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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9640748" data-attributes="member: 42582">This is from Gygax in his DMG (pp 9, 110):For example, the rules call for wandering monsters, but these can be not only irritating - if not deadly - but the appearance of such can actually spoil a game by interfering with an orderly expedition You have set up an area full of clever tricks and traps, populated it with well-thought-out creature complexes, given clues about it to pique players' interest, and the group has worked hard to supply themselves with everything by way of information and equipment they will need to face and overcome the imagined perils. They are gathered together and eager to spend an enjoyable evening playing their favorite game, with the expectation of going to a new, strange area and doing their best to triumph. They are willing to accept the hazards of the dice, be it loss of items, wounding, insanity, disease, death, as long as the process is exciting. But lo!, everytime you throw the ”monster die” a wandering nasty is indicated, and the party’s strength is spent trying to fight their way into the area. Spells expended, battered and wounded, the characters trek back to their base. Expectations have been dashed, and probably interest too, by random chance. Rather than spoil such an otherwise enjoyable time, omit the wandering monsters indicated by the die. No, don’t allow the party to kill them easily or escape unnaturally, for that goes contrary to the major precepts of the game. Wandering monsters, however, are included for two reasons, as is explained in the section about them. If a party deserves to have these beasties inflicted upon them, that is another matter, but in the example above it is assumed that they are doing everything possible to travel quickly and quietly to their planned destination. If your work as a DM has been sufficient, the players will have all they can handle upon arrival, so let them get there, give them a chance. The game is the thing, and certain rules can be distorted or disregarded altogether in favor of play. Know the game systems, and you will know how and when to take upon yourself the ultimate power. . . . Now and then a player will die through no fault of his own. He or she will have done everything correctly, taken every reasonable precaution, but still the freakish roll of the dice will kill the character. In the long run you should let such things pass as the players will kill more than one opponent with their own freakish rolls at some later time. Yet you do have the right to arbitrate the situation. You can rule that the player, instead of dying, is knocked unconscious, loses a limb, is blinded in one eye or invoke any reasonably severe penalty that still takes into account what the monster has done. It is very demoralizing to the players to lose a cared-for-player character when they have played well. When they have done something stupid or have not taken precautions, then let the dice fall where they may!Nothing here implies - for instance - that the core combat mechanics are an option for the GM to apply or disregard at will. Quite to the contrary! And the ethos is crystal clear: skilled play should be rewarded (including by potentially ignoring wandering monster dice - in effect, declining to roll them - and by treating zero hp as something other than death), but unskilled play merits the visiting of full consequence (wandering monsters, PC death and the like) upon those players.Other core mechanics are evasion and pursuit; morale (for those monsters whose description does not specify that they will fight to the death); and various PC build elements such as character spells and thieves' abilities.Obviously AD&D contains many peripheral, and hence optional, systems - eg the rules for naval warfare and aerial combat; the rules for conducting sieges; the rules for planar travel - but the core rules for establishing challenges and consequences in dungeon exploration are not presented as optional. Ignoring them, as Gygax says, would be contrary to the major precepts of the game.</blockquote>

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