That's the rule in B/X D&D, where combat rounds are only 10 seconds, so you never get near 10 minutes of game time in a battle. With AD&D's 1 minute combat rounds, it's possible for a battle & its aftermath to take more than 1 Turn, as noted above.
Teach Me Your Old-School Ways
- Thread starter KesselZero
- Start date
That's the rule in B/X D&D, where combat rounds are only 10 seconds, so you never get near 10 minutes of game time in a battle. With AD&D's 1 minute combat rounds, it's possible for a battle & its aftermath to take more than 1 Turn, as noted above.
GameDaddy
Explorer
First you need the right books, and Keep on the Borderlands isn't one of them. Find yourself a copy of the Frontier Forts of Kelnore instead. It was originally published by Judges Guild... grab a JG Village Book and Castle Book if you can as well. Finally, the Ready Ref Sheets will provide an ample supply of game design ideas and play guidelines for you. You'll also need your old school game books, 0D&D, BX, Clones whatever, and some dice, along with a few players interested in giving the game a test play. If you can' find any of that (cough), no biggie, just uh...
Visualize a place in a fantasy world (Or even a movie you may have watched) that you always wanted to explore more...
Get a blank piece of graph paper and build it. Draw the entire layout, and don't leave out any details. Describe each room, cavern, or area, and describe what it contains. Describe the countryside around it...
If there are monsters there, describe what kind. What do they look like? What weapons (If any) are they carrying? Do they have any loot or treasure at all? If not, what do they have? Do they want to talk? Do they want to fight? Are they busy doing something already? Write up what they are doing...
Did anyone ever set any traps? Do the traps still work? Have they been triggered already?
Add a table of wandering monsters, that is, monsters and creatures that would be likely to appear in this mystical place that you are describing. Be sure to include details... How many? what are they doing there? What do these creatures think (If they can think) of adventurers? ...and so on
Now you need a starting place for your players, a place they are somewhat familiar with. It isn't your mystical magical place that you thought up (and wrote up) earlier, because they should have to make a journey (a journey of discovery and bonding) to get to your special destination.
Provide details for the starting place. It could be a small town, maybe a chapel, maybe an old keep or fortified farm on the frontier. Provide details. Provide more details. What kind of animnals can be found around there? What are the people like? Is there anyone especially noteworthy or interesting? Does anyone at the starting place know anything about the special destination?
Write up the details... then add some more details. Is there water around or nearby? Rivers? Lakes? Waterfalls? Old Ruins? New settlements? A castle: A tower? A wizard, a magical beast? A mystery? Another mystery? A mysterious person?
Once you are done with writing up the starting place, you are ready to begin playing...
Yet another Ancient Oldschool Bloglink: GameDevonline.net
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KesselZero
First Post
So, mapping = PCs with 12" movement rates cover 120' of linear distance (assuming that they don't stop along the way, which they do a lot). While travelling through previously-mapped areas, PCs with 12" movements cover 5x120' = 600' of distance. They double that distance covered only when in pursuit or in flight, and they cannot map during such movement.
So movement is measured in inches, which maps to a 1" = 10' scale? I'm asking because I actually got my hands on a copy of the 1979 DMG (in fairly terrible condition, but none of the pages are missing/unreadable so I'm happy with it) and it says in a couple of places "Movement is discussed elsewhere" but it doesn't say where!
Battles that take longer than 10 rounds move into the second turn of combat (and I roll the WM check after the first turn of combat, which may mean that additional antagonists appear while a long battle is still ongoing!). Once the battle ends (including flight/pursuit), then I mark off the number of turns, rounding up for all fractions (i.e., a battle lasting 13 rounds counts as 2 turns of battle). Then after each battle, PCs must rest a turn (and WM are rolled for too
You're not rolling WM every turn, though, right? It's generally every 3 turns?
July? Did they push them back? I thought they were releasing April 17th, which I remember only because that's my birthday.
Anyway as mentioned, I did find an old copy of the DMG, and I've downloaded the OSRIC pdf, though I may buy the hardback if I can find the money, mostly because I hate reading from the computer screen but a little bit because it's worth it to support a company called Black Blade Publishing. 
Thanks again for all the help.
KesselZero
First Post
Yup, quite possibly more than half will not result in combat.
OTOH, the AD&D assumption is that if combat does occur on a wilderness encounter, it is likely to be highly significant - 30-300 orcs or 1d4 red dragons significant!
So wilderness random encounters tend to be heavy-duty, not just wandering monsters but something that can really tell you about the environment or define an area. That is VERY interesting. So how do you handle rolling 300 orcs or 4 red dragons when your players are level 1? I suppose for 300 orcs you'd either say the PCs found a lair, or that they hear the marching boots and shouting voices of an entire squadron, or something similarly avoidable via reasonably smart play? What about 4 red dragons?
KesselZero
First Post
Thanks for the links and suggestions. Who is/was this Judge's Guild? I've heard the name but I don't quite grok their relationship to TSR. Why is their stuff so much better? And where might I be able to find it?
EDIT: Oh, at the link you provided. Thanks!
Heavy duty - yeah, I once killed off a ca 20th level party with a mountain random encounter of 4 red dragons out hunting... it was an evil party on their way to assassinate the good king, so poetic justice.
The 1e AD&D tables are designed mostly for PC groups in the 7th-10th level range engaged in large scale overland exploration, if 1st level PCs head out into the 30-miles-a-hex howling wilderness they're unlikely to last long. Lower level adventures and mini-campaigns have smaller-scale wildernesses with lower level encounter tables.
The Monster Manual tells you the % chance the monsters are encountered in/near their lair. Surprise dice tell the DM whether the PCs surprise the monsters, or no surprise, or PCs are surprised, perhaps by an ambush. With the 30-300 orc type encounters, that's the entire tribe, unless the PCs were at war with the orcs I prob wouldn't have them all appear at once as an ambush; I might use eg a small scout party of 7-12. Orcs can be encountered at a cave or stockade lair, or with a slave caravan, or as a warband.
Dragons - well you can decide by GM fiat that the PCs see them flying past without attacking - possibly without spotting the PCs, if terrain allows - or more neutrally the GM can roll on the reaction chart - favourable reaction might mean ignore, or land to extort treasure. Normal encounter distance is 4d6x10 yards, 40-240 yards, so they could be a good way off per RAW.
jasper
Rotten DM
I dropped having a player be a mapper due how badly they listen/I describe a room. So I keep two copies or more of a map. My master version which had room numbers and secret doors, traps etc. And another that just was blank copy with regular doors and any set scenery penciled in.
A caller was player who decide if the group would go left or right but it was player making the decision not his pc. Depends on the group if you need one.
Time. I defaulted to the regular 365 calendar, (stole the 20 year calendar out the yellow pages). A persons pc birthday was on his birthday because I did enforce aging/max age on the pcs. Had a pc dropped dead from a ghost once. The ghost aged him 1 mth over his max age. In combat rounds time is = 1 minute /6 seconds depending on which version. As to checking for secret doors/traps/etc I used whatever the dmg suggested time was. If the players were bs at the table in character I used real time. I would track this on post it note using hash marks as time ticked away. Came in handy sometimes as spell duration would run out during some combats.
I would freeze/pause the game at the end of game session. So it does not matter if we pick up the game in two weeks or tomorrow night. It is 11:59 PM April 1, Shaggy and Scooby are still just turning the knob on the secret door.
Wandering monsters checks very with location and level of group. It does not have to be a monster. Could be a cold icy wind blowing down the corridor or a bird (roll a d8 ignoring 8. Oh a 7) pooping on Kesselzero hobbit. You may want to change the frequency in published adventures.
Using published modules/adventures. If you have an established group I removed one third to one half of magic items. But is magic item is plot point don’t remove it. The Judges Guild city state modules are great. Just reading some of encounters invoke old school thinking. Is that a bum, a mad wizard or gawd in disguised going thru my trash can?
Maps/dungeons you can find maps of actual castles or the Paris underground. Or use the dungeon generator in the DMG. You don’t have stock each room with a monster.
Map sizes per hex. On my world map 1 hex = 20 or 24 miles. As I fleshed out parts I used a bigger hex grid with grid being between 1 or 5 miles. The biggest hex grid with grid being 1 inch across, those were either 1 mile, a half mile or a few yards depending on how detail I was going for.
A caller was player who decide if the group would go left or right but it was player making the decision not his pc. Depends on the group if you need one.
Time. I defaulted to the regular 365 calendar, (stole the 20 year calendar out the yellow pages). A persons pc birthday was on his birthday because I did enforce aging/max age on the pcs. Had a pc dropped dead from a ghost once. The ghost aged him 1 mth over his max age. In combat rounds time is = 1 minute /6 seconds depending on which version. As to checking for secret doors/traps/etc I used whatever the dmg suggested time was. If the players were bs at the table in character I used real time. I would track this on post it note using hash marks as time ticked away. Came in handy sometimes as spell duration would run out during some combats.
I would freeze/pause the game at the end of game session. So it does not matter if we pick up the game in two weeks or tomorrow night. It is 11:59 PM April 1, Shaggy and Scooby are still just turning the knob on the secret door.
Wandering monsters checks very with location and level of group. It does not have to be a monster. Could be a cold icy wind blowing down the corridor or a bird (roll a d8 ignoring 8. Oh a 7) pooping on Kesselzero hobbit. You may want to change the frequency in published adventures.
Using published modules/adventures. If you have an established group I removed one third to one half of magic items. But is magic item is plot point don’t remove it. The Judges Guild city state modules are great. Just reading some of encounters invoke old school thinking. Is that a bum, a mad wizard or gawd in disguised going thru my trash can?
Maps/dungeons you can find maps of actual castles or the Paris underground. Or use the dungeon generator in the DMG. You don’t have stock each room with a monster.
Map sizes per hex. On my world map 1 hex = 20 or 24 miles. As I fleshed out parts I used a bigger hex grid with grid being between 1 or 5 miles. The biggest hex grid with grid being 1 inch across, those were either 1 mile, a half mile or a few yards depending on how detail I was going for.
KesselZero
First Post
So the 1e AD&D wilderness tables assumed that you wouldn't just go wandering around the wilderness until you reached a certain level? Interesting. I suppose that fits the dictum that early-level play is contained to a fairly small area, so there would be no need to go wandering about looking for trouble, but if you wanted to do a straight hexcrawl from the start you'd have to rebuild some of those tables.
What about designing a hexcrawl with custom random encounter tables? I'm sure it's been done. Perhaps the difficulty level increases in rings out from a central base, or if most travel is in one direction, the farther you go in that direction. Or difficulty comes in "zones" (it sounds like that's partially built in already, if certain terrain types have higher chances of random encounters) with clues as to how difficult a zone is.
So if you rolled 300 orcs in an ambush, you'd just alter it to make more sense, but if you rolled 300 orcs with no surprise you'd come up with some situation that would be a little more involved than just 300 orcs tramping through the woods. Makes sense. How much of working the random encounter tables is spent coming up with stories and situations, and how much is just "you're walking through the woods and you get attacked by an owlbear?" I suppose it depends on the encounter in question?
nightwind1
Explorer
Because, when you've got an adventuring group of, say, eight to fourteen players, it gets a little crazy if the DM has to try to listen to and keep track of what every single player is doing. So the players make a group consensus and the Caller passes the info on to the DM.
The 'easy way' is that the character's keep on the adventure until they are dead, mostly dead or give up. After all, Old School can be very meat grinder. In general, after 3-4 hours the character's simply won't be able to go on.
A 'bit harder' is you keep going until the characters have a safe spot to stop. Often, clever players will scout out a safe spot or two that they can fall back too. The classic here is some time of strange magic trap that the characters can by pass or get around easy. So the group just 'hides' and rests inside of the 'trap', safe from the nearby monsters and such.
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