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Regarding the bark tea situation, Tolkien’s work provides several precedents for portrayals of anachronistic crops in Western fantasy, the most famous being “pipeweed” and po-tay-toes. 🥔

When I was a kid I don’t think I picked up on the sword & sorcery elements in the Known World, but now it seems obvious that the strongly themed nations packed together in one convenient continent are very similar to REH’s Hyboria, which used stand-ins for lots of real countries, often with the...

That is a fantastic cover. It has a dreamy feeling evoking medieval legends that was not often present in D&D of any era. The game began with pulp sword & sorcery influences before becoming its own brand of fantasy, itself quite influential on other TTRPGs and CRPGs, but Greyhawk and the...

When 2E is discussed today people are most likely to praise its gonzo settings above anything else, but for me they were a big part of why I lost interest in D&D in the 90’s. I liked the B/X “Known World” and Greyhawk, but mostly because they were the settings that got me started with D&D. I...

Multi-class demi-human fighter/thieves would get some of the benefits of the fighter class, but not all. They would of course be limited to leather armor whenever they wanted to use thief skills. By strict interpretations a F/T trying to backstab had to use the THAC0 for their thief level and...

I am not sure if it was here or on RPGnet, but I read a long forum thread in which somebody noted that in 1E RAW 75% of XP was supposed to come from treasure, both monetary and magic, and they were curious about how that system would work with published TSR modules. They went through the...

In one of the Best of Dragon magazine compilations there was a reprint of an early article that introduced three new chromatic dragons: orange, yellow, and purple. The author used science and the existing MM lore to extrapolate breath weapons for them. IIRC orange and yellow had some kind of...

IIRC dwarves had bonuses to pick locks, find/remove traps, and poison saves, so they had at least a somewhat better chance of being a decent “safecracker” thief. AD&D poisons and venoms mostly seemed to come in “instantaneous save or die” flavor, which was neither realistic nor fun. One of...

Maybe I have been remembering it all wrong all these years. When I ran 1E I usually gave the human NPC opponents class levels, and the players were not fighting ordinary farmers and such so I probably did not worry too much about their stats. I tended not to even look much at the stat blocks...

Huh... I could have sworn it was just a standard d8 HD for normal 2E humans. Maybe there were different stat blocks for different types: d8 for bandits & brigands, soldiers, etc, and d6 for civilians. I was going on memory from years ago. Still, d6 is a bit better than the d4 of 1E. In my...

Regardless of edition, I always assumed that all soldiers and guards were at least 1st or 2nd level fighters, with officers of level 3-5. Elite units or the minions of powerful NPCs would be a few levels higher. Spellcasters would be uncommon but not unheard of. In the 1E MM ordinary humans...

On another forum someone was comparing and contrasting their experiences playing with friends as opposed to organized play in Friendly Local Games Shops, and they jokingly called the latter “Stranger Danger D&D” because you never know quite who you are going to meet... 😬 One reason I wanted to...

Yes, we lived in a very small town and went to a fairly small school, so our groups were schoolmates and friends. D&D was our main hobby and often the main basis for the friendships. We did not always get along and we sometimes played with people we liked less than others, but both players and...

It is always interesting to read stories about how different tables played the same game back in the day. In my main AD&D 1E group most people seemed to settle into playing the same type of character over and over, usually human warriors or elf wizard types, whereas the whole reason why I...

My old AD&D groups never really settled on a consistent method. I think we sometimes used Method I (4d6, drop lowest, arrange as needed) or even a variant using 5d6, but I don’t think we even knew about the other three official PHB methods or the overpowered UA Method V. In retrospect we did...

I have seen suggestions that the UA barbarian and cavalier might have worked for one-on-one play, in which the DM does not have to worry about whether things are fair for the other players because there aren’t any. In the spirit of 80’s sword and sorcery movies, the solo PC barbarian could pick...

I was the only person in my 1E group who ever played an illusionist. My gnome illusionist / thief became one of my favorite characters. I had originally envisioned him as a sort of harlequin jester who would mix sleight of hand (thieving skills) with sensory wonders (illusion spells) to pull...

I actually think you are correct, but both classes seemed to be underrated and overlooked back then. They both had slightly quirky abilities that could be limited or even neutralized if the DM interpreted the rules in a particularly strict way, or if the adventure did not offer good...

I am experiencing some Mandela Effect here regarding missile weapons. I could have sworn that clerics, druids, mages, and illusionists could all use slings, and that thieves could use slings, short bows, and light crossbows. Was this a change from PHB to UA, or just a house rule I thought was...

I like putting the magic back into magic items by giving more of them names, histories, notable former owners, and extra powers that are themed in some way. Maybe the powers need to be unlocked gradually, as the new PC proves that they are worthy to wield this ancient weapon or eldritch staff...