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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9356461" data-attributes="member: 7045072">I personally find that simple rules that actually have subtle and interesting effects on the game are the most valuable* My favorite edition and rules are all from OD&D's Little Brown Books (Greyhawk doesn't exits for me - I deny it is real except for the page including harquebuses as ranged weapons - that can stay).  One example is these lovely tidbits:[ATTACH=full]364821[/ATTACH]So surprise is very powerful, but for the party, the chance of it largely exists as a benefit for picking the locks on locked doors or successfully smashing open a stuck door on the first try. Monsters of course can all see in the dark and get a chance at surprise a lot (opening a potential for scouting and spells that scout...).  Of course reaction tables means few monsters attack instantly (as BECMI and later editions love saying with the added ... "until dead") except...[ATTACH=full]364822[/ATTACH]Meaning that the 2 in 6 chance of surprise is also a way to increase monster aggression, beyond the 2 on the 2D6 reaction roll ... but not always for intelligent monsters. It's a few elegant changes based on the way light works in a game without common darkvision for PCs - that it makes things tricky for players is evidenced by the speed that infravision becomes popular among Gygax's players and the D&D community. These rules though are easy to adapt to any edition where you use reaction rolls and want to add danger or encourage risk taking exploration.So also have so many knock-on effects and implications that haven't really been explored. They potentially give a role to thieves or other sneaky types (if you let them hide in shadows - see in dim light to avoid surprise while scouting).  Without eliminating darkvision though surprise is still good, unless the whole party has it, but is they are ignored surprise becomes largely a base benefit to the players or at most a random risk - they are usually willing to take the risk of being surprised to gain the advantage of getting it. Plus the reaction roll - with its tendency to prevent combat becomes more dominant.  I think anyone who wants a tense dungeon crawls ... survival horror as the youth say ... can adopt these rules to good effect. I love these kinds of little rules that neatly fit into the whole edifice of rules for big effects. Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (an LBB) is FULL of them, and well worth a careful read if you know how your later editions work. Look at Philotomy's Musings if you want some more theoretical examples, and the Necropraxis blog.*So pretty much nothing from BECMI (Some interesting stuff in Companion) or AD&D - which too often feels like silly minutia that takes up time and mental energy for very little benefit - though the essays in the DMG are worthwhile. I know I am really down on AD&D and Greyhawk... but Gygax was a great dungeon designer, had amazing theories about setting and a mostly good promoter so cheer him for that - not the kludge of his combat rules, or multiclassing, or polearm obession...</blockquote>

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