Terrific post by Gabe from Penny Arcade

[awesomeocalypse]

Penny Arcade - OD&D

Basically, he had a magic artifact send his 4th edition party back in time..to OD&D. Well, Swords and Wizardry tricked up to resemble OD&D in certain ways, with a little of the fantasy Vietnam syndrome toned down.

I love this idea, and I'm ashamed to say I've never thought of it. its amazing how Gabe has been DMing for like a year, but he's already head and shoulders above so many lifelong DMs I know, including myself.

 

[Crothian]

I almost did this with a campaign a couple years ago but the game ended suddenly with my inability to keep DMing. I've talked about it before and some people like it and others hate the idea. Depending on how it happens I can see some poeple upset with the bait and switch.

 

[Nifft]

Agree with Crothian.

Bait & switch is neither innovative, nor usually well received.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mentat55]

I think calling this a bait and switch is wrong. It's not like Gabe promised his players a 4E campaign, got them to sign up, and then pulled the "time travel to OD&D" and changed the whole game. This was a temporary, one-to-a-few session thing.

 

[cdrcjsn]

It most definitely is Bait and Switch.

The players are expecting to play 4e, and are forced to play something else. I don't know what else you can call it.

However, I don't think what Gabe is doing is necessarily a bad thing.

For a one-off, or short campaign, I think it can definitely work.

 

[renau1g]

I did this in my RL game once, except rather than pull the new PC's into an older version it pulled our last campaigns PC's into the current one in the final battle with the BBEG. Each player got to control their previous PC (that we had played to around 12th - 15th level-ish in 2e), which I'd statted up to 3e and provided each a CS already made. The group had a blast and it was great when Tim of Selune's follower Kef the Magnificent was peppering the BBEG with MM's and always hitting (it was his signature spell) that wore down the enemy, just like in the last campaign battle against a Marilith. All in all possibly my most memorable game of D&D

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I played in a group that ended up in a similar situation - not OD&D, but our PCs were swapped into bodies of other PCs. Suddenly we had different abilities and powers. Honestly I was one who did not take the switch well. My main issues were that we had only been playing our original PCs for a short time (maybe six sessions) and the switch took us almost as many sessions to finally play our way back to our original bodies.

It all depends upon how the DM handles the situation, and the attitudes of the players. One thing I would recommend would be to allow the players to select what they will play as their alternate universe PC, rather than having the DM choose, or randomly select. If they are not given choice, make the new PC an analogue of their current PC.

 

[coyote6]

He sent everyone an email a couple of weeks before the game, explaining the situation and how it would work.

IMO, a "bait and switch" would be "make up characters for a CSI-style game" and then having Cthulhu apocalyptize the world in the second session, throwing the PCs into a survival horror game set in the world of Thundarr the Barbarian, for the rest of the campaign. I think that's quite different from what they did, which was to simply use a different set of rules to play a single adventure, but one with the same general themes as the previous game, and saying it all in advance -- thus giving time for objections, and letting people know it's coming to prevent surprises.

Essentially, it's the same as running a one-shot as a break from the primary campaign, except the "break" is in the same continuity as the regular game.

 

[Nifft]

He sent everyone an email a couple of weeks before the game, explaining the situation and how it would work.

Ah. Well. That does seem less of a bait-n-switch.

Thanks, -- N

 

[Stormonu]

I did this back in the 80's with a one-shot using TOON to replace the normal D&D rules.

I don't remember how it turned out, but I don't think it was well received.