D&D General What did you think of the Stranger Things D&D game?

[Paul Farquhar]

Critical hits? We had them as far back as 82. I don't know where it came from because it wasn't in the core AD&D rule books that I could see, but natural 20 = "critical hit for double damage" seemed to have always existed.

 

[teitan]

So here's my issue...

A level 14 half-elf rogue gets a THAC0 equal to Elf, which is the same as a Fighter, Dwarf, or Halfling. So at level 14, her THAC0 was a -9-.

Which means a 19-20 is a hit because the best AC is -10, which pushes up the attack roll to a 19 or better.

Nog, Dustin's character, is a Dwarf and has THE EXACT SAME THAC0. (Unless he's either higher or lower level)

So why did the other gamers say "One in 20 chance" when it was, in fact, 1 in 10 or 2 in 20?!

No, she gets level 14 THIEF hit matrix, she needs a 14 to hit AC 0 IF she doesn’t have any magic items or hit bonuses. Dustin’s Dwarf they don’t say if he is a Cleric or Fighter or Thief. Just a dwarf and the rule books are 1e rulebooks. If a fighter his To Hit for a 0 if he is level 14 is 8, again assuming he has no magic or strength bonuses. They are different classes. Why 1 in 20? Because it was dramatic to say it.

What game are you looking at though? I have my 1e DMG in front of me.

 

[teitan]

There were a number of flubs from a mechanics perspective in that scene indicating the writers were modern players, not players with experience in the 1980s.

• Level 1 Dwarf?
• Rogue?
• Kukri?
• Vecna missing an arm?
• A rogue rolling percentile dice in AD&D - in combat? Maybe...
• But someone rolling a d4, a d8 and a d10 (percentile) all at once? And then a d4, d6 and d10 at the same time?
• How do the players know how many hps Venca has? Or that a powerful spellcaster in AD&D is going to be hurt, much less killed, by a weapon attack?
• Odds of success are 20 to 1 - and the PCs are rolling one attack roll each, with no need for a damage roll on the 'critical hit' (assuming they're using alternate rules for critical hits from Dragon or another source)? That makes no sense unless Dustin's attack was irrelevant.
• Most of the terrain and figures were time appropriate - but not quite all. And some of those dice did not look like 80s dice.

I'd love for someone to really get it right.

A rogue would roll percentiles in combat for the move silently check to get their sneak attack in.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

sneak attack

Not to be pedantic, but Backstab.

 

[teitan]

Was vecna in 1e? I have never personally been in an adventure with the hand of vecna

He was from 0e!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Can an half-elf be a 14th level rogue? If we forget that there was no rogues back then.

As has been pointed out they could be, as they HEs were U in Thief but who actually followed the level-limit rules anyway? I mean, I didn't play in 1E, as I started just as 2E came out, but all the 1E grogs I met noted that they didn't actually enforce the limits. Exceptions tended to be on a per-character basis rather than house rules, but the idea you were really going to say to the guy who managed to get a Halfling Cleric to 9, that that was "it", that character was over, development-wise, is just silly. Especially as it would likely just cause the player to quit or, at best, re-roll.

So why did the other gamers say "One in 20 chance" when it was, in fact, 1 in 10 or 2 in 20?!

Because they're about as good at math as we were at that age? I mean if we discount the group that had two math geniuses in it that I used to run, where we had to ban arguing about probability because if those two got going...

 

[Dausuul]

Was vecna in 1e? I have never personally been in an adventure with the hand of vecna

As @teitan notes, the Hand and Eye of Vecna predate 1E itself; they were published in 1976, in the "Eldritch Wizardry" supplement to OD&D. They are described as the "sole remains" of an ancient lich. Very little detail is given beyond that.

So having the players know about Vecna is not a mistake. As far as I know, Vecna himself was never given stats until 2E, but that just means the DM whipped up some homebrew stats.

I do wonder where the Vecna mini came from, though.

 

[payn]

As @teitan notes, the Hand and Eye of Vecna predate 1E itself; they were published in 1976, in the "Eldritch Wizardry" supplement to OD&D. They are described as the "sole remains" of an ancient lich. Very little detail is given beyond that.

As far as I know, Vecna himself was never given stats until 2E, but that just means the DM whipped up some homebrew stats. (I do wonder where the Vecna mini came from, though.)

That is a good point, this was supposed to be the penultimate session of "the freaks" big campaign. Perhaps he was a little ahead of the curve in stating out Vecna and using him as his big bad?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Same. These days, I'll settle for when people cheer so loudly the audio clips and distorts as it hits up against the compression. When I can feel the excitement even through the internet.

Man, I miss that...

Agreed. The kid that introduced me to D&D was an older heavy metal kid (though not as old as Eddie, who as far as I can tell would be about 20 years old, maybe even 21, if he's failed to graduate three times). I knew plenty of kids that used their "outcast" status as armor against the cruelties of high school. I also cheered when I saw Eddie had a Dio back patch on his battlevest.

The Hellfire Club's game was amazing . . . the entire episode and it's lead up to the game was amazing! I knew guys like Eddie back in the 80s, who built their entire identity around D&D and enjoyed being "king of the geeks" and were just as controlling as Eddie, and as dismissive towards other concerns, like Lucas' b-ball game. Eddie felt very real to me.

That is the same year I discovered D&D, as well.

It's interesting that '86 was around the time I started middle school and was introduced to D&D.

I'm really enjoying this season so far, and how it's also re-centered D&D in its narrative. As for the game itself, I thought it was a lot of fun and a great storytelling device. It captured the excitement of a good game, when we're transported somewhere else by such simple tools as dice, pencils, and paper. As for the authenticity, the only thing that felt a little off for me was that the dice looked a little too nice for 1986.

 

[MNblockhead]

So here's my issue...

A level 14 half-elf rogue gets a THAC0 equal to Elf, which is the same as a Fighter, Dwarf, or Halfling. So at level 14, her THAC0 was a -9-.

Which means a 19-20 is a hit because the best AC is -10, which pushes up the attack roll to a 19 or better.

Nog, Dustin's character, is a Dwarf and has THE EXACT SAME THAC0. (Unless he's either higher or lower level)

So why did the other gamers say "One in 20 chance" when it was, in fact, 1 in 10 or 2 in 20?!

The most realistic thing about the the game was that it didn't follow the rules exactly because most players probably didn't know all the rules through and through and probably made up their own rules. The use of "rogue" was the only thing that felt anachronistic about their game to me.