D&D General 1e feel for 5E

[jasper]

1E Feel for 5E

I just came off running Quests From the Infinite Staircase which is six 1E or basic D&D modules converted to 5E. This and other topics online gave me the topic. How to make 5E feel like 1E without a lot of major reworking or just things to adjust.

First. No hit point gains except for constitution bonus after tenth and this means the Tough feat is banned. On Beyond you with have figure you max HP for level 10. Then put that into the override max HP slot.

Second and this is easiest and will give you the most howls of evil dm. Turn on encumbrance and all resource tracking. Be really 1E and turn on gold piece weight.

Third. Gritty Realism Healing. 8 hours for a short rest and 7 days for a long.

Fourth. Give the monsters an ad-hoc bonus to hit. I thinking the proficiency bonus since it is in the stat block already. But I am open to other suggestions.

Fifth. Monsters do average, to full hp damage depending on tier. This will be adjusted by how strong the party is and by how experienced the group is.

Sixth. Armour slows movement. Plate armour back in 1E gave you about six-inch movement. Or about half an unarmored person. So Medium armor decreases movement or speed by 10feet and heavy by 20 feet. I haven’t figure how to do this on the app.

Seven. Turn on time. 1E had some standard time projections for searching for traps and other things. So 5 minutes for a pc to investigate a square for traps or other hidden things. A chest is 3 minutes and so on. This is mainly a check mark for the DM but will add up especially if you have a midnight deadline. Grab the Realms calendar too and track seasons also.

Eight. Multiclassing require a least a 16 in both stats. And be double evil, armor is restricted to worst class. So Mage Cleric has no armour.

Nine. Only the Underdark races/species get darkvision. Or just the PHB species are allowed.

Ten. Ability Drain monsters give exhaustion levels. So a shadow does 1 and vampire bite gives 2.

Honorable mentions.

Aging. Certain spells will cause aging for either the caster or target. Rapid aging will call for a CON DC 8 save not to drop dead from a heart attack. You will need to create a max age chart.

Training. If you are doing xp then they don’t any extra once they are one xp into a new level. Paying for training into the new level costs (100 GP times new level) *1d4 weeks. No new level until you train.

Potion Mishap Table. And the mixing in belly is on.

Psychic Damage has a two to five percent chance to summon an psychic creature from the astral or ethereal dice.

 

[KYRON45]

I lived the 1e days….i can’t go back man…I CAN’T GO BACK!!!

 

[billd91]

Fourth. Give the monsters an ad-hoc bonus to hit. I thinking the proficiency bonus since it is in the stat block already. But I am open to other suggestions.

Um... why? What's that trying to match in 1e?

For my money, the most important element you'd be adding to give it a 1e feel would be the gritty healing option, followed by energy draining inflicting exhaustion (though it's likely to get out of hand fast if someone is unlucky enough to be vamped to death in 3 hits).

 

[LordEntrails]

Most of that doesn't give a 1E feel for me. Perhaps only #3, Gritty Realism & Potion Miscibility would give me any type of 1E feel. IMO, none of the rest of that is what made 1E 1E. (Because we threw out most of it as stupid when we played 1E).

For me, you want a 1E feel, the first thing is a DM vs PC feel. It's attitude. Players don't find a pit trap if they don't search the floor and only search the walls. In short, the DM is there to setup situations to help the PCs kill themselves. Not setting up challenges and helping the PCs overcome them.

Then the artwork. Sure there was color artwork, but B&W line drawings and blue maps. That's waht you need.

And attitude. Did I already say attitude? Cuz that's the most important part.

 

[Chaltab]

Hrm. Some of these things might make for a good challenge run* but if I wanted a 1E feel then I wouldn't be playing 5E.

*Gritty realism is one of those things that just feels ill-considered to me. Healing isn't the only thing a long rest does; the entire spell system is predicated on completing one.

 

[Distracted DM]

Hrm. Some of these things might make for a good challenge run* but if I wanted a 1E feel then I wouldn't be playing 5E.

*Gritty realism is one of those things that just feels ill-considered to me. Healing isn't the only thing a long rest does; the entire spell system is predicated on completing one.

Gritty realism as written can be a pain. Add some flexibility. I run with 1hr short rests and 2+ day Long Rests. Just decoupling long rests from sleep, whether you make it 2 days or 7 or (as I do) variable, will help the one-n-done adventuring day balance issues if you don't want to pack 5+ encounters into every day (maybe you want time to pass in the campaign, etc).

 

[Remathilis]

Kill one player character per session.

 

[Mannahnin]

Eight. Multiclassing require a least a 16 in both stats. And be double evil, armor is restricted to worst class. So Mage Cleric has no armour.

The first is fine, but in 1E only thief functions were restricted by heavier armor for multiclass characters. On that one you're thinking of 2E.

 

[Celebrim]

1E Feel for 5E

I largely agree with your list and what you've really shown is just how little like D&D, D&D has become and how more and more it's trying to be a tabletop cRPG, and also why I have had had no interest in new editions of D&D since 3.0e.

However, I don't agree with point #4 or #5 at all, as the 1e AD&D was not actually super lethal and one of the reasons for that is that monsters rarely had good THAC0 or the ability to deal a lot of damage. The adventuring day could continue despite depletion of resources because on average PCs had overwhelming advantages in a fight, and fighters were strong characters in large part because they could easily get AC high enough to make hit point loss from mundane combat not a serious factor in potential character death.

I also for the same reason generally don't agree with your "Honorable Mentions" save possibly the potion miscibility table in some variation.

I partially disagree with #9. Darkvision did not exist in 1e AD&D and to the extent that creatures could see in the dark, so could PCs. "We can't see!" or after about 3rd level "We're afraid of the dark!" was never a big part of the 1e AD&D experience and instead comes out of a much more modern mindset that is the modern version of DM vs. PCs antagonistic play. "Oh your torches are burning out and you'll be helpless MUHAHAHAHA!" is not "old school" no matter what anyone says. "Do you have a way to see?" on the other hand is old school. The 1e AD&D experience comes from "the imagined reality matters even in the details". Things have tangible shape and size and weight. You can touch them and they have a feel. The air has a smell. You have real hands and they can only hold so much and a real backpack that when shouldered makes you go, "Ooooff". That's 1e AD&D feel.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Use the Dungeon Alphabet and Monster Alphabet to flavor your dungeons.