Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia

[painted_klown]

MerricB, thank you for the great write up of the history. Very cool!

Obryn, thank you for the detailed break down of the boox set releases. It's a bit more of a "mess" (for lack of a better word) than I had imagined. It's interesting to see what happened to the product line though. IMO, it appears as if there was a real attempt to simplify the rules and try to reach a broader audience, but there were debates on how it should be done.

Jan van Leyden, it's funny that you mention how deadly older D&D was. The stories I read where the party could trigger a trap and instant death was very much possible. It seems exciting to me. LOL! Also, when you have that level of imminent danger, I think it probably helps to really draw players in. It makes them pay careful attention to the DM, and to what they are doing...as missing even the slightest detail could send them to the grave.

It's funny, because I read stories from other DMs on this site and how they often see their players eyes glaze over when they are setting up the scene/reading something to them, as if they aren't hearing a word you say. I too have noticed this in the games I play in and run. I really am looking at ways to minimize this, but beleive that some of the "glazing over efect" is probably inevitable. Even myself, who is generally VERY attentive when the DM is talking, have found myself lost when the DM is reading a larger section to the group. I suppose it's human nature at play, at least a little bit...Still though, I want my players to be engaged in the game. I think (hope) I will get better at this, the more I DM.

Arjomanes, Thanks for the links and recommendations. I will have to take a look at them. Additionally, there's nothing wrong with buying the PDF version, if you don't have a physical copy. I am more of a physical copy kind of guy myself, as I just like having that hard copy on hand to peruse and flip through with ease. Perhaps it's my age, but I am not that good at flipping back and forth in a PDF. It takes me way too long...LOL!

Thanks again for your replies, info, recommendation, thoughts and opinions everyone. The sense of community on this web site is great!

 

[pemerton]

The stories I read where the party could trigger a trap and instant death was very much possible. It seems exciting to me. LOL! Also, when you have that level of imminent danger, I think it probably helps to really draw players in. It makes them pay careful attention to the DM, and to what they are doing...as missing even the slightest detail could send them to the grave.

For thinking a bit more about the details of this, and how it works as a GM (and the sort of implications it has on the player side, too), I really can't recommend enough the Luke Crane blog I linked to upthread.

 

[bone_naga]

The stories I read where the party could trigger a trap and instant death was very much possible. It seems exciting to me. LOL! Also, when you have that level of imminent danger, I think it probably helps to really draw players in. It makes them pay careful attention to the DM, and to what they are doing...as missing even the slightest detail could send them to the grave.

It was definitely a different atmosphere. On one hand, the players quickly learned to be very careful. On the other hand, the players quickly learned to be very careful. It led to interesting shenanigans that were amusing the first time around, and then quickly got old, like poking chests with spears to make sure they weren't mimics, in fact pretty much poking everything with a 10 foot pole, herding an entire flock of sheep into the dungeon to trigger traps, etc.

It also required a good deal of finesse as the DM. The threat of instant death would put players on edge, but if misused these could easily start to feel like "gotcha" situations where the players begin to feel that their choices didn't matter because they were basically being set up to be killed for doing exactly what adventurers were expected to do. Many players heavily applied metagame knowledge. These weren't insurmountable problems by any means, but a new DM could easily TPK an entire party without giving them a fighting chance.

I think it was most fun when everyone knew when death was potentially approaching. Some dungeons were basically designed to be meat grinders, which again sucks if the players aren't expecting it, but is an interesting challenge if they know what they're getting into.

 

[arjomanes]

For thinking a bit more about the details of this, and how it works as a GM (and the sort of implications it has on the player side, too), I really can't recommend enough the Luke Crane blog I linked to upthread.

Thanks for the link to that Luke Crane post. That was a very cool read.

 

[Alzrius]

It also required a good deal of finesse as the DM. The threat of instant death would put players on edge, but if misused these could easily start to feel like "gotcha" situations where the players begin to feel that their choices didn't matter because they were basically being set up to be killed for doing exactly what adventurers were expected to do. Many players heavily applied metagame knowledge. These weren't insurmountable problems by any means, but a new DM could easily TPK an entire party without giving them a fighting chance.

That, and even if they don't mind their character dying, there's the issue of a player sitting around with nothing to do for three hours while the PCs that are still alive try to complete the dungeon.

Many innovative ways to deal with this have been imagined over the decades, of course, but I've seen that catch plenty of new DMs off-guard when it happens.

 

[Obryn]

Yeah, don't play up the "whoops you're dead" bits. Older editions work best with long-term attrition.

If there's random death traps everywhere, you'll just encourage weird behavior like herding sheep through a dungeon, 20-step SOP's for advancing 10 feet, etc.

The important part is to be fair. Telegraph stuff that might create those deadly situations; give clues so that the players don't think you're being arbitrary. And definitely have a backup plan in mind so you don't leave a player with nothing to do for a few hours.