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

[MGibster]

I'm not sure how that is relevant. Having those farming rules in the book would still be necessary for this -- maybe even more so, because we are talking about scale now.

Someone argued Odysseus was a farmer. Like I said, he was a farmer in the same way a plantation owner in South Carolina circa 1850 was a farmer. I wasn't arguing whether the farming rules should be there. Though now that I think about it, they probably shouldn't be there. It's Dungeons & Dragons not Farmers & Ferrets.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Someone argued Odysseus was a farmer. Like I said, he was a farmer in the same way a plantation owner in South Carolina circa 1850 was a farmer. I wasn't arguing whether the farming rules should be there. Though now that I think about it, they probably shouldn't be there. It's Dungeons & Dragons not Farmers & Ferrets.

 

[Reynard]

Someone argued Odysseus was a farmer.

That was me.

Like I said, he was a farmer in the same way a plantation owner in South Carolina circa 1850 was a farmer.

Which they were.

I wasn't arguing whether the farming rules should be there. Though now that I think about it, they probably shouldn't be there. It's Dungeons & Dragons not Farmers & Ferrets.

And my argument that D&D has always been about more than dungeons or dragons. Because Gygax aimed for something like simulation (not in the GNS sense, but in the more commonly understood definition) the characters is his campaign tried to create and build things outside the dungeon, and many retired or semi-retired. in the pre-modern context of the fiction that is D&D, "farmer" is a profession -- peasant is a class.

And I still maintain that a small sidebar on what a "gentelman farmer" can expect to earn per acre is no harm to anyone and a benefit to at least some, so a net good.

 

[Reynard]

View attachment 364683

The idea that out D&D games should never include anything not-stabby is, frankly, dumb. And boring.

 

[MGibster]

And I still maintain that a small sidebar on what a "gentelman farmer" can expect to earn per acre is no harm to anyone and a benefit to at least some, so a net good.

I'm with you on the no harm thing. But it's a rule I'm very unlikely to use and I can't imagine many people sitting down to play AD&D wanted the Sim Farm experience.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The idea that out D&D games should never include anything not-stabby is, frankly, dumb. And boring.

I completely agree. One of the wonderful things about the 1e DMG is that it had all of these wonderful world-building elements in it that spoke to the larger world; everything from the rules about scribes to the listing of diseases to the different types of government (where Gygax created the neologism magocracy).

Admittedly, some of them were from out of left-field (the different mining speeds for different types of humanoids, in case you wanted to hire fire or stone giants to excavate the area underneath your keep, I guess?), and some of it was evocative (now I know just how much it will cost to puchhase a suspended cauldron in order to cover my enemies with boiling grease!) but it all combines to create a sense of wonder and a feeling of a world beyond just that of the adventurers.

Finally, my favorite term-

Murder hole: This is a slit, crossletted slit, or similar opening in a floor to command a passageway below. In combination with inner portcullis, inner wall slits, and pits, they make an entrance passage in a gatehouse or similar structure very unhealthy for attackers.

How unheatlhy? VERY UNHEALTHY!

 

[TwoSix]

That was me.

Which they were.

And my argument that D&D has always been about more than dungeons or dragons. Because Gygax aimed for something like simulation (not in the GNS sense, but in the more commonly understood definition) the characters is his campaign tried to create and build things outside the dungeon, and many retired or semi-retired. in the pre-modern context of the fiction that is D&D, "farmer" is a profession -- peasant is a class.

And I still maintain that a small sidebar on what a "gentelman farmer" can expect to earn per acre is no harm to anyone and a benefit to at least some, so a net good.

There are certainly D&D adjacent games out there with a strong focus on economic simulation if one is interested.

 

[Reynard]

There are certainly D&D adjacent games out there with a strong focus on economic simulation if one is interested.

And there is a long and storied history of D&D including those elements -- up to an including 5E with its somewhat anemic if well intentioned downtime rules. These things are and always have been D&D.

 

[cranberry]

Psionic blasting the average fighter will cause them to become enraged (1E)

 

[Alzrius]

Anyone else remember that old artifact, Johydee's Mask? Did you know that in fact, it wasn't actually an artifact at all?

Well, sort of.

See, when TSR decided to put out their impressive Encyclopedia Magica (affiliate link) series, they had to figure out what to do with magic items that had the same name but were different enough from each other that they were effectively separate and distinct items. The solution they came up with was to append them with Roman numerals. So far so good.

But for some reason, in volume two of Encyclopedia Magica, the entry for Johydee's Mask from the AD&D 1E DMG (page 158), where it's clearly listed as an artifact alongside the likes of Heward's Mystical Organ or the Machine of Lum the Mad, was downgraded to an ordinary magic item. It had XP and GP values and everything (8,000 and 40,000, respectively). It was even listed in the random magic item tables in volume four (Table K), so this was clearly no mistake. Particularly since the AD&D 2E version of Joydee's Mask, from the Book of Artifacts (and listed in the EM as Johydee's Mask II), is still listed as an actual artifact.

Also, for some reason Encyclopedia Magica volume four only has an entry for the Wand of Orcus as it appeared in OD&D's Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry, omitting the entry given on page 162 of the AD&D 1E DMG. I recall being quite ticked about that when I first noticed it, since I was reading the Planescape mega-adventure Dead Gods at the time, in which the Wand of Orcus plays a notable role.