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I tried at various times to use it. It was a good idea, but poorly executed - largely because it didn’t factor in shields logically, and some of the bonuses and penalties seem pretty arbitrary.

I have a friend who hasn’t forgiven what I did in the Ruhr thirty-five years ago. It took France and Germany less time to bury the hatchet IRL, with WWII intervening.

"I love chess, but I wish I were better at it." The fact that this statement is made by literally everyone who plays chess says something about the power of this game. I also love this game, and it's the only game I have seen induce actual nervous breakdowns.

Just to echo the posters above, within the genre, a noble might bestow lands, a title and castle for great deeds and service faithfully rendered. Or a wicked knight might steal a castle and its lands, dispossessing its former occupant. Or it might be acquired as part of a quest, after the witch...

Dammit. I’ve been playing 1E wrong.

I would argue that 3.x can plausibly model the normal range of human skills (including "highly skilled") within its mechanics, without a character ever being above 1st level. I once made a long, boring post incorporating those ideas - bear in mind that this post was made seventeen years ago...

I doubt the division was articulated in those terms. I don't think there were "1HD mooks" - but there were bandits, brigands, men-at-arms etc. And brief rules for sedentary and active commoners, if you found yourself in a bar room brawl. No reskinning required. The existence of Rogues Gallery -...

Yes, Phoebus - he was a reincarnated human fighter. How about the hundreds of meticulously detailed characters - fighters, paladins, rangers, thieves, clerics, magic users, illusionists, druids and assassins - which don't represent corner cases?

How does this 1980 supplement fit in? The preamble on the cover seems to suggest a certain methodology was assumed and prevailed: No longer will you the Dungeon Master need to spend precious time laboring over the task of generating non player characters. This valuable booklet contains...

Great post, and I think it covers pretty much all of the bases. As I stated (up front, umpteen posts ago), I'm not actually married to this notion of symmetry in any philosophical sense. My contention has just been that AD&D did, to a significant degree, demonstrate it. This comes closest to...

If you mean "there's lots of weird, inconsistent rules which make it hard to state anything categorically about AD&D" then I'd agree, but I don't think it invalidates the wider point. YMMV. And I don't disagree with this either. I'm pointing out that some people like a predictable, shared...

Sure. And there are plenty of omissions of data, some shorthand, some implicit assumptions, some mistakes, plenty of arbitrary assignments of abilities and hit points etc. But a 5th-level Fighter is still a 5th-level Fighter, and that still has an objective meaning and value, and certain...

I agree - although we're still left with the question of where this "break point" occurs in terms of divergence from genre expectations. I don't think they were intended to map exactly; it's more about "average" specimens. And bear in mind that no hit point penalty occurs unless Con is below 7...

I'm not exactly sure what you're disagreeing with, as the section of my post which you cited is framed largely as a question, but if you're disagreeing with the idea that genre fidelity must either yield to player autonomy or vice versa then I would suggest: in a no-magic world where the...

This isn't so much about establishing a dialogue regarding a mutually agreed premise, and finding creative ways to accommodate the wishes of players - I'm all about that. Several posters have answered in those terms already. And I'm not really concerned about player motivation - several posters...

I'm not defending the utility of listing the CON - or any other ability - of the human rogue in the cell, Obmi, or all of the Drow. Merely pointing out the fact that Gygax did, in fact, list all of these. Dex and Con bonuses appear factored into AC and HP. Str bonuses are noted. Magical plusses...

In 1e, an NPC "character sheet" is a brief stat block: level, ability scores, hp, AC, alignment, spells, equipment - but bear in mind that a PC character sheet is barely any more than that: you might add languages and encumbrance. While there are plenty of examples of deviation from any standard...

I think the notion that the PCs - even in the most simulationist manifestations of D&D - are anything other than special is generally unsupportable. Whether they use a different method of determining stats, are expected to possess different magic items etc. The question of their deviation from...