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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5912982" data-attributes="member: 21169">So, what you're saying is that D&D doesn't work?If you are, then I agree with you, because these two features - sandbox play and ancient tombs filled with traps and undead - are both important parts of the traditional D&D experience. Sandbox play and Vancian magic (and its concomitant 15 min days) don't work well together, imo.I agree that BBEGs with evil schemes and a calendar is one solution. However adventure-based design, NPCs who can go down in one round to a Save-or-Die, are not a good fit for such BBEGs. A DM could put all this work into a bad guy's plans, only for him to drop dead the first time the PCs meet him.Alternatively there could be parties of NPC adventurers, as featured in the 1e DMG encounter tables. OD&D was supposed to play a lot like World of Warcraft in the sense that there is a very high ratio of players to DMs - 20:1 is the recommendation. Only a few players, maybe between one and a half-dozen, are involved in any given adventure. The other players are the competition. OD&D was very gamist, very competitive, like WoW. So instead of BBEGs being the threat, other adventurers are. If the PCs don't loot the ancient tomb, within, say, a month of rumours of its existence becoming known in the City of Greyhawk, then a party of NPC adventurers will loot it.I guess one problem with this approach may be that competition between adventurers devolves into warfare, with multiple gangs of treasure-crazed bastards lurking around outside every dungeon, waiting for a heavily wounded, spell-depleted, treasure-laden party to exit.</blockquote>

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