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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5597950" data-attributes="member: 18280">[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]:Thanks for the clear answer and interesting post.  As you note, I made attempts to be clear on the original thread where my experience might be skewed by the house rules my group used.  The conclusions I draw, however, are not based only on my experience.  Having run games in many locations, I have had discussions with literally hundreds of gamers during the 1e era about their experiences, and how my campaign design differed from what they expected.Something I was thinking about in the case of G1:  We have the post where T Foster suggests that Q's numbers, after his first attempt at taking missing XP into account, were still a bit off.  B/Q suggests that he is not going to "massage" the numbers to meet T Foster's experiences.  I would suggest that, on the contrary, finding out where those numbers must be to meet individual experiences may be as revealatory as the numbers themselves.  Especially if we can then examine the module, and see the places where a group is likely to miss (or lose) XP.Things that a deeper analysis should include are:*  The area that the module encompases.  You can then determine how long a "search everything" approach to the module would take.  You can examine that in light of other factors that mitigate against searching everything, such as wandering monsters, time limits (i.e., the poison gas in Tamoachin [sp?]), laired creatures with little or no treasure that could otherwise be avoided, etc.*  Map structure, as discussed, to determine something related to the odds of each path being taken.*  Any level-draining creatures or effects present in the module.  How likely they are to be encountered.  How likely they are to be effective if encountered.*  An examination of actual treasure placement that takes into account (1) if treasure is hidden or not, (2) how hidden, (3) the cost to remove, if any, (4) whether the treasure is bulky or portable, and (5) whether the treasure will still be there if the PCs withdraw and return.*  Assuming average damage per round, various potential routes could also be examined, to determine whether it is likely or not that the PCs will have to withdraw.It should be obvious that the play experience of something like Barrow King is going to be a lot more similar than, say Keep on the Borderlands, as BK has far more design elements that funnel play into a specific experience.(And, for the record, I have seen parties leave the Caves of Chaos without gaining a level in BD&D, 1e D&D, and 3e D&D.  Not because there are not potentially levels there, but because they had other interests to follow up on, and other things to do.  I have also, on many occasions, had PCs withdraw, only to discover that the humanoids they had nearly bested had fled in the night with their treasures.  This is ver much in accordance with the advice in the 1e DMG.)RC</blockquote>

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