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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mallus" data-source="post: 5769692" data-attributes="member: 3887">I'm currently running a face-to-face AD&D semi-sandbox set in the early days of our group's 4e homebrew, now with added Zak S.'s Vornheim & OSR influences!I'm in the "the challenging bits still have to be fun" camp. My players aren't too keen on amateur cartography, so I've been doing the (crude) mapping during the dungeon exploration bits. If nothing else, its faster, and we're all about upping the speed of play (after years of 3e & 4e campaigns). I also remind the players of things they should remember -- or at the very least allow for INT/WIS checks to recall. We're all busy professionals, half with young children, it's simply not feasible to ask my group to fixate on the details of the campaign like we did when we were in high school. Use of random encounters/tables works. Let a good part of the game environment emerge from the dice. I was resistant to this at first, since I'm an inveterate world-builder (plus I love the setting wank I invent). But there's really no substitute for the thrill of surprise -- not just in terms of how the players react, but what they're reacting to. There's definite value to having opponents "kick the doors in" when the action starts to flag, but outright in-game punishments for bad player behavior -- there's never a call for that, and I have to think advice along those lines are an example of EGG's rather sly sense of humor... Big danger, big rewards, less overt rewards structure. In a game where a stroll outside could mean a run-in with a chicken that can turn you to stone, common insects poison grown men to death, and so on, I have no problem with a plenitude of ancient treasures in every nook and cranny. Put another way, the traditional D&D experience is built on excess. I like that tradition. In the last session of my AD&D campaign, the 4th/5th level PCs got their hands on +2 elven chain mail, a +2 short sword, and a pouch of Dust of Disappearance (my own fault for importing two NPC's from the Village of Hommlet!). The did this by drunkenly, and in their underwear, exploring a secret passage in the inn they were staying in and surprising the assassin coming to murder/loot them. The thief PC now has an AC of -2. At level 5. Of course, the party will need all the help they can get -- they're trying to take out a whole thieves' guild. C'est le guerre.</blockquote>

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