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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5654662" data-attributes="member: 4937">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:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> 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.  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. 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) 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.  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. 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. 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.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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