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That is interesting criterion. Let us apply it (along with the criterion of actual death) and see what matches up. Among cleric spells, the reverse of raise dead (slay living, formerly the finger of death in OD&D) qualifies, as does the reverse of resurrection (destruction). The latter has no...

One rule that I think many people use is to choose the leftmost column on the table that seems applicable. Thus (in contradiction of the DMG), a dragon with poisonous breath would use a Poison save rather than one for Dragon Breath. If one thinks that disintegrate could be Death Magic...

It is clear to me. It is also, in my experience, clear to most DMs including those who disagree with me as to whether the spell is one of those classed as Death Magic. Any use of language other than simple and direct correspondence (which might as well be utterly arbitrary for all the...

If that is true, then I submit that making combat "the entire point" of adventuring is a root cause. You wrote what I quoted, and what I wrote directly contradicts that. Moreover, what Doug McCrae asserted was that certain processes avoid the 15-minute day. You seem to be treating that as an...

First, that assumes that combat efficiency is the decisive factor. That is both myopic and not really to the point. Second, there can be -- and certainly is in, e.g., old RuneQuest -- a direct link between training and combat efficiency, and between equipment (weapons, armor, spells) and combat...

Dannyalcatraz seems to miss some pretty obvious objections to his objections to some approaches, but I don't have time right now to go into detail.

Maybe I'm missing something, but Tomb of Horrors seems to me an odd example to cite, because I don't recall it having a lot to do with using up resources -- and characters of such high levels tend to have resources of all sorts in plenty. I don't see any big advantage in going through just one...

Well, that was pretty much my own view at the end of the '70s, although I would not chalk it up to the DMG per se. However, that was then and this is now and the vanguards of both old and new schools today are I think mainly made up of people who learned chiefly via books rather than through...

I think that The Party is the usual mode today probably regardless of school, with things closer to the old model (e.g., IIRC, Lan - "School the Schoolers" - efan's campaign) being exceptional. Indeed, I think that has probably been true since early days after D&D started getting into the hands...

What are you referring to? There is no "green ray" mentioned in the disintegrate spell description. There is no "Wand, Staff or Rod" saving throw in the disintegrate spell description. It is a spell, which suggests the Spell value. I would treat it as Death Magic, though, both because...

I immediately know which save applies in AD&D. In 3e I have to guess, but I usually guess right. When a spell has no save in AD&D, I think it is probably Will in 3e. Of course, I need to look up the spell to know what it does, the components, the casting time, the range and area of effect, and...

If you don't have the motivation that leads to "railroading" players by the strictest definition, then you are less likely to do something that looks like "railroading" by any definition. The motivation that leads to "railroading" is partiality. Note that the original term for the moderator...

Who are those people? Not me. Not Mythmere or Papers & Paychecks. Not Raven Crowking. Not James M. of Grognardia. Not the old cats who have their 1st ed. AD&D or OD&D books handy. You talk your talk, and when you don't know what you're talking about we dismiss it as pure Bullgrit. Just...

Bullgrit is "people". Actually, Bullgrit appears to be all the "people" arguing what Bullgrit claims "people" argue.

This is right on. "What you are trying to convey does not exist" is perennially funny, as one wonders why the attacker is so worked up over the supposedly non-existent different view someone is trying to share! People can go hang out together in "old school" venues, and they know what they are...

Roll d20 and add to it for "high enough" for just about everything if you like, or don't. That is about as irrelevant as you can get, unless you get into the ideological baggage that has come along with the "core mechanic" puffery and clobbered common sense in some quarters. It's the layout of...

"Resolution mechanics" are shrubberies, not the forest. The mass of interlocking rules concerning classes and spells and this and that, however, tend (if the designers have good sense) to work well in the larger framework of the game. Change that larger framework, and the minor rules are...

I am presenting it as my impression of how the 1st ed. AD&D devotees at K&KA -- generally regarded as a bastion of conservatism or even reaction -- tend to work their games. I note that it is in keeping with the Gygaxian presentation of the game. See, for instance, the advice to players in the...

Yes, I have found such blather from some designers not just off-putting but thoroughly bizarre because it was in the very book the players were expected to read. There was just no excuse but self-delusion for anyone to be fooled. Well, so it is with the theater and novels -- the emulation of...

Maybe. On the other hand, an "old schooler" might have a better grasp of the actual game context than I suspect is reflected in your (not clearly stated) assumptions, and also of the fact that the size and strength of a party is a game-world factor. Maybe there were some people back then who...