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The DMG (early on, the same section IIRC that recommends using only Official TSR Miniatures) suggests if you're using minis that you use a scale of 1" = 3.33' (so 3" = 10'). I like that scale a lot better than 1" = 5' because it allows 3 characters abroad in a 10' wide corridor (which is...

Honestly, the best way to handle initiative in AD&D is not to have a detailed system that covers all the possibilities written out in advance because if you do so it's inevitably going to be either too complex or have corner-cases that aren't covered by the system (or, almost certainly, both)...

The 1983 (Mentzer-edit) D&D Basic Set, Dungeon Masters Manual (or whatever it's called -- the second book in the set). Don't know the specific page number, but I concur that "allow PCs maximum hit points at 1st level" is mentioned in there as an option for the DM to consider (which is one of the...

In this case I go with the workaround somebody came up with in one of the (many, many) discussions of this topic at DF or K&K: the Dex adjustment matters as far as turning a losing roll into a winning roll, but not as far as making you "lose by less." Otherwise it just becomes too much of a mess...

Hey ExploderWizard, You've got the concept right but the actual details backwards: if the spell-caster's side loses initiative then anyone attacking him automatically gets a chance to interrupt the spell, regardless of casting time or the numbers rolled (e.g. the mage is casting a 3 segment...

qft

There is no "By The Book" answer to this question; it's an ambiguity in the rules (and a lot of folks would reject your entire premise and state that a 7-segment spell finishes up on segment 7 regardless of initiative roll -- this is the interpretation favored by "ADDICT" at dragonsfoot, for...

This is definitely true, but it doesn't necessarily indicate people actually playing the game, just that they know what it is -- largely, I would argue, because it was such a big fad among kids in the 80s (the kids of the 80s being the adults of today). There are a lot of D&D references in...

There's a lot of stuff in UA I like, but a few things that I very much dislike, so while I do tend to use somewhere between a third and a half of the book, if the choice came down to using all of it as-is or none of it, I'd definitely choose "none."

There were a few other rules-changes as well, such as changing the allowed class/race and multi-class combos (suddenly elves can be rangers and druids, half-elves can be paladins, and everyone can be clerics; plus new multiclasses such as ranger/magic-users, fighter/druids, etc.), what weapons...

Also/instead, once the dungeon inhabitants come to realize that adventurers almost always follow into and out of the dungeon, the more intelligent ones will begin to avoid that area, making their lairs in the more remote and defensible areas (since they generally don't care about getting to the...

It was only in OD&D. In AD&D the likelihood of cursed rings dropped to 20% and in the D&D Expert Set it dropped to 16%. OD&D was more of a high risk-high reward game than later versions -- note that they also decreased the likelihood of finding a ring of wishes from 5% in OD&D to 4% (B/X) and 3%...

I like the statistical occurence of cursed magic items in OD&D Supplement I: Greyhawk: Wand/Staff/Rod - 0% chance of cursed Misc. weapon - 3% chance of cursed Potion - 7% chance of cursed Scroll - 10% chance of cursed Armor - 12% chance of cursed Sword - 16% chance of cursed* Misc. magic - 35%...

Possibly, but not necessarily. Per The Acaeum (D&D collectors' site), TSR was still printing some 1E titles (Players Handbook (16th-17th printings), DMG (14th printing), Unearthed Arcana (9th-12th printings), Oriental Adventures (2nd printing), and Temple of Elemental Evil module (5th-7th...

Dude, lots of errors (and/or rule-breaking) here: An elf can't have 18/00 strength (max for an elf is 18/75) The max ranger level an elf with 18/75 strength can attain is 11th It isn't possible to double-specialize with a bow (or any missile weapon, for that matter) Therefore the max. damage...

A name-level fighter in OD&D requires 120,000 XP per level. A typical barony (per D&D vol. III, p. 24) has 2-8 villages of 100-400 inhabitants each, so assuming an average population, 10 GP per inhabitant per year in taxes means it will take the fighter about 10 years to level up with no...

Note that the inventory problems that Ryan Dancey documents were in 1997, a dozen years after Gygax's ouster, and we have no indications that such problems existed during his tenure there. Gary received per-unit royalties on sales of D&D and AD&D books, and continued to do so even after leaving...

IMO "traps" that serve as obstacles (open pits or crevasses, portcullises, chutes, shifting walls or rooms, one-way doors, teleporters, elevator rooms, etc.) should be pretty common, and are a big part of why when you go into a megadungeon you can't always count on just being able to retrace...

1E AD&D DMG by Gary Gygax (for the essays and "Schott's Miscellany"-esque lists of random stuff) First Fantasy Campaign by Dave Arneson (the first DM's DM notebook -- a disorganized, amateurish mess to be sure, but IMO more inspiring than anything else before or since) Cities by Midkemia Press...

Don't get your hopes up too high. That number is thrown out as an aside, as part of a discussion of something else, with no further detail or specifics provided. And the book as a whole is, err, problematic. Gygax goes out of his way to speak in generalities and acts like he's talking about rpgs...