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  1. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D General I wish people would avoid name-dropping Gary Gygax

    That is neither proven nor disproven, for any edition (except maybe 4e;)). It is as presumptuous to make the claim as to deny it - unless you have some empirical data to support one view or the other it's ALWAYS just been a matter of personal preference as opposed to ANY edition being manifestly...
  2. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D (2024) Why are you still playing D&D?

    I'd rather be playing 1E, 2E, or 3E - but those are editions nobody else around me will run. They're all more familiar with 5E and VTT's, so it's kinda the only game in town if I want to be a player. Wanting to DM the editions I prefer will seemingly now require learning to run a game on a...
  3. Man in the Funny Hat

    THAC0

    THAC0 itself functions the same in 1E and 2E. Only the to-hit tables underlying it might be different in that they featured no repeat 20's in 2E. For 1E only some of the underlying tables could result in a THAC0 of 20 which might not be the first of the repeating 20's, meaning that a player...
  4. Man in the Funny Hat

    Still playing 3e? Share your 3.0 and/or 3.5 house rules

    Haven't played 3E in SO long... However, if I ever run it again as DM it'll be 3.5 with E6 rules, and I have literally 3 pages of house rules to go with that (capstone feat stuff mostly IIRC).
  5. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D General Introduction in the 1978 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook

    Gygax was writing a game for the people he gamed with - adults. His children played the game as well but at the time THE MARKET for this was other adults, more specifically other adults with some experience with tabletop wargaming (upon which D&D was based), and for AD&D, adults with some...
  6. Man in the Funny Hat

    What was the reason for Demihuman level and class limits in AD&D?

    Well, I've never personally seen any statement to support anything like that from anyone who would have been writing rules at TSR when 1E was made. Not claiming that reasoning doesn't exist - just that I've asked before plenty of times and nobody has ever had any cited evidence of it. I...
  7. Man in the Funny Hat

    What was the reason for Demihuman level and class limits in AD&D?

    I've tried to convince people for years that limits on demi-humans were not intended as "balance" measures. "Balance" being in any way even promoted much less achieved by these measures is utterly laughable. People were complaining about those limitations almost the day they were in print. I...
  8. Man in the Funny Hat

    OSR Does "Old School" in OSR only apply to D&D?

    It ain't what you play - it's how you play it.
  9. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D 1E Multi class issue for original D&D to 2nd ed question.

    There never was a formal conversion document. If you are playing 1E, use the 1E rules. If you are importing PC's into a 1E game that exceed 1E limits, reduce the PC's to those limits, or with the permission of the DM consider them to be exceptions. If you are playing 2E, use the 2E rules. If...
  10. Man in the Funny Hat

    Free! AD&D1 and BECMI articles from the 80s

    Whether anyone needs it, uses it or what, this hobby in general can definitely use as much free, community-created content as it can get.
  11. Man in the Funny Hat

    OSR Old school wizards, how do you play level 1?

    AD&D doesn't have a whack-a-mole issue without first house-ruling it in, because btb if you go to 0hp or lower you're in a coma for 1-6 turns, then dealing with 1 week minimum of bedrest, regardless of what put you under and what healing you received after. It's the rule for 1E anyway (DMG p...
  12. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D 1E Common House Rules for AD&D?

    Not really. The PH was written with thinking still largely orienting around the OD&D combat rules. It has TWO (count 'em! TWO!) pages talking about actual combat rules (pp104-105). Everything not covered there had to be imported from OD&D (or even Chainmail) for another year. The actual full...
  13. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D 1E Seriously contemplating an attempt at a retro AD&D

    I actually started writing a thing a while back that I titled, "AD&D: How This S*** Works," to simply explain in clearer, more concise wording, what the AD&D rules are trying to say regarding major topics. 1E, by Gygax's own admission, was written in a stream-of-consciousness style. It...
  14. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D 1E Common House Rules for AD&D?

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wpklxxtkmrrv7wg52wiif/S.I.R.E.-v4.odt?rlkey=lv8po1gegyc3ld03om8a9lggd&dl=0 Covers most of how I handle combat. Details change now and then because I keep tinkering with it for no particularly good reason. I think it mostly holds its own.
  15. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D General On Early D&D and Problematic Faves: How to Grapple with the Sins of the Past

    "A man can be an artist... in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece." - Man On Fire
  16. Man in the Funny Hat

    "My Character Would Know That"

    I don't do "gotcha" gaming as DM or as a player. It depends on how stupid the PLAYER is being as to how much rope I'll just keep giving them to hang their PC's by. It's a fantasy world that the PC's live in and I'll be fairly generous with what the PC's might know (or at least suspect) while...
  17. Man in the Funny Hat

    D&D General Alternate Alignment Axis Ideas

    I've never had a problem with my own understanding of 9-alignment D&D. I've only had problems with everybody ELSE'S re-interpretations and redefinitions of it because THEY don't understand it. :cautious:
  18. Man in the Funny Hat

    Keep on the Borderland and no healing...?

    Why would what the module says trump what YOU want for your game, especially if it only creates problems? It's true, modules should not be giving DM's BAD suggestions for how to present the adventure to players, but that module also doesn't know the DM, the players, the kind of PC's being...
  19. Man in the Funny Hat

    Keep on the Borderland and no healing...?

    "Doctor, it hurts when my players do this..." "Tell your players not to do that anymore." KotB was designed for a VERY different style of play than is typical these days, especially with other editions. Lots of good suggestions have been given - make adjustments to the monsters, henchmen and...
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