Starting a 1E campaign tomorrow, the Temple of Elemental Evil!

[Aaron L]

Well, we just completed a major story arc in our 13 year long main campaign, Camathria, that is currently using 3.5E rules, and the DM decided a side game would be interesting. When I called him ysterday to see how he is doing, he asked if I'd be interested in a 1E side campaign, and I said "you bet!" We talked about it for an hour or so, and decided that ToEE would be perfect, as I've never played through it.*

There are four of us in the group, including the DM, and three of us have been playing together since 1992. The fourth joined 3 years ago, and had never played D&D before 3rd Edition. The DM and I think he'll enjoy 1E, and it shouldn't take much for him to get the hang of it.

I'm pretty excited. I have all my 1E books out, and I've been reading through them all and remembering. Our group skipped 2E (well actually, I started with 2E, joined this group and switched to 1E and was much happier with the feel of the game and system as a whole) so we're all (except for the new guy) old hats at 1E.

I've made my character: a Ranger double specialized in the bastard sword! I absolutely LOVE 1E Rangers! After talking with the DM we decided to go all-out, Unearthed Arcana and everything. I never got the chance to use specialization in 1E; the DM said specializing was fine and he couldn't even remember why he didn't allow it before, and it seems like a dumb idea not to allow it. I had tinkered with the idea of playing a Cavalier-Paladin and just going full tilt** with it, but I love me my 1E Ranger just too much.

Full Plate that absorbs damage, here I come!!

Ahhh, Greyhawk. I've decided to honor the tradition of the 'Hawk and use an anagram of my own name for my character, and thus was born Izar Talon, Ranger of Keoland, 3rd son of a minor nole who's out to make a name for himself, and do some Good for the world (He's got an 18/95 Strength and a 16 Constitution, oh yeah!!)


I'm really looking forward to a nice old game of 1E (and my Ranger!!!), and hoping that after ToEE, we could do GDQ or something, because I've never been through any of those old classic modules.


Has anyone else played any 1E lately, as a break from 3E or otherwise? I mean, I now lots of people still play 1E, and I certainly don't begrudge them their preference. We'll be returning to our main 3E campaign eventually, but for now we're going to do a good old school 1E dungeon stomp!




* (As an aside I did make an abortive attempt at DMing ToEE once, but things bogged down in the Moathouse... the Paladin committed suicide by slitting his throat with his sword because the player decided he didn't like playing a Paladin, cursing his god ["F**k Pholtus!"] in the process. His next character was a Chaotic Neutral dwarf Fighter who murdered the stableboy of the the traders in Hommlet, out in the street in the middle of the day, claiming that he thought we was going to attack him. He was assassinated in the town jail that night. That player... has some issues, and didn't stay in our group much longer. We didn't kick him out, as he was a friend and we'd never kick a friend out. He just... disappeared, right after Thanksgiving a few years ago. I still have his Christmas present from 2003 sitting here somewhere in case I ever see him again.)


** (the term Full Tilt actually originates with jousting, AKA tilting. A half tilt was a slower sporting tilt, and full tilt was a full charge, a tilt of war. Just thought I'd throw that in, speaking of Cavaliers and everything.)

 

[thedungeondelver]

Ha. "Side game"...TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL...HA!

Still, I guess compared to a thirteen year campaign, the few months it'll take to go through the TEMPLE will seem like a side trek.

Have fun with it. I hope your DM has done the prep work needed to really make THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL hum as a module.

 

[HelloChristian]

I like your story of getting bogged down at the moat house. I wonder how many PCs have died there?

I haven't played 1e in a while, but I have been reading my books lately. I just love the language Gary used and all the funky bits in between. Why can't dwarves be wizards? I dunno, but it's kind of cool in a way.

Good luck in your quest!

 

[Reynard]

Wierd. I just started running ToEE (modified for my homebrew setting Abyscor) after finally giving up on trying to run 3.5 on a weekly basis. The party consists of a paladin, a thief (dwarven), a fighter (half orc) and two magic users (and elf and a human). That's right -- no one chose to play a cleric. The first session was mostly char gen, but I did run for a couple hours, doinga little "on the road" intro and getting the PCs to Hommlett where they made a friend or two before settling into the inn to hear some gossip and get a feel for the place (they requested I write up a sheet of what they'd heard -- names, places, stuff like that -- for next session).

I considered doing a Story Hour for it. Maybe I will now...

 

[Sanguinemetaldawn]

Make sure the DM thoroughly reads the whole thing. This is one module you can't just skim and get right...especially towards the end. When I played through this, at the end my DM was left saying "what the heck" because he realized that he screwed up the final portions of the module.

Because its a large dungeon, many people assume its simple. Not having a thorough familiarity with the overall structure of the dungeon, its relationship to certain other places, and the strategy/leadership of the temple will end with the scenario finishing badly or incomprehensibly.

And it really would be a shame to screw up this classic module.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Has anyone else played any 1E lately, as a break from 3E or otherwise?

Yes, I ran a 1E game earlier this month. It was something of a test to see if the players in one of my C&C games wanted to switch over to 1E. We're going to play some more 1E sessions before making a decision. My inclination is to make the switch, because my C&C game has become more and more like 1E, anyway, as I applied house rules (e.g. surprise, saving throws), but I'll leave it up to the players. I'm content running either system.

My main game is OD&D[1974], though. I'm running one campaign with OD&D (see my sig), and working on a new OD&D campaign set in the Ghinor area of the Wilderlands (the original "points of light" setting...).

Your 1E w/UA game sounds like a blast. I hope you have lots of fun. Make sure you tell us how it goes.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I of course have the occasional 1e game

 

[Arthnek]

I have been running 1e / 2e for quite a while.

I am finally putting out my home campaign materials as free .pdf downloads. Quite a bit of work has been invested into the setting over the years. I put the first book out about a month ago and the reaction has been very encouraging.

You can easily plug it in as an expansion on a more traditional 1e world using the portal / teleportation gate network written into the history. So players can hop into the setting for some adventures and back again or travel through the setting on their way to yet another world.

The mythos book is out. You can click on my link at the bottom to download it for free. The magic book will be out in about ten days. The main campaign book will be out the first week of November.

So yes. There are some people out here having a lot of fun with 1e and 2e still.

Art

 

[Aaron L]

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone

Have fun with it. I hope your DM has done the prep work needed to really make THE TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL hum as a module.

Oh yes, My DM knows ToEE inside and out. He's run it probably about 4 times already, having DM'd 1E from about 84 to 2000 when 3E came. You should see his copy of the module; notes crammed in every margin, highlighter everywhere, and just generally all kinds of extra info scattered throughout. When I borrowed it to run the module his notes were very helpful.

And as another aside, he once gave me a present of his original copy of The Lost Temple of Tharizdun, because he knows what a huge Lovecraft fan I am and how much I like Tharizdun and the like. A year or so ago I came across a copy of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, in very, very good condition (very crisp, all of the maps included, no marks or smudges.) I haven't read through it, wanting to keep it in it's great condition, and I might give it to him as a gift (and then force him to run it for us, of course! ) Short of that, I'm going to try to persuade him to run us through G-D-Q as well, after ToEE.

I'll also be taking along my pristine original 1E DM's screen for him to use. I won't be giving it to him, though, as he already has one (although not nearly in as good a condition as mine.)

--------

Did I mention how much I love Greyhawk? He gave me the option of a 3E Realms game and the 'Hawk game (me being his primary sounding board for our games) and, although I love the Realms as well, it's been too long since I've played in a Greyhawk game and I lept at the chance for some Greyhawk.

1E Rangers. I consider them the coolest, ultimate class: +1 per level bonus damage against giant class creatures, Druid Spells AND Magic-User spells! I just LOVE shooting off 7 and 8 Magic Missiles with a high level Ranger! (Plus being able to call myself a Ranger Lord )

I'm going to start out wearing some Bronze Plate armor, just because I've never had a character wear Bronze Plate, and the visual struck me as pretty neat: a very obviously Suel man, 6'5", with long white hair and bright blue eyes (like a long haired Billy Idol) wearing a bronze breastplate, greaves and vambraces, all backed by a suit of black leather, with a long bastard sword at his belt, balanced by a dagger on the other side, with a jo stick (remember those? ) on his back for a blunt weapon when the situation calls for one, and a hand axe strapped to his leg for hacking through underbrush and small trees.


Sorry about the giddyness; I'm really excited. I've printed up several copies of each class's character sheets tonight (using the Mad Irishman's excellent .pdf's of them.) If everyone really gets into the game, I'll print up some 1E Permanent Character Record's for all of us.

We should be able to get a LOT of gaming done tomorrow, considering it's 1E. Hell, most of our 1E games before consisted of mostly talking and roleplaying, and combat was almost secondary to just acting in character. We love that kind of stuff. Our games are VERY political: we consider Dune to be one of our primary influences in gaming. We're going to be running through a preliminary dungeon to get us to 2nd or 3rd level before we start the Temple, since there are only 3 of us players.

It'll be interesting seeing how the new guy reacts, as he already played part-way through the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil with us a few years ago.


Well, thanks for putting up with my giddy rambling. If people are interested I'll post how the game went, and maybe even try my hand at a story hour for it


See ya later,

-Aaron Michael Litz (Izar Leachim Talon)

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I had a great time playing a paladin in that campaign, though we quit it before reaching the temple.