Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="WhimsyTheFae" data-source="post: 2890700" data-attributes="member: 8964">Well, I don't remember him doing that, but he would do stuff like this:Random encounters - 1) If the encounter is not hostile, the DM would say "no biggie" and move on with the adventure (no chance to see or interact)...UNLESS, he felt that we could be tricked into attacking a good creature (see winged creature example above).2) We had to roll surprise checks, but the opponent was never surprised.  Surprise rolls were made using a d6, with any roll of 4 or less indicating surprised (if you were an elf, you were surprised on 3 or less - being a ranger gave a plus one to the roll).  So, all non-elf/non-rangers were surprised by anything 66% of the time (including hill giants walking toward you, from in front of you, on a road --- or dragons flying toward you on a clear day).3) Ninety percent of encounters began at around 10' and the opponents were randomly placed around the party (using a d8 for the points of the compass).4) There was a 1-in-6 chance of an encounter per hour, regardless of where we were.Travel - 1) If we were moving up or down a hill (twenty-five degree angle or more) we had to make a dex check to avoid falling (whether walking or running).  The checks were to roll under our dex using 3d6 (add a d6 if wounded by half, add a d6 if wearing metal non full-plate armor, add 2d6 if wearing full-plate armor - so, obvioiusly).  So, if you were in metal armor, or injured, you went out of your way to avoid all inclines.2) When climbing, the DM used the percentage table from 2nd ed., but only gave a 5% bonus for using a rope and wall.  The table gave like a 55% bonus, but he felt that is was too much and not realistic.  Climbing was all but impossible (without magic, only thieves would have a chance, since they had their own percentage).  On one climb, 5 out of the 9 party members had a negative chance to climb a wall, even though we had a rope to use.3) When sleeping, you had to make percentage roll to determine "how much asleep" you are.  In order to wake up, you had to make a percentage roll that was greater than the one you made when going to sleep.  This was the only way to wake up, short of taking physical damage.Monsters - 1) When fighting monsters, the DM only kept track of their hitpoints.  All stats would be rolled on a round-by-round basis, as needed.  Realize, that this DM used stats in place of saving throws.  So, if the creature had to make a Dex check to take half-damage from a fireball, the DM would roll his Dex and the check together.  If the creature had to make a Dex check later that round, the DM would do the same.  Yes, some creatures had an 11 Dex and an 18 Dex in the same round.2) Trolls were one of his favorites.  They received Move Silently and Hide in Shadows like a ranger.  They moved at a higher rate of speed.  When regenerating from negative hitpoints, they would be at max hitpoints once they hit positives.3) Dragons could claw-claw-bite-wing-wing-tail-rake-rake-breath weapon every round.4) Don't get me started on Ogre Mages...We often joked about the Winged Troll MagiPlayer Characters - 1) You rolled your gender randomly.  Not a big deal, but many a character was purposely killed by those who were unwilling to play the opposite sex.2) The DMs wife had two characters that she would play.  One was a cleric that could turn into lava at will (sort of like Johnny Storm, without the flight) and the other was a Bone Devil (I forget what it's 2nd/3rd ed. name is, but it's the skeletal Devil with the scorpion tale) that could change to a human whenever it wanted to.  No...there was no favoritism.3) Dwarves rolled a Con check to completely resist magic (the DM noticed that dwarves were resistant to magic in the PHB, so treated it like actual MR/SR).4) All elves had 5% a chance of being a winged elf.  Winged elves had a set number of feathers (I forget how many), and each feather was worth 1,000gp.  Yes, some of our party members would canibalize their own feathers to get rich (one went so far as having his wings removed, because the money was worth more to him than the ability to fly).Magic Items - 1) Everyone had a 10% chance of getting the magic item that they are looking for in any shop.  You call a number on a d10 when entering the shop and if you hit that number the item you want is there.  If you miss, the next person can walk in, make his roll and get the same item that wasn't there for you.  The only catch is that you had to have seen the item beforehand.  Yes, once the party got ahold of Bracers AC2 and Staves of Power and such, they passed them around so that everyone could eventually buy one.2) Anytime a save was missed against a damaging effect (area of effect, like fireball or whole body, like falling), the items each had a 50% chance of being destroyed (magic or otherwise).  If destroyed, the item would have a 50% chance of exploding.  Exploding items delivered 1d10 damage per plus or charge or other arbitrary factor.  The explosion would affect a 30' area.Yes, we would often have chain reactions in the party, where only the dwarves would come through unscathed (save completely vs. magic).  In fact, we once (I'm not joking) had a character miss his Dex check when walking up a small incline (by the DM's description, it was maybe thirty degrees).  He then had his bracers and cloak explode.  The resulting chain reaction of exploding items took out three party members.One party member always traveled at least 90' away from the party and teleported to safety when sleeping for the night.Disclaimer: I enjoyed many aspects of this DM's campaigns - the socializing was fun, the fact that I was going to tech college - living at home - working part time - and had no responsibilities made those years memorable and enjoyable, the other players would get into some of the campaigns and we would talk about the puzzles and such at school.I like the guy, so I don't want anyone to think that I am bashing him...just some of his DMing practices <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />.</blockquote>

Verification