Recent content by howandwhy99

1E is still the unparalleled best game design in RPGs. I think there are a number of flaws in it and it can certainly be improved upon, but the entire endeavor was quit with 2e. This made very obvious with the edition change rancor, more than any other change in RPG history. Story gaming didn't...

The highly particular rules and the subjective feel of the simulation are nowhere near as important as the actual school of game - the Strategic Sim game hidden behind the screen and gamed in one's imagination. If you're not playing to score points, you're not really comprehending RPGs for the...

My guess is behind a paywall for the Youtube channel

Under AD&D rules, yes, your DM is correct. The rounds are 60 seconds long and spells are declared at the start of the round. Interrupting with a spell means completing the spellcasting in a delayed fashion effectively. They are holding the final result to an opportune moment in the round. Some...

Suffocation by drowning rules were probably in a couple early modules, maybe pre-1e. Food, water, rest, shelter... These were in OD&D Outdoor Survival from the start. Rations were tracked.

The OP sounds like he is running 3 campaigns at once, which would be a trial for any DM. A campaign setting only needs be big enough to offer the required XP for every class offered to reach Name level, and a little beyond. That will likely be dozens of characters though as they die and restart...

Spot on! Fatigue and starvation (and more!) from Outdoor Survival are part of the D&D rules imnsho. They are listed under necessary components to play. They take from quality game designs and make the game more interesting and fun to play. There's a thread on DF right now about how a formation...

See Chainmail Page 8. They are a bit more complicated with charging rules, but you can use fatigue out of combat too.

OD&D required fatigue rules for combat. AD&D didn't include them, but did sneak the same into movement rates. -1 cumulative To Hit penalty for every round after: 3 rounds combat 5 rounds combat movement 4 of any combination Imagine on rounds 4 and 5 taking penalties and wondering if you should...

As long as your troops are human they will average to 10.5 (3d6) so no Con hp modifier is applied. If you are using a different Ability Score roll for NPCs per their class or some other selection, then use its averaged result. If you have other races intermixed, check for unit Ability Score...

D&D originally is a game of unknown abilities. The players are given a body, not a personality, not an identity, but a creature they control. This creature has abilities, strengths and weaknesses, needs and desires, that are built into its design. That is, a designed game element. Many, if not...

I see the games highest levels as being the vastly most difficult. But from Moment One the game is lethal throughout. The preset difficulty determines how difficult it will be to stay alive for any player. How often they die is really dependent upon luck and their ability to game the game at...

PS: If you are like me and use OD&D Chainmail for mass combat, you don't need to roll damage either. OD&D used D6 for everything, HD and all weapons, but you can list AD&D HD and weapon damage normally and compare. For example, a unit of 1HD humans fighting 1+1 HD hobgoblins would die if hit...

This is part of the reason why AD&D is so well made. You don't need to roll until you need to know. Calculate your list of supported army types. Make sure you have a city or town which can support all of the food and weapons and supplies your army needs in the castle. List all amounts of all...

Basically, yes. D&D was 90-95% of the hobby for the first ten to fifteen years. Even if a group didn't play D&D it would define how they and their games were different. Metamorphosis Alpha was a small run game and not terribly well finished. I like it a lot, but as a bait-and-switch non-D&D...