Recent content by Ted Sandyman

Here are a few of the questions that came up in our first several matches: 1. Who chooses which models to lay down (and later remove) as casualties, the attacker or defender? [I suspect it is the defender] 2. Are casualties ALWAYS removed from the back ranks of a unit or from the ranks...

Any fans of Book of War by Daniel "Delta" Collins out there? It's sort of like a version of Gygax and Perren's Chainmail reversed engineered from OD&D. I'm starting up a campaign soon (6 miles to the hex w/ some support material pulled from Mentzer Companion), but some rules questions have come...

CP speaks the truth! I also vary my style a great deal depending on who my players are. That being said, there is a spectrum of styles between referee and director of course. With my men-with-beards group all dice rolls are open and no punches are pulled, but I use the very director-aligned...

Ah. You know what? Upon more reflection I meant two things: 1.) Success in the role of DM requires much, much more than a working knowledge of the rules. I suspect now that this is so obvious as to not merit mention, I could have omitted that line as it doesn't edify anyone. 2.) I implied...

First off, you win D&D for being willing to do this! I've run after school gaming groups for up to thirty 6th through 8th graders for the last eight years and it is really, really rewarding. In fact, you know that momentary retro-thrill you get when open a brand new boxed set and just for a...

Labyrinth Lord is the way to go ... if you can't spring for six bucks to pick up a Moldvay pdf at DriveThruRPG :D

Oh that's just golden! I regularly work on training up new players from the grade school & middle school sets, but this gives me hope that I can continue to draw new players from all age ranges.

So far this summer I've introduced twenty five new players to tabletop role-playing (5E wasn't out yet, so I used a rules-lite retro version of B/X). Thirteen of those players had characters die ... most fatalities were in the player's first session, some in their very first encounter. Curious...

Did you ever end up doing anything more with this? I've been running Dagger for Kids quite a bit lately. A six-page lite game by Brave Halfling Publishing, characters have only have three stats: AC, HP, and a Saving Throw. This minimalism got me thinking ... if AC, HP, and Saves all reflect a...

Literally played the cover to pieces on this one ... bought another copy a couple years back, and kept right on playing it. B2 has many warts and flaws of course, but I think the thing that has made it so great in the many campaigns where I've used it is KotB's familiarity. I've simply...

Oh, I don't know. I think it depends on the particular metaphysics of your campaign world. If monsters are exuded from the deeper darkness below (more manifestations than species) and, rather than merely being extensions of the surface world, dungeons are the spaces below the fields men know...

You could go with a minor mechanical benefit or a cultural one. Mechanical: Intelligent races, both civilized and savage, recognize the hazards of dealing with the "spell-marked". The wizard gains advantage on Intimidation checks if at least half of his or her prepared spells are still...

is that dwarf on the cover of the DMG taking a nap?

I learned on my older brother's copy of Moldvay Basic -- a great start and still one of the best DIY intros to the hobby ever published IMHO. After a couple years with that, it seemed logical to move on to Advanced D&D, so I snagged the AD&D Monster Manual. What the heck are "psionics"...

I've run the first floor of "castle" Caldwell (not actually a castle) using the B1-9 version. Despite the cover, it's just dreck ... really dreadful stuff, and for reference I adore B1, B2, B4 & B5. The map layout of Caldwell manages to be repetitive, predictable, sterile and dull. Elwyn the...