At last - my AD&D campaign has started!

[MerricB]

For the first time in a very long time, I’m running an AD&D (1st edition) campaign again. I almost wasn’t. I expected I might be running some players who were playing in D&D Encounters but who were new to D&D in general, so running both AD&D and D&D 4E for them might prove confusing, but on the day I just threw the AD&D books in my bag and went with my original desire: to run an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I’m very glad I did.

I ended up with five players: Adam, Chris, Rich, Jackson and Nash. The initial idea for the campaign was to run a Viking-style campaign – a campaign in the lands of the Frost Barbarians of the World of Greyhawk. Adam had previously mentioned to me the desire to run an eladrin, so in AD&D terms that translated to playing an elf fighter/magic-user. The other characters came from a small village that was in trouble: its longship had been sunk along with all hands in the recent raiding season, and a poor harvest meant that it would likely not have enough food to make it through the winter. Thus, the need for the young men of the village (just reaching adulthood) to go on adventures to save the village. At least, that was the initial plan. With Adam wanting to play this fey character, it changed my initial thinking enough so I had the group begging aid of the Frost Queen – the whimsical leader of the fey in Faerie. It casts the initial adventure in a suitably mythic tone and it’ll be very interesting to see where it goes from here.

Although I had about three Player’s Handbooks with me, character generation was very much a case of me going around the table and letting everyone know what choices they had rather than the players consulting the books. There aren’t that many choices in any case! We began by rolling ability scores – so the best three dice from 4d6, six times, arranged as desired. Most of the characters ended up with a 15 or 16 in an ability score; Jackson was the only one who had the highest roll of a 14! I chose not to let him reroll – either the character will prosper, or it’ll die and he’ll have to create a new character. If played well, it will prosper.

I was strict on the races and classes I allowed the players; in fact, we ended up with only characters of the base four classes (and multiclass combinations of those classes). Adam played an elf fighter/magic-user, as previously agreed upon. Rich has a human thief, Chris has a human cleric, Nash has a half-orc fighter/thief, and Jackson played a human fighter. All characters started with maximum hit points (as AD&D is hard enough to survive normally), and after buying armour and weapons, most characters didn’t have that much left over. Chris didn’t have enough for a backpack, buying a large sack instead. At least he had good armour: a necessity in AD&D! Alignments were fun – most of the characters opted for Chaotic Neutral, with Chris being Neutral Good and Adam being Chaotic Good.

The adventure began with the four villagers coming upon Adam’s character (Arathiel) being attacked by four goblins in the forest. The first combat began with the thief and fighters using their bows and slings against the goblins, Adam using his longsword, and Chris readying his mace against a charge. I rolled the goblins’ hit points – something I haven’t done for a few years, and gained the not-so-great totals of 2, 1, 1 and 6. Three of the goblins died very quickly indeed, but one was able to stab Adam for 5 damage before expiring; as Adam only had 7 hit points, this was a grievous wound. The group now had to decide what to do with this strange elf, so they trussed him up and brought them back to the village, his wound untreated.

In the village longhall, Elder Hagar oversaw the village council and our heroes in deliberation. Adam decided that what his character needed was an Irish accent, and after we all stopped laughing, Adam revealed that the village’s troubles could be solved by the Frost Queen. The Frost Queen would require a service in exchange, but he was sure that some arrangement could be made. Seeing no other option, Hagar agreed and sent the heroes to find the Frost Queen and seek her aid. I’m very appreciative of Adam’s role-playing here, which made all the set-up dialogue so much more entertaining. Eventually, Chris’s cleric (Bjorn) relented and healed Adam. The next day, it would be off to see the Frost Queen!

One fun little thing we threw in there was that Arathiel wasn’t actually welcome in the Frost Queen’s court, as he’d been expelled for uncouth behaviour. He was hoping that aiding the villagers would help get him back in the Frost Queen’s good graces.

He led the group through the forest to a gateway to the Feywild, and from there they made their way to the Frost Queen’s court. Although I’m using the original AD&D rules, my conception of the world is very much coloured by recent design of the Feywild and Shadowfell, both of which I find superior to the original D&D’s cosmology. Once there, the Frost Queen was amenable to their offer: in exchange for their service (and oaths of fealty), she’d protect the village during the winter ahead. Hooray! We have a starting point for the campaign. And, of course, she wanted them to perform a service immediately: the goblins had stolen a precious jewel from her. The group needed to recover it for her to prove themselves worthy.

One of the ongoing problems with D&D play is the presence of higher-level characters: why aren’t they doing the job themselves? In the case of the Frost Queen, that problem disappears: she’s arrogant and considers a lot of things beneath her and her court (in other words, she’s of Faerie). She’s very happy to send mortals to do the dirty work. And so, off the heroes went to the goblins’ cave to find the Frost Queen’s Jewel (a diamond).
I was improvising a lot of this session: I knew coming in what I wanted the shape of it to be, but I hadn’t sat down beforehand and planned it out in detail. During a short break, I drew up the map of the goblin cave: not that spectacular, but enough for the players to get familiar with the system. Here’s what I came up with:

The first fight was against the six goblins (hp 4, 7, 2, 1, 2, 3) in the guard chamber. Those goblins had been playing knucklebones, and the group surprised them – poor guards indeed! I decided against using the straight AD&D surprise system (as it has its oddities) and used that of Moldvay instead, giving the characters a full round of free actions rather than 2 segments of action. In that time, missile fire cut down most of the guards, and the rest were accounted for in a round or two of melee.

Chris began to get frustrated at this time with his lack of a missile weapon; I can only sympathize, though I know his plight will get better as he gains levels and thus gets better spells and also when the group meet the undead. (Next session!) I was using a modified version of the AD&D initiative system, and the group was rolling really well for initiative, so the missile fire was being very effective in this session: it won’t always be so.

I was very gratified when the group explored the passageway to the left and triggered the pit trap. I explained to them that thieves can’t actually detect large traps (that’s what dwarves are for), and that explains the use of a 10 foot pole on the equipment list. Amusingly, with a 2 in 6 chance of each character triggering the trap, only the last to cross it – Nash – fell into the pit. Nash wasn’t so amused, but used the first thief skill of the day: his 90% chance to climb out of the pit succeeded.

Rich got his moment in the sun with the next encounter, as the group investigated the room of fungi in which a skeleton grasped a leather bag from which silver spilled, but giant centipede lurked around. Using his Move Silently skill, he was able to retrieve the bag unnoticed by the centipedes! This was particularly impressive, as he had about a 30% chance (or less) of succeeding. Ah, the ineptitude of the 1st level thief in AD&D…

The group happily squashed the spiders, and then moved on to the next room of 8 goblins and their pet wolf. With initiative won by the group, Adam got off his one spell of the day: sleep. And rolled really well to affect them – all the monsters were put to sleep! (He rolled a 13 on 4d4, needing a 12 to send the goblins and wolf to sleep). The group were by now getting used to how deadly AD&D combat could be – and they were very pleased to not have to fight that encounter.

The final encounter of the dungeon was the fight against the goblin chief and his two bodyguards: all three with 8 hit points, AC 5 and attacking as HD 1+1. This one was tough, with the goblins getting three good hits against the party, but eventually they were slain. Chris used his remaining healing spells to patch up the party, and the group recovered the Queen’s diamond – as well as finding some other treasure. The chief had been wielding a battleaxe +1 (which Jackson took), and had two other gems. Random rolling revealed they were worth a total of 1,500 gold pieces… a very nice windfall which provided the group with a lot of experience points!

The group looked along the smelly passageway sloping downwards, and decided that they didn’t need to risk it. They returned to the Frost Queen, were assured their village would be provided for, and returned home as heroes… and still in the service of the Frost Queen. More adventures await, but that was enough for the first session.

I gave out some individual awards based on ability use and monsters defeated, but I think I’ll dispense with those in the future as the system isn’t as clear (or fair) as I’d like it to be. The characters gained between 500 and 800 experience points each, and so were well on the way to the second level. In all, the session took about 2-½ hours including character generation, and I’m really happy with how it played. Pacing-wise, it ran really well.

The next session will be set in the spring, with the winter now behind them, and the group being sent on a new mission by the Frost Queen. It’ll also have undead in it, which should make Chris’s cleric far more potent. As the campaign continues, I’ll also delve into the Frost Barbarian lore. For now, the players can be happy with what they achieved, and the loot they gained (much of which will probably be spent on better armour…)

 

[steeldragons]

Sounds like and awesome start!

Look forward to hearing how things progress.

Welcome back to AD&D!

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Indeed, please do update as the campaign progresses.

 

[MerricB]

We've had five sessions so far, but I'm only just getting to writing summaries of them. Here's the summary for session #2:

The second session of my AD&D “Viking” campaign was not attended by exactly the same players at the first. Indeed, a feature of this campaign as it has continued has been how we never seem to have exactly the same group twice. In fact, no-one has attended every session!

As the problems faced by the PCs’ home village had been fixed by the Frost Queen last session, the new session began with a new town having trouble, and the players who attended from last week being sent by the Frost Queen to aid the other town. What trouble was assailing the other town? Oh, nothing more than a few undead. The Frost Queen probably could send more effective emissaries, but waste not, want not. So, Adam, Chris and Jackson were joined by three new players who came from the new town.

After character generation, the new group proceeded to the ruined castle which was the origin of these undead. The castle was testament to better days for the Frost Barbarians, but now lay mostly in ruins. Enough of it was left to provide shelter for a few scattered goblins, who were as confused and threatened by the undead as the villagers. Initial skirmishes between the goblins and the party went in the party’s favour, and one goblin – surrendering rather than continuing to fight – was taken as a servant by the party.

Other “giant” insects and arachnids were fought, before the group discovered a group of human bandits and grave robbers, who had been procuring bodies from the local graveyard for the evil priest below. Discussion proving futile, the resulting battle was a great success for the heroes – as they were facing no less than nine opponents. Their goblin servant took the chance of the mass melee to flee, however – and the party were not impressed.

Resting back in town was interrupted by an attack of undead – skeletons and zombies – and was fought off, though not without some damage to the party that necessitated further rest. The clerics of the group were kept busy healing everyone between expeditions!

However, without the grave robbers, the evil priest’s supply of undead was not being resupplied in the same manner, and the heroes were able to return to the ruins and start investigating the dungeons. These caverns were not that extensive, and soon enough they stood before their main foe: a priest of Nerull, come to work his evil from the lands of the Great Kingdom to the south.

He taunted them, and then cast a hold person spell of such efficacy that it caught two of the characters – including Adam’s elf – in its grasp. Meanwhile, Jackson had charged into a group of skeletons wielding his prized +1 axe that he’d gained earlier in the session. Whilst the other members of the group had made certain to get maces and flails with which to fight the skeletons, Jackson had not done so… and he paid the price as his strikes against the skeletons did minimum damage. Both Chris and Lee, the clerics of the party, attempted to turn the skeletons, but both failed. As Jackson fell to the blows of the skeletons, the remaining characters, dragging their paralysed friends with them, fled the dungeon.

Upon that rather unsuccessful note, we ended the session. In the next session, the PCs would – refreshed and with reinforcements – attempt to stop the threat of the priest once and for all.

 

[Water Bob]

Question - I love 1st edition AD&D, but how about that combat system, huh? It could be written in Martian and not be more confusing.

Are you playing the combat system as written, by the book, or have you house ruled it?

 

[steeldragons]

Question - I love 1st edition AD&D, but how about that combat system, huh? It could be written in Martian and not be more confusing.

How do you figure? Care to elaborate?

Somehow, my groups have been able to play it, nigh (off and on) for 30 years...and I'm not even fluent in Martian! Though, I suppose, I can get by.

 

[Water Bob]

How do you figure? Care to elaborate?

Somehow, my groups have been able to play it, nigh (off and on) for 30 years...and I'm not even fluent in Martian! Though, I suppose, I can get by.

I played it too, for many years. 1E AD&D was my introduction to role playing. But, I played as I was taught, not as (I discovered much later) as laid out in the 1E AD&D DMG.

Have you looked at that system, or are you playing the way someone has taught you--the way you've always played? To this day, there are still arguments about how AD&D is supposed to be played by the rules.

THIS page is a summary flow chart of the AD&D combat system. Annotations are provided to show where the rule came from (AD&D combat rules are scattered all over the place--a major reason the AD&D by-the-book combat system is hard to grasp).

What is listed there is definitely not an easy system to master.



EDIT: Some interesting rules from the AD&D combat system...

Initiative is made by throwing a single, unmodified d6 die for each side of the combat (not individuals). But, archers and others using missiles in combat use their DEX reaction adjustment as a modifier to the group initiative throw on an individual basis.

Multiple attacks are typically split up, allowing the enemy to attack as well. For example, if your fighter gets two attacks per round, fighting an enemy that gets one attack per round, then the order of attacks is: Fighter, Opponent, Fighter. The two attacks per round for the fighter means he goes first and last. This gets confusing if the Opponent has initiative, because the fighter must be allowed to attack first.

When charging, the charging character cannot use his DEX bonus for defense and is, in fact, considered one AC lower than normal.

Spells must be announced at the beginning of a round but typically are played out much later in the round.

Weapon speed factors are not normally used--they're consulted with initiative results in a tie. Weapons with low speed factors can sometimes pick up extra attacks during the round.

Follow that Example Combat round provided in the document--that's what I mean by "complicted".

 

[kitcik]

I played it too, for many years. 1E AD&D was my introduction to role playing. But, I played as I was taught, not as (I discovered much later) as laid out in the 1E AD&D DMG.

Have you looked at that system, or are you playing the way someone has taught you--the way you've always played? To this day, there are still arguments about how AD&D is supposed to be played by the rules.

THIS page is a summary flow chart of the AD&D combat system. Annotations are provided to show where the rule came from (AD&D combat rules are scattered all over the place--a major reason the AD&D by-the-book combat system is hard to grasp).

What is listed there is definitely not an easy system to master.

That's cute, but while 3E is about RAW, 1E is about RAI.

Clearly you never gamed with the Gygaxes - you don't roll percentile dice for init.

The DM takes charge, accounts for all the variables, the dice are thrown and actions take place in the order the DM deems proper.

It's a great system, particularly casting times and having multiple attacks with split inits.

 

[Water Bob]

That's cute, but while 3E is about RAW, 1E is about RAI.

That may be why there's controversy to this day about the correct use of the AD&D combat system when each DM has his own opinion about what was intended.

Clearly you never gamed with the Gygaxes - you don't roll percentile dice for init.

Not many people have. Yes, I've heard the stories of how EGG DMed by the seat of his pants with little regard for the rules.

That's not really the point, though (about how Gary and his brother DMed). The point is really more about what is written and therefore "official".

The DM takes charge, accounts for all the variables, the dice are thrown and actions take place in the order the DM deems proper.

And, that's a style I subscribe to--that the DM (GM) is always right no matter what the rule book says.

But we're not talking about that here. We're talking about the AD&D combat system as described in the AD&D rules.

It's a great system, particularly casting times and having multiple attacks with split inits.

Hey, I like AD&D. If my Conan game goes belly up (doesn't look like that will happen for a while at this time, though), I'd like to run a by-the-book AD&D game.

But, even though I like AD&D, and you think it's a great system, that doesn't change the fact that the combat rules, as written in the AD&D rules, are complicated and difficult to master.







EDIT:

Clearly you never gamed with the Gygaxes - you don't roll percentile dice for init.

If you look at the annotation for that rule you'll see it's not an "official" one, rather something that came out of a Dragon article. But, since I see percentile dice used all over the AD&D game system, I would surmise that fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants Gary used percentile dice for all sorts of things in his game.

And, if you don't use percentile dice for surprise (not necessarily initiative) under the circumstance shown in the flow chart I link above, then how do you resolve surprise given the situation described?

Otis the Ranger has a 1 in 6 chance to surprise others, but the duergar he happens upon are only surprised with a 1 in 10 chance.

Converting to percentages seems the best way to handle this wrinkle in the rules--how would you handle it?

 

[kitcik]

That's not really the point, though (about how Gary and his brother DMed). The point is really more about what is written and therefore "official".

But we're not talking about that here. We're talking about the AD&D combat system as described in the AD&D rules.

1E is about rule zero. That IS playing by the rules. Rules lawyers keep out. Plat 3E if you want rules (and I do play 3E currently).

But, even though I like AD&D, and you think it's a great system, that doesn't change the fact that the combat rules, as written in the AD&D rules, are complicated and difficult to master.

Any "rule" that you have to think about and that interrupts the flow of play is not RAI in 1E.

And, if you don't use percentile dice for surprise (not necessarily initiative) under the circumstance shown in the flow chart I link above, then how do you resolve surprise given the situation described?

Otis the Ranger has a 1 in 6 chance to surprise others, but the duergar he happens upon are only surprised with a 1 in 10 chance.

Converting to percentages seems the best way to handle this wrinkle in the rules--how would you handle it?

Luckily in this case the math is really easy, but in practice, if I had to make a call, I would either roll a d8 (close enough) or let the Ranger roll his d6, then if he got the one I would roll a d10 and nullify the surprise on a 9 or 10 (also close enough).

More likely, I would let the Ranger RP his attempt to surprise and assign a chance to it based on my judgment, taking into account the Ranger rule, the duergar rule, the situation and the RP. That is RAI.