Admit it. Who else did this?

[VirgilCaine]

When our first PC died on the steps into Quasqueton (In Search of the Unknown), the DM rationalized that since a 2nd level cleric could heal 2-7 hit points (more than any of us had anyway) with a single spell, a 1st level cleric could raise a dead character with one hour of prayer. [1st level clerics couldn't cast spells in BD&D.]

No wonder crossbows did 1d4 damage back then.

 

[Numion]

In the first BD&D game I played in the DM thought that the thiefs wall climbing allowed for walking on walls and ceilings. Kinda like spidey, so the thief used to move on the ceiling and strike people from the above so they couldn't hit him back.

In AD&D we had a lot of mixups due to our lacking english skills. One DM was convinced that the english sword "staff" is a mace in finnish, since in that one picture in 1e AD&D a staff has a bulging end (but IIRC it only looks that way because of perspective .. the staff is pointed at the viewer, so the end looks bigger, or whatever). BD&D was translated to finnish, but the first DM had a naturally unclear voice, so I kept wondering what my "glove class" has to do with people hitting me ("glove-class" = hanskaluokka, "armor class" = haarniskaluokka", so glove-class and armor class sounded pretty similar in finnish coming from that dude).

 

[diaglo]

... so I kept wondering what my "glove class" has to do with people hitting me ("glove-class" = hanskaluokka, "armor class" = haarniskaluokka", so glove-class and armor class sounded pretty similar in finnish coming from that dude).

no glove, no love.

IYKWIMAITYD

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I had some friends who somehow got the idea that you rolled a d8 to determine your armor class. I don't know where they got that - especially since AD&D went to AC 10, and OD&D went to AC 9, IIRC...

 

[Quasqueton]

a 2nd level cleric could heal 2-7 hit points (more than any of us had anyway) with a single spell,

No wonder crossbows did 1d4 damage back then.

Well, even fighters and dwarves only had 1d8 hit points at 1st level; magic-users and thieves had 1d4; clerics, halflings, and elves had 1d6. It wasn't uncommon to be adventuring with 1-6 hit points at full health. So healing 2-7 seemed quite powerful to kids who had not yet made 2nd level.

Quasqueton

 

[WayneLigon]

My biggest mistake was Traveller. Up nutil then, all games had stats rolled with 3d6. Having not read the rules all that clearly since, well, most of them had been the same up until that point, I assumed you did the same thing in Traveller which actually used 2d6 for stats. The first couple of games, I was certainly confused as to why things were going so easily for them....

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I didn't mix up the map information like that. But I did make the mistake of letting my brother and the guys from down the street have like, 3 followers each. I wondered why everything died so easily.

 

[Ranes]

The first couple of times I ran games of D&D, I used published adventures (honestly can't remember which ones). I'd hide the module inside a copy of something else, like a copy of WD, so my players couldn't tell what I was running. But then I'd ruin everything by failing to hold back info, saying things like:

"On the far side of the room, you see a trapped chest."

Or

"There are doors leading leading east and west and a hidden one to the south."

D'oh.

 

[JoeBlank]

BD&D was translated to finnish, but the first DM had a naturally unclear voice, so I kept wondering what my "glove class" has to do with people hitting me ("glove-class" = hanskaluokka, "armor class" = haarniskaluokka", so glove-class and armor class sounded pretty similar in finnish coming from that dude).

"If the glove does not fit, you will get hit."

- Johnny Cockatrice

 

[Staffan]

(And for that matter, what other silly goofs did you make that seem blatantly obvious in retrospect, but were made under the excuse of youth? )

The first time we played any RPG, it was the Swedish game Drakar och Demoner. We thought that you rolled weapon damage when you bought the weapon, not each time you hit with it. So I had a greataxe that did 17 points of damage per hit