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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9723316" data-attributes="member: 29398">This tangentially brings up another big difference between 1e-era play and today: party size.In 1e, parties of 8 or 10 characters were common; and a lower-level character could kinda hide among the numbers until it got its feet under it.In 5e, the party is expected to be only 4 or 5 strong, meaning any weakness is going to quickly become apparent.&nbsp; That, and the whole WotC thing where the encounters are expected to match the party level (or vary by a specified amount). Each WotC edition has a different name for the system it uses but the principle is the same, and I see it as a bug rather than a feature as it tends to force the game to be played within some fairly tight parameters rather than the TSR-era idea of more free-form variability.To explain: 0e-1e-2e didn't care if your party was 3 characters, or 8, or 12 plus a marching band.&nbsp; The adventures gave a suggested level range (which may or may not have been adhered to by any given table!) and that's about it: the DM had to vary things from there if needed.&nbsp; In the WotC editions where it's almost dictated that parties shall be 4 characters, no more no less (5 is allowed in 5e) the same holds true, only that DM-varying process has been made far more math-heavy and complex (says he, recalling our 3e DM swearing over all the math he had to do to make our encounters challenging as we had a varied-level party of about 8 characters most of the time).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 9723316, member: 29398"] This tangentially brings up another big difference between 1e-era play and today: party size. In 1e, parties of 8 or 10 characters were common; and a lower-level character could kinda hide among the numbers until it got its feet under it. In 5e, the party is expected to be only 4 or 5 strong, meaning any weakness is going to quickly become apparent. That, and the whole WotC thing where the encounters are expected to match the party level (or vary by a specified amount). Each WotC edition has a different name for the system it uses but the principle is the same, and I see it as a bug rather than a feature as it tends to force the game to be played within some fairly tight parameters rather than the TSR-era idea of more free-form variability. To explain: 0e-1e-2e didn't care if your party was 3 characters, or 8, or 12 plus a marching band. The adventures gave a suggested level range (which may or may not have been adhered to by any given table!) and that's about it: the DM had to vary things from there if needed. In the WotC editions where it's almost dictated that parties shall be 4 characters, no more no less (5 is allowed in 5e) the same holds true, only that DM-varying process has been made far more math-heavy and complex (says he, recalling our 3e DM swearing over all the math he had to do to make our encounters challenging as we had a varied-level party of about 8 characters most of the time). [/QUOTE]

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