I'm going to run a 1e game

[Obryn]

What you do is ignore it until/unless to see the slumming problem. Only then do you start using it confident that the book is backing you up on this when the players complain. (^_^)

Oh yeah, absolutely.

I think, though, that my players are big enough XP/gold fanatics, they will do this on their own soon enough, even without any tweaking. "What? We got 40 XP for that? But I need 200,000... Crap, let's just find a dragon or something."

-O

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I think, though, that my players are big enough XP/gold fanatics, they will do this on their own soon enough, even without any tweaking.

Yeah, I've never run into the problem of the players hanging around to kill giant rats and not pressing forward for bigger loot.

 

[SableWyvern]

I've been looking at running a 1E game myself of late, and thought I'd chime in on the weapon vs AC debate.

My initial instinct was to ignore it, but doing so has a significant impact on the value of some weapons. I also like the idea of a fighter putting away his longsword and grabbing a footman's pick if he knows he's about to come up against some heavily armoured guys.

Having said that, keeping track of the base AC of every combatant seems like far too large a chore for my liking. Instead, I divided armours into Heavy (plate, banded, splint, chain), Medium (studded, ring, scale) and Light (padded, leather, none). I then averaged the modifiers for each weapon for each category. Now no one needs to memorise the base AC for every armour type, you just relate the armour to the category. Also makes applying modifiers to monsters easy. Dragons and chitinous things get Heavy, most other tough hides get Medium and everything else is Light.

I'm confident that will speed things up significantly on the players' side. I'm still it bit leery of running fights were I have monsters with a wide variety of weapons on hand, though.

 

[Thondor]

I too long to run ToEE in 1e AD&D.

I've been planning it for a long time to. The problem has been that my group is made up of (mostly) old High School friends, back in Ottawa, while I go to university in Toronto (5 hours away). Still someday.

I started playing 1e as my introduction to D&D and started ToEE but never finished it. I've never DMed 1e or owned any of the books till relatively recently.

I bought the original core three books and ToEE about a week before Gary Gygax died. Fact I was reading the DMG when I logged on to enworld and read the news. sigh, At least I got to know him through his original works.

In any case much of the above conversations have been helpful to me. And I'd like to add something of my own:

Anyone who wants to run ToEE should at least look at the breathtaking maps posted at [FONT=&quot]http://www.danielrivera.org/maps.htm[/FONT]
This site was critical for me as my ToEE book came without the map-booklet (and was therefore cheaper, as was my DMG because the cover was bound on upside down -- wich is actually kinda cool)

 

[Obryn]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread with another quick rules question. This one's on casting times.

I have a cleric, and he's casting a 7-segment spell.

After initiative, we determine that I am acting on segment 6.

Which of the following happens?

(1) Assuming I don't get hit, I finish my spell up at the end of the round in a 'phantom' 13th segment and act normally next round; or

(2) My casting "rolls over" into the next round after segment 10, and I don't finish casting until segment 3 of next round - making it possible I'll get hit if we roll low on our initiative die.


If it's Option 2, what's my status in that next round? Do I still get to act in it? What if my party is acting on segment 2? Do I just act on Segment 4 after I'm done, or should I add 3+2 and act on Segment 5?

Moreso - say I'm casting a full round spell. I am guessing I should read that as a 10-segment casting time?

Thanks - I'm still trying to wrap my brain around 1e initiative.

-O

 

[T. Foster]

There is no "By The Book" answer to this question; it's an ambiguity in the rules (and a lot of folks would reject your entire premise and state that a 7-segment spell finishes up on segment 7 regardless of initiative roll -- this is the interpretation favored by "ADDICT" at dragonsfoot, for instance).

That said, I believe those who favor your Option 2 would generally say that the character loses his action in the next round. This was, IIRC, how Gygax handled it in his later years (though he also changed to d10-roll-low, so he was clearly not following the 1E BTB rules exactly).

 

[Obryn]

There is no "By The Book" answer to this question; it's an ambiguity in the rules (and a lot of folks would reject your entire premise and state that a 7-segment spell finishes up on segment 7 regardless of initiative roll -- this is the interpretation favored by "ADDICT" at dragonsfoot, for instance).

Alrighty. As before, I was making sure there was nothing that I'd missed.

Also, that's an interesting way to do things, re: spells just occur after their casting times. I'll have to figure out whether or not I like it...

That said, I believe those who favor your Option 2 would generally say that the character loses his action in the next round. This was, IIRC, how Gygax handled it in his later years (though he also changed to d10-roll-low, so he was clearly not following the 1E BTB rules exactly).

Yeah, I was thinking of changing Initiative to d6-roll-low. It allows for the possibility of more than 2 groups per combat, and avoids the counter-intuitive dice swap. It probably works fine in play, once you get used to it, but to be honest it kinda hurts my brain.

-O

 

[Henry]

Yeah, I was thinking of changing Initiative to d6-roll-low. It allows for the possibility of more than 2 groups per combat, and avoids the counter-intuitive dice swap. It probably works fine in play, once you get used to it, but to be honest it kinda hurts my brain.

I use the as-written in my convention games I run, because I advertise it as "as by the book as I can make it", but if I were running them for home games I'd do it with d6-low-roll, also. When I realized that weapon speeds really only count for maybe once or twice per combat, I realized all the 2nd edition changes were really quite terrible - It's almost like they misread the rules, too!

 

[T. Foster]

when i realized that weapon speeds really only count for maybe once or twice per combat, i realized all the 2nd edition changes were really quite terrible - it's almost like they misread the rules, too!

qft

 

[Obryn]

(and a lot of folks would reject your entire premise and state that a 7-segment spell finishes up on segment 7 regardless of initiative roll -- this is the interpretation favored by "ADDICT" at dragonsfoot, for instance).

After some consideration, I've decided I really like this. It avoids the weird situation where someone who wins initiative will have to wait until a spellcaster starts before attacking.

It also avoids the screwiness inherent in my example, too.

-O