Charles Ryan on the Sacred Cows of D&D
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Henry
Autoexreginated
The Moldvay version Basic D&D Magic Missile was roll "to hit", and did 1d6+1 per missile. It gave you one extra missile per six caster levels. (Which was hilarious considering the rules only went to 3rd level!)
Gary Added the auto-hit Magic Missile in 1978, in the 1st edition PHB. Whether he got it from Holmes or not, I can't say, because I haven't looked at that version in a while.
Gary Added the auto-hit Magic Missile in 1978, in the 1st edition PHB. Whether he got it from Holmes or not, I can't say, because I haven't looked at that version in a while.
talinthas
First Post
do these ancient rules that diaglo refers to exist online anywhere? Being a relative child compared to him (having only started around the early part of 2e), i'd like to see these historical documents so i can have some slight clue as to what the hell he is talking about =)
seriously, AD&D first ed is as far back as my knowledge goes (random basic D&D modules aside)
seriously, AD&D first ed is as far back as my knowledge goes (random basic D&D modules aside)
Yeah, it looks like they've taken the "if we'd known it would be accepted so well we would have changed more" to heart. This could be good or bad. The rules stumbling in the psionics and epic books might prove that out-D&Ding D&D isn't as easy as it first may seem.
The rules don't evolve; they just get revised, which is entirely different. I remember Dancey saying that he has trouble playing the game with the knowledge of how finely certain points of it were balanced on the top of a needle and could easily have gone the other way (or words to that effect).
Henry
Autoexreginated
talinthas said:
They exist, but not in any legal capacity.
The only one that does, is the 1977-78 Eric Holmes Edited Basic Dungeons and Dragons. The others, Tom Moldvay's 1981 work (my FIRST D&D!) and the Original D&D circa 1974 (Diaglo's FIRST D&D!) were never scanned and OCR'ed before James Butler's OCR project was scrapped at WotC. To the old-timers and the collectors, this was a tremendous loss, because WotC has no interest any longer in working with anyone to make those legally available.
EDIT: Diaglo, is my mind going, or did the Holmes edition used to be on RPGNOW, and is not any longer? Hmn.
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Henry said:
Try SVgames.
Chainmail - http://www.svgames.com/tsr6002esd.html
Supplements I through V - http://www.svgames.com/downloads-wotc-dndrusup.html
Basic D&D: Holmes - http://www.svgames.com/tsr2001esd.html
Basic D&D: Mentzer - http://www.svgames.com/tsr1011esd.html
Cheers!
JVisgaitis
Explorer
johnsemlak said:
OK, I'm confused. So is it basically just something where you are allowed to take a level of something else? So would you then be a Cleric 6/Dwarven Cleric 1? I don't understand the reason behind being able to only take it at a certain level. Then again, I am commenting on something I haven't even seen yet.
JVisgaitis said:
I haven't seen it in Races of Stone but it sounds like the concept of the racial bloodlines (I think they were called that, but there were a lot of different ideas that had similar names) in Unearthed Arcana (the WotC book, not to be confused with Arcana Unearthed by Monte Cook).
Anyway, you have the basic idea right - you are trading out a "regular" level for a bloodline level (or in this case, a racial class level). In UA you got a few little bonuses and things in exchange for taking a bloodline level at 1st level and then at certain other points during your career, depending on whether you had a minor, intermediate, or major bloodline.
For example, for a minor bloodline, I think you only ever had to take one level maybe. For an intermediate bloodline, you had to take two levels, and for a major bloodline, you had to take three levels. You get bonuses like a bonus to Diplomacy scores against creatures from your bloodline, and bonuses to a particular ability score and sometimes to different skills and stuff. It's been awhile since I've looked at them.
The downside was that the bloodline level that you take gives you NOTHING for that level, aside from increasing your caster level. You get no skill points, no new spells known, no save increases, no BAB increase, nothing. I can't remember but I think you don't even get additional Hit Points.
The dwarven cleric idea sounds like it's based on the ideas in UA but obviously it's a little different because it does provide HD, BAB, etc.
johnsemlak said:
[geekmode]
Don't you remember your "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" episodes? The Defiant had ablative armor added to it when they began to get involved in fighting the Dominion around the start of Season 3.
[/geekmode]
Actually, come to think of it, I guess I never really turn off my "geekmode" while here on ENWorld.
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