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It's not even that. The DMG advice is silent on the subject of intra-party cross-class combat balance. The DMG advice basically goes like this: To determine if a particular monster is a suitable (i.e., not too powerful) opponent, use CR. To determine the potential difficulty of an encounter...

5e doesn’t have that. It has “If you have X encounters at Y difficulty, your PCs will need a long rest.” Some people have then assumed you have to do that, but that’s not what the game says.

Addendum to my above post. I just checked “The Game Wizards,” and the settlement gave Arneson a 2.5% royalty on the rule books in the AD&D line, not just the Monster Manual. The dispute over MM II was due to TSR initially paying royalties on it, and then attempting to stop paying those...

Holmes Basic, with Arneson’s name on it, predated any lawsuits. It was in fact the cause of the first lawsuit, because TSR wanted to only pay royalties on the rulebook, and not on the box set. This lawsuit was settled without going to judgment. Arneson then sued over the Monster Manual, arguing...

Was just flipping through the Kindle version, and it was very weird getting nostalgia feels from D&D Next images. It kinda brought something in perspective that I never really thought about. I was there for the D&D Next playtest from packet 1 to the release of the Basic Rules. I didn’t think...

I chose 30,000 because the only data I could find for survey responses was 38,000 for the first playtest packet. If there are other sources, I'd love to see them, but I doubt the number of respondents has increased since that initial survey. That said, the math doesn't really change with larger...

No one can say for certain without seeing the data, but based on my experience with survey data, my gut tells me that more likely than not, their survey results show a normal distribution. Perhaps skewing positively or negatively, but a normal distribution all the same. It seems to me highly...

There was a nice long discussion on 3d6-in-order vs. alternative methods in the old timers thread, so I'm really not interested in that. What gets me is 2nd Edition's reticence to engage in its own game. I'm a D&D guy, so I've always been down with 3d6-in-order. But it doesn't fit with AD&D. And...

Chapter 3: Player Character Classes Now we enter one of the areas of major revision by 2nd Edition. Since things are so different here, I probably won’t spend as much time comparing this to 1st Edition as I did with PC Races. The chapter opens up with a quick intro to what a class is: like a...

On a winter's morning in 1987, an older boy whom I helped on his paper route introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons. I took a fighter into the goblin area of the Caves of Chaos and was killed by an Ogre. The older boy gave me his copy of the Moldvay Basic Rules. I took them home, read them, and...

Chapter 2: Player Character Races (continued) We wrap up our look at PC races in 2nd Edition with Half-Elves, Halflings, and Humans, as well as Other Characteristics. Half-Elves have an unusual opening paragraph. Before getting into their physical traits, they first explain how half-elves are...

The 90s cartoon Dark Water.

Chapter 2: Player Character Races (continued) The description of races in 2nd Edition follows a set pattern. The first paragraph describes their physical characteristics: height, appearance, and age. The next two paragraphs describe their general culture and behavior. Then a paragraph...

Not for exploration in B/X. Currently, playing 5e online, yes. But as Cruentus mentioned, the Caller is useful even then.

Moldvay writes that the game can be played with 3 to 8 people (i.e., 2-7 players and a DM), and demonstrates the Caller being used in a party of 4. I personally require a Caller with groups larger than 3 players. I can handle 3 players without a Caller, but find it useful anyway. Some folks...

Here's my problem with the 1st Ed. DMG example of play. The secret door is 10' x 10' wide and swings inward. Therefore any ghouls on the other side had to be 10' away, or they would have been smashed by the door. Not mentioned in the example but clear from sample dungeon map is that it opens...

2021 was still essentially a pandemic year, so it’s possible that Amazon’s data for that year is incomplete.

Their shares are balanced when its divided for XP. That's no more an argument against the Caller than "Viking hat" or "mother-may-I" is an argument against DM-based resolution. You're talking in theory, but I'm talking in practice. That doesn't happen because a) the way I explain the Caller...

Division in the field is based on encumbrance, not even shares, so it's not an issue. The gems are held by the person or persons who can carry the gems without slowing the party down. I don't follow. It's not "if the Caller says it, it happens." The Caller simply relates the information to the...

The 1st Edition DMG example of play is one of the most lengthiest and extensive in the game, running two and a half pages of the DMG's tiny, tiny print. So there were certainly many more opportunities for both procedural roles and the talking it out kind of play seen in 2nd Edition. The...