D&D 5E Randomness and D&D

[DarkCrisis]

In AD&D your stats mostly didn’t matter until you got a 16 or better (or like a 6 or less).

I def think that’s better than everyone grubbing for that extra +1 ever even stat.

 

[Andvari]

On the other hand, percentile strength was no joke.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Well, "officially". Max HP at first level didn't become an official core rule until what, 3rd edition? But it was an extremely common house rule before that. To my recollection all of my 2E games used it, and it was a common practice in 1E as well.

I'd neither seen nor heard of the concept before 3e.

Yeah, I am with @Lanefan on this one. Until I tried 3E in 2007, no one I ever played with or heard of did max hp at 1st level. Since hp could go to -9/10 (depending on reading), even having low hp at level 1 wasn't a death sentence.

In that respect, it was very rare if I met anyone who did death at 0 hp. That was never a commonly used rule IME.

 

[overgeeked]

I'd neither seen nor heard of the concept before 3e.

We did it for a little while.

Then again, back around 1984 we added "body points", which gives everyone an extra 2 to 5 h.p. once at 1st level - mostly "meat" and harder to rest back or cure - which may have to some extent acxcomplished the same thing.

Until we switched to something like this. It was something like a set amount based on your race plus your CON mod, if you had one. You ran out of hp, it went to body. You took a crit, it went to body. Zero body and you're dead.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I'd neither seen nor heard of the concept before 3e.

We started in our gaming circles around 1985-88.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Something Reynard said got me to thinking. When I first started playing D&D, random chance was king. What ability scores did you roll? Did you get a 17 instead of a 16? These things could make a world of difference when determining what you could play, and how effective you would be.

If your DM rolled treasure randomly, a humble treasure chest could pay out in potions of healing or a longsword +3; the original "loot boxes", if you will.

Even some magic items and spells were slot machines; what did I get from my Bag of Beans? What card did I draw from the Deck of Many Things? Did my Prismatic Spray nuke the dungeon boss, or was it a colorful dud? Even the basic game mechanics, did I hit? How much damage did I do? Did I make my save?

Often, it proved that it was better to be lucky than good.

Over time though, D&D campaigns evolved to have ongoing plotlines and became much more than the Rogue-like and Diablo-esque games that it inspired. Some groups began to shun randomness, because it could turn an enjoyable story into a total disaster. Not only did some players reject pure randomness, but even some games did (I'll shill Amber Diceless Roleplaying here as an example).

I often see people who desire more randomness and less at loggerheads about what they feel is "fun". The arguments about monster critical hits a few months ago touched up on this, with a majority of voices seeming to feel that the game would suffer immensely if there wasn't a constant (if low level) threat of being instantly knocked down by a powerful monster's lucky hit.

The thing here is I like games with more randomness than D&D has ever had. I can play or run D&D - but if I'm actively looking for randomness Blades in the Dark, Apocalypse World, Cortex Plus, or Sentinels Comics can give me success with consequences on every single roll. By contrast D&D (any edition with minor 4e exceptions) has every roll being pass/fail with a degree of success mechanic for attacks.

I can embrace that with more planned plotting and more to interact with rather than a whole lot of seeing what happens. But there's no D&D I consider has much randomness.

 

[Neonchameleon]

In hindsight, it took one of the fighter's strengths in old editions, having the largest number of weapon proficiencies, and made it not matter as much. Because other than being able to hit certain enemies that couldn't otherwise be damaged, you weren't going to get as big of a bump from a magic weapon (barring the very powerful) as you would the one you specialized in, with its bonuses to attack and damage and greater attack rate.

This in practice didn't matter much; the magic weapons were extremely heavily weighted towards longswords with greatswords in second (as in something like twice as many magic swords as all other magic weapons combined and 70% longswords, 25% greatswords, and 5% other - with scimitars coming under other weapons). And clerics, of course, couldn't wield edged weapons. Also longswords and greatswords were the best because of the extra damage they got against large creatures while cleric weapons got the same or sometimes less damage when attacking large or larger.

 

[James Gasik]

As it happens, max hit points at 1st level was adopted universally by every group I ever played with. I don't even know who got the idea, originally, it just...happened.

 

[DND_Reborn]

As it happens, max hit points at 1st level was adopted universally by every group I ever played with. I don't even know who got the idea, originally, it just...happened.

Starting with which edition? Apparently in 3E it was the default... I don't really remember I never played it enough.

 

[James Gasik]

Starting with which edition? Apparently in 3E it was the default... I don't really remember I never played it enough.

I'm going to say 1e, simply because my brain doesn't really remember my Red Box games. I know I played them, but I can't recall a single detail about the experience.