- I really liked the background and theme. They gave me a lot of information about what kind of character I could play and what I was capable of.
- I liked “stonecunning.” When we walked into the caverns, I liked how I could tell everyone what I knew about the stonework just because I was a dwarf.
Dislikes
No real dislikes. Everything was fun and easy to play
Changes
No real changes so far
My son, the Elven Wizard:
Likes
- The magic feels magical. The wizard feels wizardly. So far, things feel like they should.
- I like the racial descriptions, background and themes
- I love my familiar
- In this version, I was concerned for my HP but didn’t feel “fragile.” I felt like I needed to be smart and defensive without having to cower in fear of getting hit – but I knew if I wasn’t careful, I could be in real danger.
Dislikes
- I prefer written rules for some things like “grappling.”
- So far, so good
Changes
No real changes yet
My daughter, the Cleric of Moradin:
Likes
- Backgrounds and themes are cool
Dislikes
- The Cleric didn’t really feel like a Cleric. He felt like a weaker version of the fighter.
- Advantage and disadvantage was “weird.”
Changes
No changes so far
Me, The DM:
Likes
- I was skeptical of advantage/disadvantage, but I ended up liking it
- I liked the free-form feel of the rules
- I don’t like the Caves of Chaos (never really did, lol), but it is what it is.
- The monsters were boring, so I was trying out alternative attacks, like a trip attack by the Ogre and the grapple move with the goblins. The trip attack was an opposed strength check that only dealt the STR modifier in damage. It was an inelegant solution, but I didn’t want to bog down play with spending time on working on a mechanic. That is my concern about “guidelines” vs “rules.” The DMG should definitely devote considerable time and effort in helping DMs adjudicate situations in play that are fair and quick to resolve.
- I don't really like the clerics as written. I like the spontaneous casting, but apart from that, I really didn't like the cleric, and I didn't really identify with them as clerics. They didn't feel like a cleric to me [shrug].
Changes
- Monsters, obviously, and I know they are in process, so that’s cool
- Are slayers too powerful? Hard to say, but they are certainly worthy of their name
All in all, the rules at this stage seemed to allow us to play the way we wanted to play while still managing to “feel” like D&D. I’m going to start modifying the caves of chaos so that there is more exploration and interaction, right now the players are treating it like a hack & slash.
