D&D 1E Favorite Obscure Rules from TSR-era D&D

[Kannik]

Oh boy, how I love posting AD&D's version of Identify :
...
Absolute work of art.

Wow, for all the versions rattling around in my head, I had forgotten just how punishing the 1e version was! 2e's much more lenient (though still prone to vagueness) version is what stuck in my head more.

 

[fuindordm]

DOH!

You are 100% correct. I blame myself for looking over the mess of the psionics rules this morning, and somehow doing a feat I thought was impossible ... making them even worse than they already are.

Eh, I don't feel like it's the worst subsystem in AD&D. The basic structure of PSPs, disciplines/sciences and their acquisition (levels of mastery, which when you read the rules carefully are clearly staggered), and the rules for those powers are perfectly playable as written.

The psionic combat subgame also functions but introduces way too many complications and choices for what is finally an uninteresting result (the one with the most PSPs overwhelms the other). It suffers from the same problem as weapon vs armor type.

My fixes are just this: if you have psionic talent you get an xp penalty to pay for it. DM reserves the right to nerf or up the cost of some disciplines/sciences. If you somehow get yourself into a psionic combat, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but all that's really needed is a couple of rolls to see who wins and how many PSPs are left over for the winner.

In one campaign I modified the monk to gain PSPs and psionic disciplines instead of a fixed list of equivalent powers. But no one wanted to play a monk so it was just worldbuilding.

 

[Kannik]

Some day, I might devote an actual post to how messed up 1e psionics are ...

My favourite part of 1e Psionics was that they were resolved before any other action in a round. Crush their heads and heal your bones and leap to the heavens before anyone else can act!

That is, favourite part unless you're like me and completely forget that feature (or that you have psionics at all). And start casting a cure spell because you're about to go down. And have the BBEG take you out before the spell goes off. And then a round or two later, as your character lies there, bleeding out, remember that you could've blown all your Psi Points to heal yourself to nearly full at anytime without relying on a long-cast-time-spell. Then proceed to (telekinetically, I would assume, though I don't think I had that particular psionic talent) kick yourself for months on end for being so forgetful/stupid.

 

[Bedrockgames]

The best thing about 1E psionics was they made the GM's head explode just like Scanners

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

@Snarf Zagyg

Since getting my JD, my perspective on RPG rules has changed quite a bit. My current take is that game designers have gotten into the bad habit of drafting rules in a wonderland-esque mirror to legalese…and rules discussions have followed an analogous path.

But without the formal training lawyers get in how laws get drafted & reading legalese, that leads to almost as much confusion as clarity.

 

[el-remmen]

One fun fact about the BECMI/RC rules that I'd overlooked until recently was that neither the five boxed sets nor the Rules Cyclopedia have rules for natural healing in them. If you wanted those, you'd have to look in the "1070" black boxed set. (Special thanks to @Jack Daniel for mentioning that in the other thread.)

Yes! We just rolled our hit dice and healed that amount between adventures and that was all you healed. Absolutely no one played clerics when we were kids.

I am actually adapting something like this for long rests in my Vanity 5e homebrew rules I am working on.

 

[el-remmen]

mean, who really used natural healing anyways? I mean, sure, you rest, you get some hit points back, we all do it, but we never relied on it.

We did in every pre-5e campaign I have ever run and most that I played in.

I miss it.

 

[Orius]

As an addendum, my simple expedient WRT to cursed items comes from the rules themselves, though it's not an actual rule. The description of the cursed items often state how they will be mistaken for another similar item, and often specific examples are given. I just extrapolate that to apply to all cursed items. This still allows the party to fall victim to the item providing me with some fun while removing nonsense like forcing the wizard to wear or handle items that he can't normally use in the first place just so he can get cursed with them.

 

[James Gasik]

We did in every pre-5e campaign I have ever run and most that I played in.

I miss it.

Ok, I stand corrected, apparently some people did, and apparently enjoyed it. I apparently fell in with a crowd that felt such things were tedious and wanted to get back to the adventuring post-haste.

And that's good for me, because I played a lot of Ultima in and around the time I got into D&D. In Ultima you have to track food and ammunition, and spell components, and resting was a tedious endeavor as you waited slowly for hit points to replenish and even casting healing spells was problematic because now you had to hunt down Garlic, Ginseng, and Spider Silk!

Simply put, those things weren't especially fun (worse if you're out in the wilderness afraid that you might get into a fight while healing!), so I opted out of them.

But I do realize that some people like the suspense of wondering if they'll be able to get back into fighting trim before something else happens. Or wondering if they can "beat the clock" to save the day.

I'm just not one of those people.

 

[James Gasik]

Going off topic: I don't like cursed items. But I suppose I should elaborate on that. I don't like items that are basically traps that you can't easily identify. I do to this day use items that have unforeseen side effects and drawbacks, and sometimes yes, divesting yourself of the item does require magic.

But in my mind even a cursed item should have potential use as something other than a trap to the unwary. But a magic sword that makes you fight your allies, a cursed cloak that instantly kills you, or boots that make you dance like a fool in combat? I don't see them as being very fun.

Magic items are a potential reward, it's bad enough when the party can't use a given item, throwing cursed widgets in the game is about the same as giving the party 10,000 lead pieces painted gold.

In The Ruins of Undermountain, an early trap is the party spots a gold coin on the floor. If they pick it up, they get flame striked for their "greed". I'm sure much fun was had laughing at the luckless fool who fell for it, but that's really a cruel, sadistic prank. And sure, D&D is full of cruel, sadistic people, so maybe there is a Joker-esque guy out there slapping glyph of warding on random stuff to sow misery, but that's not the kind of villainly I enjoy.

I used to use "harmless" curses that didn't affect your character in a physical way, like the infamous girdle of masculinity/femininity, but I've since learned that sort of thing requires buy-in; some players are uncomfortable with that, and a few are outraged that a DM has "violated the borders of their character sheet"- death, mayhem, and dismemberment, that's a part of the game. Fundamentally changing who their character is? Beyond the pale.

Me, personally, I usually love that sort of challenge, but not everyone is built that way, so I've backed off and make sure the players know what they are getting into, even if the characters themselves do not.