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

[James Gasik]

This is one that every single 2e DM I ever played with (and a few players as well) would argue with me about, saying "there's no such rule". But here it is, straight from the PHB:

 

[Krachek]

I really wanted to like this rule and have the effects of shields or ring mail versus scale matter when using a tulwar or horseman's mace and tried implementing it when I first started DMing.

View attachment 364602But unfortunately in 1e the chart was incoherent in that aspect thanks to the doubling up of armors or armors and shields for every AC marker between 7 and 3 and there being adjustments for every AC between 2 (plate and shield) and 10 (unarmored, no shield). So the adjustments for AC 3 apply to plate mail with no shield and to splint mail with shield and banded mail with shield.

View attachment 364601

The effect of having a shield is inconsistent in the chart. A battle axe against plate mail (AC 3) is -1 but against plate and shield is -3 so a -2 adjustment for the shield. However the axe gets a +2 against an unarmored person with no shield and a +1 against an unarmored person with a shield, so -1 adjustment for the shield. If you have AC 7 ring mail the axe gets +0 but AC 6 ring mail plus shield is also +0 so no shield adjustment. If you have AC 5 chain mail the axe gets -1 adjustment but against AC 4 chains and shield it gets +1 so a +2 shield adjustment there.

My favorite obscure rule then is that the 1e DMG suggests the whole AC adjustment thing is only a discretionary optional rule.

DMG page 28:
"WEAPON TYPES, “TO HIT” ADJUSTMENT NOTE
If you allow weapon type adjustments in your campaign please be certain to remember that these adjustments are for weapons versus specific types of armor, not necessarily against actual armor class. In most cases, monsters not wearing armor will not have any weapon type adjustment allowed, as monster armor class in such cases pertains to the size, shape, agility, speed, and/or magical nature of the creature. Not excluded from this, for example, would be an iron golem. However, monsters with horny or bony armor might be classed as plate mail if you so decide, but do so on a case-by-case basis. Naturally, monsters wearing armor will be subject to weapon type “to hit” adjustment."

I heard that Gygax don’t use this table of adjustment for his game, which makes the rule even more obscure!

 

[Evaniel]

While not quite a rule per se, there's a fun little tidbit (one of several, actually) from the TSR trading cards:

The card for "Javair," #176 from the 1992 set, has the only instance I've ever seen of someone having a magical longsword +2, +4 vs. peasants.

I played in a game where we fought that guy, and I took his sword. Every fight afterward usually featured me asking a variant of the following question: "but is it a peasant werewolf?"

 

[rgard]

2. Elves could not be resurrected or raised.
Elves (and half-orcs) had spirits, not souls, and raise dead and resurrection does not work on them. Sorry! You had to use reincarnation. Except ... a rod of resurrection would work. Why? Why not!

Yes. One of our clerics researched a new spell for this, "Recall Spirit" to resurrect elves.

 

[Lanefan]

EDIT: In an effort to put this tangent to rest, I'll reiterate that I don't think there's anything wrong with rules for farming per se. It's the assumption that a PC would take that much of an interest in farming, to the point of doing it themselves for a sustained period of time, that I found funny. In over three decades of playing RPGs, I've never even heard of anyone who wanted to play a non-adventuring character (except for that one guy in Skyrim), so the presumption in this book seemed amusing to me.

I've never known anyone to want to play a complete non-adventurer but I have known players (and been one myself, on occasion) who want to play a part-time adventurer who goes on maybe one or two adventures a year for a few weeks each time and spends the rest of the time in other pursuits e.g. politics, local affairs, stronghold construction/maintenance, stay-at-home duties, spell research, or - yes - farming.

 

[Reynard]

I've never known anyone to want to play a complete non-adventurer but I have known players (and been one myself, on occasion) who want to play a part-time adventurer who goes on maybe one or two adventures a year for a few weeks each time and spends the rest of the time in other pursuits e.g. politics, local affairs, stronghold construction/maintenance, stay-at-home duties, spell research, or - yes - farming.

Emphasis mine.

You know, like a freaking viking!

 

[overgeeked]

Magic-Users had to find spells on scrolls and in books and copy them down. Which means that every LFQW argument is the result of a Monty Haul referee handing out way, way too many spells to magic-users.

 

[Jack Daniel]

There are lots of obscure TSR rules that bring me joy, but my favorite is 8th level fighting men in 3LBB OD&D. Being the equivalent of Chainmail superhero figures, they automatically see invisible opponents, and any normal soldier-type enemies they're close enough to charge have to check morale or flee the battlefield.

 

[JEB]

"Sleep and slit" has been a staple tactic for low-level parties since forever round here.

The players in my OD&D game last weekend (who had mostly or exclusively played 5e before this) picked this up as a tactic very quickly. (Also, liberal use of burning oil.)

 

[MGibster]

Right? I mean, let's recall that Odysseus was a farmer and a king.

Odysseus was a farmer in the same way wealthy plantation owners in the American South were farmers. The majority of slaves in ancient Greece were used for agriculture and likely a wealthy man like Odysseus would have had them toiling on his land. It's true that Odysseus tried to feign madness by hitching a plow to a donkey and sowing his fields with salt, but I don't think anyone throught he was regularly plowing fields.