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<blockquote data-quote="Libramarian" data-source="post: 5875987" data-attributes="member: 6688858"><p>Not necessarily in the dungeon, but give them a rundown of the basic system concepts before play, one of them being wandering monsters, if they've never played pre-3e D&D before. 1/6 chance every 2 or 3 turns is a pretty subtle effect to expect them to pick up on in play. Even moreso than WM, I would encourage you to explain to them that secret doors exist, and the mechanic for searching for them is you spend 1 turn of time for a 1 or 2/6 chance to find any that are there (of course you can obviate the roll if they describe how they are searching in a way that would logically cause them to find it). Again not in play when they're beside a secret door, but just before play say that secret doors are a prominent "thing" in old school D&D land. Use your judgement and adjust to taste of course, I've just developed this rule of thumb that when you have a situation or decision point that involves and rewards creativity from the players, it's going overboard to hide it from them as well. The thing about hidden stuff in particular is players don't get punished immediately for missing it, like they do if they hit with with a poison needle because they didn't search for traps, so it's harder for them to learn from the experience.</p><p>If they're sticking together yeah.</p><p>Not really actually. I have a custom DM screen for AD&D with that table on one of the panels, so it's pretty easy to consult it.</p><p></p><p>It's not blazingly fast rules light play, it's a bit "rules-y" if you know what I mean, but we find that it's worth it. I say out loud the modifiers I'm using so it's not like complete dead air space while I'm computing the result.</p><p></p><p>It takes some practice to use it well. The different states don't always mean the same thing, you look at the reaction and then integrate it into what you already know about the situation, right. The point is not to completely take the DM judgement out of the equation, but nudge the DM into making NPCs act more interestingly and unpredictably.</p><p></p><p>Last session the PCs were exploring a haunted house rumored to have alchemical gold when the hired men-at-arms balked at descending into the basement, while the walls and stairs are all moaning creepily. </p><p></p><p>They all passed their checks as Obedient or better, largely due to the PC's 17 Charisma (Charisma is certainly not a "dump stat" here), except for one who got a Disloyal (she's been a problem before -- the PC would like to get rid of her, but in a way that doesn't affect his other employees' loyalty). She starts telling the other men-at-arms the PC is a weak leader, and why are we working for a wage when we can strike out on our own and each get a full share of treasure.</p><p></p><p>One man-at-arms rolled Fanatical loyalty, so he won't brook this kind of disrespect without a Morale check. Fight On, so he slays her and throws her down the stairs.</p><p></p><p>We're all like O_O. Ohh AD&D <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>No problem at all.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libramarian, post: 5875987, member: 6688858"] Not necessarily in the dungeon, but give them a rundown of the basic system concepts before play, one of them being wandering monsters, if they've never played pre-3e D&D before. 1/6 chance every 2 or 3 turns is a pretty subtle effect to expect them to pick up on in play. Even moreso than WM, I would encourage you to explain to them that secret doors exist, and the mechanic for searching for them is you spend 1 turn of time for a 1 or 2/6 chance to find any that are there (of course you can obviate the roll if they describe how they are searching in a way that would logically cause them to find it). Again not in play when they're beside a secret door, but just before play say that secret doors are a prominent "thing" in old school D&D land. Use your judgement and adjust to taste of course, I've just developed this rule of thumb that when you have a situation or decision point that involves and rewards creativity from the players, it's going overboard to hide it from them as well. The thing about hidden stuff in particular is players don't get punished immediately for missing it, like they do if they hit with with a poison needle because they didn't search for traps, so it's harder for them to learn from the experience. If they're sticking together yeah. Not really actually. I have a custom DM screen for AD&D with that table on one of the panels, so it's pretty easy to consult it. It's not blazingly fast rules light play, it's a bit "rules-y" if you know what I mean, but we find that it's worth it. I say out loud the modifiers I'm using so it's not like complete dead air space while I'm computing the result. It takes some practice to use it well. The different states don't always mean the same thing, you look at the reaction and then integrate it into what you already know about the situation, right. The point is not to completely take the DM judgement out of the equation, but nudge the DM into making NPCs act more interestingly and unpredictably. Last session the PCs were exploring a haunted house rumored to have alchemical gold when the hired men-at-arms balked at descending into the basement, while the walls and stairs are all moaning creepily. They all passed their checks as Obedient or better, largely due to the PC's 17 Charisma (Charisma is certainly not a "dump stat" here), except for one who got a Disloyal (she's been a problem before -- the PC would like to get rid of her, but in a way that doesn't affect his other employees' loyalty). She starts telling the other men-at-arms the PC is a weak leader, and why are we working for a wage when we can strike out on our own and each get a full share of treasure. One man-at-arms rolled Fanatical loyalty, so he won't brook this kind of disrespect without a Morale check. Fight On, so he slays her and throws her down the stairs. We're all like O_O. Ohh AD&D :) No problem at all. [/QUOTE]
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