Next year, I'm back to running AD&D

[Agamon]

It's not a purely AD&D thing, as I noted above, but it'll be easier with DM-designed adventures and with shorter statblocks.

Fair enough. Personally, my adventures were pretty static back when I played AD&D. But I was young and didn't really know better. But every adventure I've run since at least the mid-90's has been dynamic, it just makes more sense that way, and I've never had an issue with it, published or not. (In fact, I'm kinda proud of how I ran RttToEE, the complex was like a living organism...).

That said, maybe you might find it easier with simpler rules and homebrew adventures. And I do agree with your other two points.

 

[MerricB]

This will be my first campaign of AD&D 1st Edition as an adult, and it's informed by a lot of play since I first picked up the AD&D books (and the Basic set) in 1982 or thereabouts. Heck, it's going to be my 30th anniversary of D&D... I didn't realise that!

The only ongoing game I can remember running of 1E was when I was at school, running my friends through the Dragonlance modules. We finished DL1, and made it a little way into DL2 before that broke up.

I played in an ongoing 1E game in the late 80s (which turned into a hybrid 1e/2e game) that is the Greyhawk game that informs all my later Greyhawk campaigns. In that game, I played Meliander the Mage, who is familiar to all my current players. Meliander reached 12th level before that game ended.

At University, (early 90s) I ran a 2e game in the Realms for a couple of years, before abandoning D&D for a few years to play Amber, Marvel SH and Star Wars (WEG). And then I moved to Ballarat, and without roleplaying friends here, played a lot of Magic instead.

In the late 90s, I ran my first really successful Greyhawk campaign using 2E + Player's Option rules; very strong PC characterisation and a strong plot. That game ended after half the players moved away. However, a year or two later 3E came out, and since them I've been as busy running D&D as I ever have been: at least two campaigns from that point onwards, mostly in Greyhawk.

Cheers!

 

[Pilgrim]

I don't know if you've given it any consideration, but for that background you may want to take a look at the article for the "New" Barbarian that was put out in Dragon Magazine #148. It was a nice revision and cleanup that I think makes for a much better PC class than what was found in the UA.

Just a thought.

 

[ragboy]

I've been back in 1st edition land for a few years now, and I like it much better. I like playing 3.5, still, but I don't think I'll ever DM it again. 1e is streamlined, quick to develop, run and play. The interesting thing I found when I took my 3.5 players and threw them against 1e is the realization that they don't really have to look at their character sheet to figure out what to do. You really don't have to do this in 3.5, either, but everyone always does -- because your "capabilities" are very well defined in that system.

In 1e, if you want to smooze information out of someone, you just roleplay it with some possible dice rolling and bonuses based on your abilities. If you want to search, you start looking and time passes (and the threat of wandering monsters keeps you honest). It seemed to me, upon coming back that 1e left more to the gamers (DM and players) to work out without a lot of protocols. There's gaps in the rules, certainly, and there are rules that seem to be inscrutable at times, but Gygax invented rule 0. It's much easier for the DM to rule on the fly taking the situation, character, and threat into consideration, without a pre-defined protocol that tries to fit every situation.

Anyway -- I've played with 1e, Mentzer, C&C (which I love) and now the DCC roleplaying game (beta) over the last few years and have enjoyed the hell out of the old school revival.

Oh -- and to your three points:

- Henchman: Essential in 1e. They fill roles that may not be covered by PC's (cleric mostly in my game) and are ready to be PC's should the primary die or the player wants to take a different direction.
- Wandering Monsters: Lethal. 1e eschews balance. Characters learn the most important D&D skill of all: Running away.
- "Living" Dungeons: Probably the best revival of a concept. Seems that parties have to leave the dungeon more often in 1e (less ready healing generally). I do love the look on their face when the areas they've "cleared out" are re-occupied when they return.

I'll add to this list something that I missed (even though it's a major pain in the butt for the DM): Timekeeping. There are consequences for "taking 20" for every 10' square of a room to search. Maybe it's a punishing wandering monster table, but more often for me, it's intelligent dungeon dwellers that make preparations for the terminally loud and raucous adventuring party while they take their time moving from room to room.

 

[Janx]

I'll add to this list something that I missed (even though it's a major pain in the butt for the DM): Timekeeping. There are consequences for "taking 20" for every 10' square of a room to search. Maybe it's a punishing wandering monster table, but more often for me, it's intelligent dungeon dwellers that make preparations for the terminally loud and raucous adventuring party while they take their time moving from room to room.

part of this might be negated, by the guidance from another thread's historical research that Gary recommend that only 20% of the rooms be populated.

If only one in 5 rooms has a monster in it, that probably means some distance, such that occupants in the room 3 doors down may not hear it.

While the living dungeon concept has merit, such as restocking it if the PCs leave it for a while, or shuffling critters around to adapt to what the PCs have been doing, the challenge is balancing the work for the GM.

There's a reason its easy to read off the description for room 5 and roll init, than to do all that other stuff. thusly, it becomes easier to write down, the goblins have fortified in room 6, because of all the noise the PCs will be making, rather than dynamically decide to do that in the middle of the session.

 

[MerricB]

I don't know if you've given it any consideration, but for that background you may want to take a look at the article for the "New" Barbarian that was put out in Dragon Magazine #148. It was a nice revision and cleanup that I think makes for a much better PC class than what was found in the UA.

Just a thought.

One of the odd things about Unearthed Arcana is that a lot of the material got worse (less balanced, explanations missing) than when it was originally published in Dragon Magazine. Comeliness is a case in point.

Just looking at the article... oh, look, it's a David Howery article.

I have massive problems with the Barbarian - even David's take on it still retains a lot of the problems, such as its XP table and hatred of magic-users. It's very much a class made for NPC work, or for a group of one or two players. Yes, Chert is nice in the Gord books, but most groups I play with want a magic-user in the group...

Of course, Dave's version also uses Non-Weapon proficiencies, which I won't be using - the game is primarily just the core books, before everything went pear-shaped with the publication of Deities and Demigods.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

part of this might be negated, by the guidance from another thread's historical research that Gary recommend that only 20% of the rooms be populated.

I know Gary originally had 1/3 rooms with monsters in them (OD&D, Basic D&D), and the solo/random dungeon generation system had 25% of the rooms with monsters in them.

The Monster & Treasure Assortment drops the figure to 20%, but I'm not sure if that's Gary's number - does anyone know who compiled that work?

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Just be careful about removing this if you are still going to use treasure as xp. The PCs will become very wealthy quickly. I do think the training costs need adjustment though. Adventuring without xp gain just to gather enough cash to train blows. I think a middle ground with reasonable training costs can work.

The training costs are... ahem... problematic. I certainly intend XP for treasure, but the wealth of the PCs will (hopefully) be drained by henchmen, followers, strongholds and all that fun stuff.

I'll assess if the game needs the training rules as we get underway.

Report often once this gets running.

I hope to!

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

I'll add to this list something that I missed (even though it's a major pain in the butt for the DM): Timekeeping. There are consequences for "taking 20" for every 10' square of a room to search. Maybe it's a punishing wandering monster table, but more often for me, it's intelligent dungeon dwellers that make preparations for the terminally loud and raucous adventuring party while they take their time moving from room to room.

One of the interesting aspects of old D&D - and I speak more about Moldvay Basic than AD&D here - is that it has a very nice flow of keeping track of time and the wandering monsters then add time pressure.

(AD&D had those elements, but, alas and alack, failed to explain them. There's no actual explanation of the wandering monster procedure in the AD&D rules!)

Once I combine AD&D and Moldvay, I come to this form of keeping track of time, which I intend to use.

For these examples, I'm assuming that the speed of the party is 6"

* "Exploring" actions take place on the turn scale (1 turn=10 minutes). When you search a room, it takes a turn. When you engage in combat, it takes 1 turn. (Admittedly AD&D has 1 minute rounds compared to the shorter rounds of Basic, but I hope most combats don't go above 10 rounds...)

* Movement rate when mapping is 60 feet per turn.

* Movement rate when not mapping is 60 feet per round - or 600 feet per turn.

* Standard Wandering Monsters will be encountered 1 in 6, once per two turns.

I certainly know that this group hates mapping... and they also have Greg, who managed (when the group lost a map once due to the mapper being teleported away and enslaved by a Knight of Hell) to guide them flawlessly out of the dungeon two weeks after the previous session, despite me using elevators and the like.

Cheers!

 

[The Shaman]

I hope you're planning on keeping an adventure log or campaign journal - should be a hoot.