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

[Weiley31]

And how much of The Odyssey was about him working his farm?

Seriously, if your PC takes up an interest in farming, they should do it like Odysseus: pay someone else to manage the fields while they go adventuring.

But then the final boss of that campaign situation ends up being the farmer, who is, plot twist, revealed to be one of the 50 guys who's trying to shack up with your gal while you've been overseas.

 

[Weiley31]

Emphasis mine.

You know, like a freaking viking!

Just so happens we have a 2E book for that!!

 

[James Gasik]

Fun fact: you could have ability scores of up to 20 at character creation in Dark Sun, but if I recall correctly, it explicitly said that you didn't get these benefits if you had an Intelligence or Wisdom that high.

I couldn't find it in the first printing, but the revised campaign setting does note this. Did they suddenly find the advantage was too good, or were DM's constantly being bombarded by questions about "is it this, or this, or this? I'm immune to those!"

 

[overgeeked]

Just so happens we have a 2E book for that!!

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I loved all those leatherette books. Especially the historicals. Such a great series of books.

 

[James Gasik]

I loved all those leatherette books. Especially the historicals. Such a great series of books.

Some were a little crazy- there was a fun discussion about the Celts book a few months back, where they introduced Feats to the game.

 

[Alzrius]

I couldn't find it in the first printing, but the revised campaign setting does note this. Did they suddenly find the advantage was too good, or were DM's constantly being bombarded by questions about "is it this, or this, or this? I'm immune to those!"

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I'd guess the former, since I also recall that same book saying something to the effect of "if your character ever leaves Athas and goes to some other campaign world, lower their ability scores appropriately." So apparently you were only that strong, tough, wise, etc. because of some sort of effect specific to that world, and got busted down appropriately when you left.

 

[James Gasik]

I'd guess the former, since I also recall that same book saying something to the effect of "if your character ever leaves Athas and goes to some other campaign world, lower their ability scores appropriately." So apparently you were only that strong, tough, wise, etc. because of some sort of effect specific to that world, and got busted down appropriately when you left.

Maybe Athas has higher gravity like Barsoom, or it has something to do with the radiation emitted by it's sun.

 

[Voadam]

Some were a little crazy- there was a fun discussion about the Celts book a few months back, where they introduced Feats to the game.

Celts had crazy feat-like proficiencies such as the one for taking a to hit penalty to have a sword of sharpness chance of cutting off an opponent's arm with every attack, but feat like proficiencies date all the way back to 1e Oriental Adventures with fantastic things like Martial Arts and Blindfighting and showed up in a number of 1e and 2e AD&D sourcebooks.

 

[James Gasik]

Celts had crazy feat-like proficiencies such as the one for taking a to hit penalty to have a sword of sharpness chance of cutting off an opponent's arm with every attack, but feat like proficiencies date all the way back to 1e Oriental Adventures with fantastic things like Martial Arts and Blindfighting and showed up in a number of 1e and 2e AD&D sourcebooks.

Yeah, but they call them Feats in Celts.

 

[James Gasik]

Ok got another one. In case you ever wanted to know why being a chubby panda makes you a kung fu legend.