Recent content by David Howery

that's been a complaint about the module since the Basic version came out back in 1980 or so. It's a slugfest and runs along the lines of 'fight/retreat to the Keep to heal up/fight some more." And yet, there's been versions of this in about every edition from Basic to 5E. Something about the...

okay, I'll take your word for it, as I have nil experience with 5e. It is a neat set, though, the maps are great.

"absolutely nothin', say it again...." quote from all PCs who aren't clerics or paladins...

just for the heck of it, ordered this and got it yesterday. The maps are neat, the Keep is much better detailed, and the wilderness encounters about the same. But my first thought on reading through the Caves was.... 'Man, they really nerfed these down." I mean, the bugbears and gnolls went...

heh. I can remember it being mentioned in the Game Wizards book (I think) about how one of Dave Arneson's 'poke in the eye to TSR' projects after leaving them was an index/guide to all the OD&D books (at the time), which was published, but due to the Holme's set and AD&D, soon became useless...

from what I read about OD&D, the main problem with it was that it was hard to learn unless you're taught by someone who already learned the game. IIRC, the Holmes boxed set was designed to fix that.

when I started back in 1980, the choices were 1E, Basic (of which there was only the Holmes set, which ran only to level 3), and OD&D (which was getting harder and harder to find). So, 1E was the best choice (for me at least)....

wow, that is rather neat looking. It's kinda amusing that B2, in spite of all the criticism about the problem of 'so many critters in such a small space', has been revamped quite a few times. Did it get updated for 3E and/or 4E?

so, not knowing anything about this new edition or the stuff for it... is this adventure another retooling of the old B2 module?

weirdly enough, after being plastered all over my FB feed for a day, he's disappeared from it. If he turns back up, I'll do the 'hide all posts' thing...

mine too. Is there a counterspell?

so, the existing rules already cover it? Okay.

that's a bit of a problem, and one reason why firearms are bit loopy for D&D rules. Muzzleloaders were distinctly difficult to load and fire (particularly for matchlocks, which are rather unsuitable for a typical 'adventurers going into a dungeon' setting).... without training on how to do it...

not to mention, he was writing for what he assumed would be a tiny group of gamers in his area, and had no idea that D&D would take off like it did...

I had this one way back in the day. Not sure why it was for sale in a toy store in Montana, but back then, I was grabbing about every D&D thing I could find. Alas, I lost it somewhere along the way...