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

[Mannahnin]

Good to see someone else is banging the drum while I am mostly absent! Protip- get a macro for that.

Also? You need to start the bard hatin'.

The Elusive Shift is the path to the Snarf side.
The Elusive Shift leads to anger at soulless, dead-eyed elves.
Anger at soulless, dead-eyed elves leads to hatred of bards
Hatred of bards leads to making other people suffer through long and pointless essays.

Sorry, ya gotta do your own bard-hating. This is a Cappen Varra, Silver John the Balladeer, and Kardios of Atlantis Stan account.

I think maybe I read The Elusive Shift before you did. Perhaps that's why I'm not susceptible to the curse?

(I'm sorry I didn't get you a Yule present; I was too torn between T-shirts reading "I'm like a chocoholic, but for booze" and "I'm like a serial killer, but for bards." Also, I don't know where you live.)

 

[Staffan]

Magic items are a thing gained as you advance, as a default expectation of D&D. I don't think the fact that you find them as loot is as big a difference as you're implying. Traditionally they've been a huge part of the character power of non-casters, in particular. I take issue with your use of the term "punish" for not automatically mitigating a limitation of the chosen character which the player is able to proactively address in play.

That depends a lot on which edition we're talking about. Having magic items has always been part of the expected power progression of D&D, but it's only been 3e and 4e where that power has been expected to be under the control of the players themselves. In AD&D and in 5e (at least 5.0, I don't know if 5.5 has changed this aspect) PCs get whatever items the DM puts in front of them, which can either be DM fiat or random table rolls. But in 3e and 4e, you're expected to be able to buy and sell magic items, so if you're not happy with a long sword +2, you can sell it and buy a spiked chain +2 instead (well, you probably won't get full price, but you get the picture). If you need a pair of goggles of night, you just have to spend enough gold. I believe one of the 3e folks (might have been Ryan Dancey) described the 3e item system as a point-based system bolted onto a class/level-based one, except the "character point" is renamed the "gold piece".

 

[Mannahnin]

This.

And it saddens me greatly that since then, at the design level, that sense of mystery has been tossed aside.

Eh. I think it's good for players to understand core mechanics of the game, and fundamentally unavoidable if you're going to have a long-running and fair game, wherein they have agency to make meaningful decisions. A gamble never feels fair if you can't at least estimate the odds.

It's certainly possible for good designers to incorporate mystery back in, though, with mechanics like the artifacts system from 1E (which can be easily implemented in less-complex form with regular magic items, though it requires some creative work).

 

[Mannahnin]

That depends a lot on which edition we're talking about. Having magic items has always been part of the expected power progression of D&D, but it's only been 3e and 4e where that power has been expected to be under the control of the players themselves. In AD&D and in 5e (at least 5.0, I don't know if 5.5 has changed this aspect) PCs get whatever items the DM puts in front of them, which can either be DM fiat or random table rolls. But in 3e and 4e, you're expected to be able to buy and sell magic items, so if you're not happy with a long sword +2, you can sell it and buy a spiked chain +2 instead (well, you probably won't get full price, but you get the picture). If you need a pair of goggles of night, you just have to spend enough gold. I believe one of the 3e folks (might have been Ryan Dancey) described the 3e item system as a point-based system bolted onto a class/level-based one, except the "character point" is renamed the "gold piece".

Sure, but in old school in particular, which is the context we're talking about, magic items were expected and necessary in a normal campaign.

Heck, in 1974 the ability to use magic swords (and the entire magic weapons table, for that matter- IIRC Clerics could only use 5% of it and Magic-Users 2%) was functionally a class ability for Fighters.

 

[Staffan]

Sure, but in old school in particular, which is the context we're talking about, magic items were expected and necessary in a normal campaign.

Magic items in general, yes. That particular magic item that covers a weakness of your character, no.

 

[Mannahnin]

Magic items in general, yes. That particular magic item that covers a weakness of your character, no.

Right, which was my point. While getting magic items was expected and necessary (and being able to use certain ones was a class ability), getting the specific one you want without taking any proactive steps to get it wasn't.

 

[Alzrius]

Another 2E-era obscure rule: D&D once had rules for different levels of reality within the context of the game world. This actually came up in two different products for two different campaign settings, with the differing reality levels being as follows:

Reality level 1 was for ordinary dreams your characters have.

Reality level 2 is for dreams that have been "stabilized" (for lack of a better term), giving them a greater degree of permanence than they'd otherwise have, and (if I recall correctly) they don't necessarily end when the dreamer wakes up. This was a major aspect of Ravenloft's The Nightmare Lands boxed set.

Reality level 3 is the "normal" reality of the game world.

Reality level 4 is "hyper-reality," which is largely manifested in terms of effects operating at something like +25% of their normal output. This level of reality got a spotlight at the end of the Planescape adventure Doors to the Unknown, where the PCs go to a section of hyper-reality tucked away in Mount Celestia (i.e. the Seven Heavens), and meet a group native to that level of reality, known as the mercurials.

As I recall, none of this was mentioned outside of those two products (though some other stuff related to dreams vaguely nodded in its direction).

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[billd91]

Simply adding the words "...or prove a vacancy exists" gets around all these issues, but those words ain't there in the original rules.

Yeah, until the authorities realize there's always a convenient "vacancy" in each of the levels as a certain someone is ready to advance into it. Then they start asking questions, investigating all these "accidents" or "untimely deaths", and pretty soon you're up on a serial killer charge.

 

[Voadam]

The 1e MM lich entry does not say it regenerates from its phylactery when its body is destroyed. You need Greenwood's Dragon article or Lords of Darkness to get the new body from a phylactery stuff.

The closest the MM entry says is: "A lich exists because of its own desires and the use of powerful and arcane magic. The lich passes from a state of humanity to a non-human, non-living existence through force of will. It retains this status by certain conjurations, enchantments, and a phylactery."