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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 3392194" data-attributes="member: 467">Seeing as how I am currently running a 3.5 campaign and have a one shot old school dungeon crawl set for a few weeks from now, I think maybe the real issue is that I want (from a DM's perspective) to "feel" like running those games from yon days.  So, I think maybe concentrating on how to make my experience as a DM closer to what I'd like it to be using D&D 3.5.For one, I think I need to divorce myself from the CR/ECL system and just use my judgement -- based on my players, their PCs, and my experience with the system -- when designing adventures and encounters.Second, I need to drop the battlegrid (again).  For awhile, I didn't use it because my regular group was meeting in classrooms at Yale where there were always big chalkboards.  We didn't necessarily drop any movement or AoO rules -- I just adjudicated stuff based on the scenario and the desires of the players (i.e. if a player says, "I want to move around to flank" I would say "Okay.  it'll take you the whole round unless you want to let one of the orcs geta  whack at you")  lately, I have been bringing out the battlemat again -- or, at least, a grid and some sketches.  Maybe a whiteboard on an eisel (sp?)?The next one os kind of hard.  I think that if I am going to use classed NPCs, I should actually go about statting them appropriately.  This is kind of related to the CR/ECL thing, I guess, but also related to the fact that I think in cheapens the challenge for the PCs if I just say "20 HP, AC 15, Attack +5, Damage 1d8+3" or some such.  That being said, it makes off the cuff, fly-by DMing harder.  I have no problem using monsters and such from the MM -- it isn't that the stat blocks are too big or the rulestoo complex -- so maybe I just need a good collection of typical NPC types.And then there's the dungeons.  I have fallen into a trap of linear, short dungeons.  I am not sure why.  I think it is time to steal some maps from the WotC site and the Dungeon web extras and build myself a big, varied, complex dungeon with all the good stuff: green slime and yellow mold, gelatinous cubes and rust monsters, traps and puzzles, and no real "point" outside of whatever reason the PCs went in in the first plce (find the widget, make a shortcut through the mountain, etc...)</blockquote>

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