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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7492701" data-attributes="member: 4937">The page 86 training rules create and are made to serve a very particular game.&nbsp;&nbsp; The most important thing to understand about all the 'downtime' rules in the 1e AD&amp;D DMG is that they were designed with the rule in mind that one week of in game time represented one week of out of game time.&nbsp;&nbsp; That is to say, every week you did something in game downtime, was a session that PC was removed from the normal game.The primary purposes of the training rules are:They give Gary the ability to semi-retire the PC's of players that are proving particularly troublesome at the table using a game mechanism without having an out of game conversation.&nbsp; The lawful stupid and chaotic stupid PC's where the player insists that his actions are just 'staying true to the character' or the players that treat their characters as game pieces and make no concessions to alignment strictures, well Gygax can respond by saying, that's fine, &quot;But now you have remove your PC from the game for an extended period while that PC trains.&nbsp; So in the mean time, why don't you play a different PC.&quot;They slow advancement.&nbsp; Remember, Gygax is playing long sessions several times weekly.&nbsp;&nbsp; Slowing advancement does all sorts of things for the game Gygax considers positive.&nbsp;&nbsp; The content for the game sort of maxes out in the low double digits so slowing advancement keeps the game in its sweet spot.&nbsp; Slowing advancement forces the player to devote play time to multiple characters, reducing the negative impact of PC death.&nbsp; That's really important in a Gygaxian game where there is frequent and sometimes rather arbitrary death.&nbsp; It's part of the whole Gygaxian commitment to 'good play', which he equates with the sort of play that succeeded during war gaming.&nbsp; Defeat is the thing to be avoided, but players can never learn to avoid it if it isn't something that they experience and which remains a real possibility.&nbsp; Gygax wants players to 'step on up' when they experience death, and having a new character waiting in the wings is a way to achieve that.&nbsp;&nbsp; Slowing advancement is also a way to deal with a rotating cast of players with different commitment levels.&nbsp; The players that show up every week end up with more characters, and not necessarily just stronger characters that have soon leveled out of the game and their ability to cooperate with the PC's of the players that can't attend every week.This game environment is not one that is applicable to most tables.&nbsp; And as such, it has to be one of the most widely ignored aspects of the 1e AD&amp;D rules.&nbsp; For most tables, training as downtime adds absolutely nothing to the play experience.&nbsp;&nbsp; There is no 'play' in downtime training.&nbsp;&nbsp; And in general, it's also one of the least influential aspects of the AD&amp;D rules.&nbsp;&nbsp; Lots of things out of D&amp;D have been hugely influential - hit points to name just one obvious example.&nbsp;&nbsp; But very few games of any sort have copied the AD&amp;D training rules.&nbsp;&nbsp; One big and important exception where you can see this idea of training during downtime implemented in a very similar manner is EVE Online.&nbsp;&nbsp; This is because the play assumptions of EVE Online are actually fairly similar - huge cast of player with varying levels of commitment, game time is real time, a need to stretch out the games content, and so forth.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7492701, member: 4937"] The page 86 training rules create and are made to serve a very particular game. The most important thing to understand about all the 'downtime' rules in the 1e AD&D DMG is that they were designed with the rule in mind that one week of in game time represented one week of out of game time. That is to say, every week you did something in game downtime, was a session that PC was removed from the normal game. The primary purposes of the training rules are: They give Gary the ability to semi-retire the PC's of players that are proving particularly troublesome at the table using a game mechanism without having an out of game conversation. The lawful stupid and chaotic stupid PC's where the player insists that his actions are just 'staying true to the character' or the players that treat their characters as game pieces and make no concessions to alignment strictures, well Gygax can respond by saying, that's fine, "But now you have remove your PC from the game for an extended period while that PC trains. So in the mean time, why don't you play a different PC." They slow advancement. Remember, Gygax is playing long sessions several times weekly. Slowing advancement does all sorts of things for the game Gygax considers positive. The content for the game sort of maxes out in the low double digits so slowing advancement keeps the game in its sweet spot. Slowing advancement forces the player to devote play time to multiple characters, reducing the negative impact of PC death. That's really important in a Gygaxian game where there is frequent and sometimes rather arbitrary death. It's part of the whole Gygaxian commitment to 'good play', which he equates with the sort of play that succeeded during war gaming. Defeat is the thing to be avoided, but players can never learn to avoid it if it isn't something that they experience and which remains a real possibility. Gygax wants players to 'step on up' when they experience death, and having a new character waiting in the wings is a way to achieve that. Slowing advancement is also a way to deal with a rotating cast of players with different commitment levels. The players that show up every week end up with more characters, and not necessarily just stronger characters that have soon leveled out of the game and their ability to cooperate with the PC's of the players that can't attend every week. This game environment is not one that is applicable to most tables. And as such, it has to be one of the most widely ignored aspects of the 1e AD&D rules. For most tables, training as downtime adds absolutely nothing to the play experience. There is no 'play' in downtime training. And in general, it's also one of the least influential aspects of the AD&D rules. Lots of things out of D&D have been hugely influential - hit points to name just one obvious example. But very few games of any sort have copied the AD&D training rules. One big and important exception where you can see this idea of training during downtime implemented in a very similar manner is EVE Online. This is because the play assumptions of EVE Online are actually fairly similar - huge cast of player with varying levels of commitment, game time is real time, a need to stretch out the games content, and so forth. [/QUOTE]

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