Melkor said:
Thanks for the response Gary.
I appreciate you taking the time to address one of the "tricky" parts of AD&D that has left a question mark in my mind for years.
A few follow-up 1st Edition questions if I may:
Groan! Seeing as how you are so polite, how can I refuse? So even though I am in the modst of detailing a dungeon level's encounters I'll break for a bvit and respond.
How many of the rules in the original Unearthed Arcana, Wilderness Survival Guide, and Dungeoneer's Survival Guide made their way into your campaigns (Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that only a limited amount of material found in UA was actually written by you) ?
All of the material in UA was mainly of my creation, gathered from articles I wrote in
Dragon magazine. virtually oll of that material was used in my campaign, much of it before the book was published. I never used anything from the other two books, though, the survival guides.
Did you use Ability/Attribute checks in your campaigns, or did you assign an arbitrary percent chance to activities that the character might attempt which were not covered by class abilities ?
If a player wanted a character to do something not covered by class but otherwise logically possible I would usually have a check rolled against the associated ability, with a bonus or penalty depending on the action and the difficulty rating I considered applicable. the rolls were made on d20 against the ability, as adjusted, a score of at or under the number arrived at meaninga success.
How did you handle situations where a character of one class (say Fighter) was attempting to use Move Silently or Climb Walls - Two situations that when taken literally (i.e. - the Thief can Move with ABSOLUTE SILENCE whereas someone else might attempt to move stealthily, and the Thief can climb SHEER SURFACES wheras someone else might climb a rough cliff, or a tree), would mean that only the Thief could attempt them, but when looked at in a broader fashion, might be allowed for a character of any class ?
Generally common sense was applied. A fighter in metal armor can't move silently, but without that impediment a Dex ability roll with modifiers for surface and/or footwear, would be called for. Same for climbing, metal armor makes that almost impossible, plate particularly so. When climbing or some like activity, was required for a group, I set a probability for all non-thieves, and had each player roll for his PC. The check might have been on any die; for example jumping over a crevass might use d6, a 6 meaning a failure, or a d10 with 9-0 or only 0 a failure. Again, arbitrary perhaps, but based on common sense. the main idea was to convey the sense of danger with a reasonable chance for success, perhaps a more than reasonable one for the sake of the game
How were "Secondary Skills" used in your campaigns ? Did you just allow a bonus when making an Ability Check if the character posessed a relevant Secondary Skills ?
Most of my players ignored such opportunities, being contyent to focus on activities of their PC class. When someone wanted to include secondary skills I'd allow them to choose from the list or make up their own. Application was automatic if a simple use, otherwise a chack against an applicable ability score was made, modified as needed by difficulty and circumstances.
And finally, in the years you have had to look back upon 1st Edition, are there any specific things that you would have changed about the system if you had the opportunity to revise it ?
Thanks again Gary!
Water under the bridge is long gone, and there's little benefit in analyzing the distant flow. For my current thinking in regards to FRPG system excellence, I refer you to the
Lejendary Adventure game
Cheers,
Gary
