Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
???? Seriously?Yes I saw some guys talking here on the internet saying they played an alternate way back in the day and then go on to say that everyone I knew were doing it all wrong apparently deliberately before 2E - so I came to say that it never occurred to me or anyone I knew to read the rule the way you do then and the insinuation of deliberate cheating was rubbish. I did re-read the rule now to see what you were talking about and saw then how it was 'possible' for the rule to 'interpreted' the way you do - whilst I could see your argument and said so I also said it looked to me to be incongruous and counter-intuitive and thus contrived way to read the rule - so I don't agree with you that your reading is a clear cut on and certainly don't agree with your suggestion that anyone else doing it in what I would view as intuitive way and you acknowledge was widespread, is deliberately cheating. That's taking it way too far, in my book anyway.
No one said it was cheating.
There is, like, an ENTIRE POST about how 1e had a multitude of playing styles, I should know because I wrote it. Moreover, I specifically wrote that this was a rule that was commonly misinterpreted and misapplied- not cheating. Sorry, not DELIBERATELY CHEATING.
In addition, if you read the rule, it's really not ambiguous. Here, I'll help you:
Zero Hit Points:
When any creature is brought to 0 hit points (optionally as low as -3 hit points if from the same blow which brought the total to 0), it is unconscious.
Let's stop right there. What does that mean (especially when you read it in pari materia with the PHB, the rest of the DMG, and every other D&D book published before then) ... it is about a hit that takes you to EXACTLY ZERO HIT POINTS (optionally, as low as -3 "IF FROM THE SAME BLOW WHICH BROUGHT THE TOTAL TO 0.").
What does this not include? Anything blowthat brings you below 0. Or, if you are playing with the optional rules, any blow that drops you below -3.
All the other words are about what happens to you in the unconscious condition- you lose a hit point a round until you die at -10.
But if you want to know how it was originally played, you can look at the OD&D rules- which are also quoted above. Hint: when you reach zero hit points, you die.