D&D 1E Seeking advice for my first 1e campaign

[ChaosShard]

Heya folks!

I'm thinking of running a 1e game starting with Keep on the Borderlands (of course, tweaked for AD&D) and culminating with The Tomb of Horrors. My friends and I have been playing in the range of 10-15 years, and most of my experience as a DM comes from 3e, 4e, Cyberpunk 2020, GURPS and the like. I ran a 2e game during the Skills & Powers period for all of four sessions, but never 1e.

I've been skimming through the 1e PHB, DMG and Unearthed Arcana. The rules seem rather straight forward and appear to lean towards some narrative and creative play from the players, rather than the rules-driven 3e.

So kindly sages, I ask you:

• What general advice would you give to a newbie 1e DM?
  
• What's the one thing you wish you* knew when you first started running 1e?
  
• What particular rules should I look out for?
  
• How much finesse do I need to use in building encounters?
  
• What adventures would you recommend? (Against the Giants? Vault of the Drow?)
  
• Would altering the race/class/level limitations game-breaking? I was considering removing racial level caps and race/class combos and giving humans +5% or +10% experience to compensate. Is that a bad idea?
  
• What's the general opinion of the various "Survival Guides" or Unearthed Arcana?
  

Thanks very much for your time

 

[kitcik]

So kindly sages, I ask you:

• What general advice would you give to a newbie 1e DM?
  
• What's the one thing you knew when you first started running 1e?
  
• What particular rules should I look out for?
  
• How much finesse do I need to use in building encounters?
  
• What adventures would you recommend? (Against the Giants? Vault of the Drow?)
  
• Would altering the race/class/level limitations game-breaking? I was considering removing racial level caps and race/class combos and giving humans +5% or +10% experience to compensate. Is that a bad idea?
  
• What's the general opinion of the various "Survival Guides" or Unearthed Arcana?

Good luck & enjoy.

The DM has to be quick on their feet as many situations are not covered by the rules. This is in many ways superior (more flexible and interesting) if you can pull it off.

I recommend Slave Pits of the Undercity prior to the Giant modules.

You can remove the racial level limits with no issues. I personally like the race/class combo limits for flavor so never tried removing them.

I would vote for core rules + homebrew as you go. 1E is built to be DM-centric and adding additional rules is a limiter IMHO.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would definitely go with a series of modules, rather than cherry-picking, since most of the individual modules don't blend together well (you have to hop all around the Flaness between levels).

That said, it wouldn't be hard to go from the A series to the D and then into Q1. (There are several hooks into the Underdark in the A series which, as I recall, was the very next series of modules released after Q1.) Tomb of Horrors may seem like an iconic finish today, but taking on Lolth in her home territory (in a very bizarre final encounter) was pretty amazing, back in the day, especially as all the stuff players know about the drow now was parcelled out a few dollops at a time over a span of years, back then.

I think the A series is a good suggestion, and where it's set (the Wild Coast) is a great natural adventuring environment that's also close enough to Greyhawk if your players want to make a field trip.

My groups never used racial caps. You can remove them without complication.

UA is mostly good -- some of the races are over the top -- but we never used the survival guides, so I can't help you there.

 

[Celebrim]

Heya folks!

I'm thinking of running a 1e game starting with Keep on the Borderlands (of course, tweaked for AD&D) and culminating with The Tomb of Horrors. My friends and I have been playing in the range of 10-15 years, and most of my experience as a DM comes from 3e, 4e, Cyberpunk 2020, GURPS and the like. I ran a 2e game during the Skills & Powers period for all of four sessions, but never 1e.

I've been skimming through the 1e PHB, DMG and Unearthed Arcana. The rules seem rather straight forward and appear to lean towards some narrative and creative play from the players, rather than the rules-driven 3e.

First of all, that's really up to the DM and how he runs the game. I DMed 1e for about 15 years, and I've DM 3e for about 10 years, and I really don't feel that there is a significant difference in how I run the two games. The 3e rules set just makes it easier for me to arbitrate situations in the game consitantly and fairly, but I could play any game that I've played in 3e in 1e and vica versa. Adaptation between the rules sets causes some differences in the balance and difficulty of different challenges, but thats the main difference between the two.

Anyway, off my soap box:

So kindly sages, I ask you:

• What general advice would you give to a newbie 1e DM?

• 
  
  The game more or less ends at 12th level, or at least, to the extent that it does not, the game books will provide very little insight into how to run the game in way that is enjoyable for everyone beyond that point. So don't be in a hurry to get to the end.
  
  How long the game stays interesting will depend on how much loot you dump on the players. My advice is to stick pretty closely to the guidelines for treasure in the 1e MM, generating magic items randomly from the 1e DMG as directed. This is the best way to preserve the feel of the game IMO. Played this way, treasure will be about 1/2 the XP your players will probably recieve or a little less. If you play with modules, remember that you've adopted thereby an 'adventure path/tournament' play approach to the game which will result in more rapid leveling (to ensure that at the end of the module, the PC's will level up suffiicently to face the next challenge in the story). Played this way, the PC's will have lots magic items (more really than they can use) and lots of choice in their magic items, and will probably get at least twice as much of their XP from treasure compared to killing monsters. You might do a little mix and match, particularly to 'jump start' the campaign for newbies allowing relatively rapid advance to 3rd level or so and then slowing down leveling. Also keep in mind that the DMG recommends modifying XP gained from treasure by the relative challenge level - don't give full XP for treasure to high level characters for beating up kobolds.
  
  I'm personally fond of the 'Weapon vs. AC' table, though like everything in the game I ended up tweaking it a bit. The only thing you'll need to do to use it is precalculate a to hit AC table with all the modifiers for each PC for each weapon that they use, so that you can just go directly from the die roll to hit determination (this actually will speed play if you do it). I house ruled the heck out of the game by the end, but that's something you should do with experience. Try to understand the rules and how they work and why first.
  
  

  [*]What's the one thing you knew when you first started running 1e?

  
  To properly approach the game, the players should be imagining themselves in the game environment in the first person. When they talk IC, they should talk in the first person. When the environment is described, it should be described from the viewpoint of the PC's, and when battles are fought, they should not be imagined from a top down god's eye view, but from down on the floor amongst the monsters.
  
  

  [*]What particular rules should I look out for?

  
  Psionic combat is rare, but boring when it occurs and weighted against the PC. The rule that fighters recieve 1 attack/level versus monsters under 1 HD, nerfs goblins, kobolds, and humans unnecessarily. The Weapon Specialization rules don't help the game, and most of the Unearthed Arcana should be viewed with a great deal of skepticism, as its is unbalancing to a very great degree. The unarmed combat rules in the 1e DMG tend to make unarmed combat more lethal than armed combat and should be ignored or modified. Weapon speed factors never really worked and should be most ignored. However do look over the effects of weapon length and weapon speed factor on initiative and NEVER ignore the casting time of spells or that fighters with iterative attacks make successive attacks in alternating later points of the initiative - not all at once. (That is to say a fighter with 2 attacks per round would make 1 attack, then must wait for the monster to attack, then makes his second attack. Two high level fighters must take turns, etc.) Also never ignore that fighting with a second weapon only gets you ONE additional attack, not a full interation of attacks. Balance is otherwise pretty good, though at high levels thieves have pretty much nothing to do worth doing and the rate that rogues and M-U's level up have oddities (rogues don't maintain the level lead they need relative to fighters after they reach 3rd level except sporadicly, M-U's should level up faster at low levels then slow down at the mid-levels rather than slow at low levels and then level fast through the middle levels)
  
  

  How much finesse do I need to use in building encounters?

  
  Once PC's reach mid-level, very little. At low levels you'll need a lot to avoid overpowering PC's unless you are willing to accept body counts in the scores. At high levels, you'll need a lot to challenge the PC's while keeping the game fun. At mid levels, its really about pacing and if you allow the PC's to control the pacing and avoid throwing the worst of the monsters in the books at them you have relatively little to worry about.
  
  

  [*]What adventures would you recommend? (Against the Giants? Vault of the Drow?)

  
  Not those certainly, and certainly not to start with.
  
  U1 - Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh (but not U2 or U3 as neither is very fun as written, though a good DM can milk them for what they are worth)
  UK1 - Beyond the Crystal Cave (good change of pace perhaps, or good for groups that are heavy RP and don't enjoy hack and slash as much)
  I3-I5 - Desert of Desolation Series (original modules prefered to collection)
  I6 - Ravenloft (but only if the PC's are slightly above the recommended levels for the module, as its more lethal than ToH in the hands of a capable DM otherwise)
  WG4 - Forgotten Temple of Thardizun
  T1 - Village of Homlet
  C1 - The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (this is a tournament module, originally for 3 PC's. It's possibly more lethal than ToH played as written, but for 6 well equipped PC's should prove fairly fun and you can tone down the lethality for a less experienced group by removing the cummulative poison gas time limit)
  DL Campaign - Requires a very skilled DM to avoid falling into the trap of the 'rail road as written', but in the hands of a capable DM able to mold the story to the PC's actions, may well be AD&D at its finest. Don't start with this.
  L1 - Secret of Bone Hill
  L2 - The Assassin's Knot
  S1 - Tomb of Horrors (only as a one shot or a campaign ending send off)
  
  Otherwise, make it up yourself. In fact, to even run a 1e module right requires a lot of making it up yourself. The modules are bare bones by modern standards.
  
  

  [*]Would altering the race/class/level limitations game-breaking? I was considering removing racial level caps and race/class combos and giving humans +5% or +10% experience to compensate. Is that a bad idea?

  
  Not a terrible idea. I personally prefer keeping the class limitations but freeing up the level limitations somewhat. +5% XP to humans is a decent trade off that balances the low levels fairly well, although really, at higher levels 'dual classing' (not multiclassing!) is one of humans secret advantages in the hands of a power gamer. Frex, name leveling in either fighter or rogue and then switching to the other class can be nasty. Maxing fighters attacks/round and then switching to cleric is also a really nifty trick. If you remove level caps entirely though, don't be surprised to have a party of elves, drow elves, deep gnomes, dwarves, etc.
  
  

  [*]What's the general opinion of the various "Survival Guides" or Unearthed Arcana?

  
  The survival guides are good. I've previously mentioned this, but in retrospect Unearthed Arcana adds virtually nothing to the game worth retaining (except maybe the diversity of magic items). Most of the spells are poorly thought out. The new classes are unbalanced. Weapon specialization wrecks balance. Paladin as Cavalier tends to create an uber-class.

 

[Celebrim]

Tomb of Horrors may seem like an iconic finish today, but taking on Lolth in her home territory (in a very bizarre final encounter) was pretty amazing, back in the day, especially as all the stuff players know about the drow now was parcelled out a few dollops at a time over a span of years, back then.

Well, that's ignoring the fact that Q1 is objectively a pretty terrible module, and that one person's 'bizarre' is another person's silly, anticlimatic and ridiculous.

 

[ChaosShard]

Awesome replies, guys! Thanks!!

 

[kitcik]

I agree with a LOT of what Celebrim says, except the part about it ending at 12th level.

I played numerous characters above 20th level, including a 33rd level cleric, and never lacked for content or challenge.

 

[Sekhmet]

What general advice would you give to a newbie 1e DM?
- There simply are not as many rules, and you're going to have to be able to make one up on the spot for a situation, even when playing a prefabbed module. Be prepared for it.

What particular rules should I look out for?
- Fighters get to attack once for each Fighter level when facing enemies of less than 1d8 HD. This includes goblins, humans, rats, etc (PHB page 25). This can be terribly broken in larger scale combat.
What's the one thing you (wish you?) knew when you first started running 1e?
- Just how diverse every character became. My group were a bunch of kids of about 15 years old, and every character presented was different from the next. This is a stark contrast to "Oh, you're playing Fistbeard Beardfist" or "ElminsterClone."

How much finesse do I need to use in building encounters?
- I'd argue very little finesse is required, but remember that Clerics cannot spontaneous cast Cure spells yet so your group may not have access to the same level of healing that is in present editions. TPKs were far more common, especially in those higher level modules where a high saving throw vs. spells made you a liability to your group.

What adventures would you recommend? (Against the Giants? Vault of the Drow?)
- The Castle Greyhawk series of modules is a classic. Follow Gygax and Rary and Bigby through their original adventures, find out why spells are named what they're named today.

Would altering the race/class/level limitations game-breaking? I was considering removing racial level caps and race/class combos and giving humans +5% or +10% experience to compensate. Is that a bad idea?
- Personally I would not give Humans an EXP advantage, but give them some other tweaks to compensate losing their uniqueness. A Human Thief is going to be so far ahead of your party Ranger it would be ridiculous! By level 10, the Thief is at 160,000 EXP and the Ranger is at level 8. With a 10% increase to the Thief's EXP, he'll hit 10 when the Ranger is level 7!

What's the general opinion of the various "Survival Guides" or Unearthed Arcana?
- UA is as it has been since, pick and choose what you like and move on with your life. On a side note, it's my favourite cover art of all the D&D books.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, that's ignoring the fact that Q1 is objectively a pretty terrible module, and that one person's 'bizarre' is another person's silly, anticlimatic and ridiculous.

All of that is true. (Although some of the parallel worlds are pretty awesome.)

Still, if you're going to do a classic AD&D campaign, you might as well go all-in and not pussyfoot around.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

- The Castle Greyhawk series of modules is a classic. Follow Gygax and Rary and Bigby through their original adventures, find out why spells are named what they're named today.

Er, there are two 1E modules with "Castle Greyhawk" in the name.

"Castle Greyhawk" is a parody module -- I use the term loosely -- that many view as an FU to Gygax by TSR.

"Ruins of Castle Greyhawk" is theoretically supposed to be Gygax's dungeon, and matches at least some of the basics I know about his, but I can't speak to its accuracy. (For one thing, there's a Spelljammer crossover, since that was the new hotness at the time.)

Also, if you want to have cameos by classic NPCs, see if you can find a copy of the Rogues Gallery. The fully detailed NPCs in the back include a lot of pre-retcon classic characters. I suspect they don't all match official Oerth canon now, but they have a wonderful "the game as it is played" quality to them, IMO.