[nostalgia] Looking back at the stupid crap we used to do

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

By 15th level or so we were using Deities and Demigods as our Monster Manual...

I forgot about my own Deities & Demigods experiences.

Deities & Demigods was the first of the AD&D books that I received as a gift. I had been playing Basic/Expert D&D for about 2 years, and a friend loaned me some of his hardcover AD&D books. He had the 1st printing of Deities, and I fell in love with the Cthulhu Mythos descriptions in the book (that was actually my first encounter with the mythos...). After pestering my mother for the book for a few months, I got it as a Christmas gift. Imagine my horror when I found that the Cthulhu Mythos (as well as the Elric stuff) had been removed. Anyway, we proceded to use our Basic D&D characters to go through Deities, killing off many of the gods and unique monsters in it, and writing "DEAD" next to the entries in the book. I still have the book, and there are lots of dead gods in there.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Well, ninjas are mammals after all...

And they have REAL ULTIMATE POWER!!1!!1!!!11!!

 

[Sepulchrave II]

1e.

25th level characters, I don't remember all of them, but they included Sir Scum (an anti-paladin) and Sockstring (a bard). I was DM. I vividly recall one scene, when they were preparing to beat up Bahamut and discussing marching order, that went like this:



Evil Cleric gates Asmodeus in.

[Sir Scum]: You coming then, Az?

[Asmodeus]: (Nods)

[Sir Scum]: Did you bring your rod, Az?

[Asmodeus]: (Shows ruby rod)

[Sockstring]: Well, Ok, I guess. You'd still better go in the middle, Az. You're a bit of a wimp.

[Asmodeus]: (Nods in a resigned fashion).

 

[ThirdWizard]

I started DMing never actually having been told any of the rules about how the game was played (DM was a bit overbearing I suppose, but it didn't bother me then). So, I looked through the rules and reading up on the leveling system, thought that every level you rolled how much HD was shown in the tables... in other words, when it said 4d6 for a 4th level character, I let that character roll up 4d6 in addition to what they already had. Noone ever corrected me.

It took me a while to figure out why the monsters were so very weak. But, I did have the last laugh. When I realized the mistake, I started rolling monster hp the same way. So that monster with 8 hit dice rolled 8! (factorial) hit dice!

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

[Sockstring]: Well, Ok, I guess. You'd still better go in the middle, Az. You're a bit of a wimp.

[Asmodeus]: (Nods in a resigned fashion).

LOL!

 

[der_kluge]

1e.

25th level characters, I don't remember all of them, but they included Sir Scum (an anti-paladin) and Sockstring (a bard). I was DM. I vividly recall one scene, when they were preparing to beat up Bahamut and discussing marching order, that went like this:



Evil Cleric gates Asmodeus in.

[Sir Scum]: You coming then, Az?

[Asmodeus]: (Nods)

[Sir Scum]: Did you bring your rod, Az?

[Asmodeus]: (Shows ruby rod)

[Sockstring]: Well, Ok, I guess. You'd still better go in the middle, Az. You're a bit of a wimp.

[Asmodeus]: (Nods in a resigned fashion).

LOL! I think Sepulchrave II wins!

I mean, we only ever killed one god (Sertyr) that I can recall. I don't feel *so* bad now.

 

[der_kluge]

One of my High school friends showed me his 104th level Wizard character that he claims that he played to get that high. 25s in every ability score, 1s for all his saves. Craziness.

 

[buzzard]

It took me a while to figure out why the monsters were so very weak. But, I did have the last laugh. When I realized the mistake, I started rolling monster hp the same way. So that monster with 8 hit dice rolled 8! (factorial) hit dice!

No, that's not quite 8!. You are talking about 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8= 36 HD. Eight factorial would be 1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8= 40320. That's a lot of d8s.

I can't really come up with any egregious DMing faux pas for myself, since I didn't DM when I was a young munchkin. I do remember my DM having my 1st level ranger kill a giant purple worm via pure DM fiat. I believe he also managed to kill off 100 kobolds by himself (they were nice enough to attack 4 at a time, and damage was allowed to spill over).

buzzard

 

[Silver Moon]

i have a dungeon with 10 levels and over 1000 rooms i plan on springing on my newest recruits. I used it 24 years ago. i don't think they will know what hit them.

And I now think the 6-level 300 room castle I designed 22 years ago was overkill! I suppose I should did it out again sometime and use it once more, probably with my "kids group".

 

[Impeesa]

If I made any grievous errors (other than using Combat & Tactics), I have since blocked out the memories... I do recall running what you might call "rules-light" 2E. Basically, we started with 1E core books (dug out of friend's dad's closet), then upgraded to a 2E PHB/DMG and a few supplements. Still using the 1E MM though. If I wanted an NPC, the stat block consisted of hp, damage per attack, and hit number. Hit number was the number I had to roll above to hit a player. I think I gave them an AC as well, but don't quote me on that. Players levelled when I felt like it (every couple sessions or so), and we had a disturbing mix of high-power and low-magic. Nobody had any magical items other than a unique weapon of some sort and maybe some armor. Due to a few wishes and such, the monk did wind up with a muscle (sub-score of Str) of 25 though. We never did look up how saving throws worked, since the main PCs were a monk and a ranger (no major offensive spells) and I usually just made an off-the-cuff call for monster/NPC abilities working. Ah, I could go on and on...