The Wilderness

[RFisher]

You know, to be completely honest, I'd love to see some talk about actual 1st Edition play.

Well, it's not 1st Edition, but...

So, I'm running my group through X1 using the c. 1981 Expert rules. (Or "extra crispy edition" as one of the player's affectionately calls it.) We started with B4 & have been having a blast. None of us had played any of the older editions in years (excepting a few one-offs) though we all started with them.

In fact it's kind of funny. One player started with early AD&D or maybe even oD&D. One, the Holmes basic. Me, the Moldvay basic. The last, the Mentzer basic. We've got all of the bases covered.

I've realized that there are parts of the Expert booklet--especially in the adventure & encounter chapters--that I always skimmed over before. I guess I'd always treated the wilderness more as a dungeon without walls & ceiling or just a few wandering encounters on the way to the dungeon. I really interested in the wilderness style of play described in the Expert book & X1.

I am having some...concerns. Not really problems. At least not yet.

One thing is that, with less than one encounter a day, the casters always have a full complement of spells for every encounter. But, maybe that's OK since the wandering encounters are more appetizer than main course. Things will be different once they find certain spots of interest. Plus, there have been some close battles despite the sleep & hold person always being at the ready.

Secondly, the kinds of wandering encounters you find on the isle tend to not have treasure. In RAW Expert D&D, that means little XP. But, again, maybe that's OK. They're just the appetizer.

Thirdly, I fear things will grow too monotonous before they chance upon a point of interest.

Of course, the biggest problem is that I'm not a great DM--especially when running modules. But we have to work with the resources we've got. (^_^)

Anyway, any thoughts or comments are appreciated. I've already gotten some great advice over on DF, but I'm sure there's more to be had here.

 

[MerricB]

My 3e group went to the Isle of Dread three times in the same campaign. They were hired by merchants in the Great Kingdom, and discovered that...

* Tyrannosaurus's eat elven clerics
* You can't run in full plate.
* Dinosaurs eat things in Full Plate.



I threw in a couple of new encounter areas (e.g. an old abandoned kopru shrine) to liven things up and give some treasure. The third time, I ran the Torrents of Dread adventure from Dungeon magazine to good effect.

One thing is that, with less than one encounter a day, the casters always have a full complement of spells for every encounter. But, maybe that's OK since the wandering encounters are more appetizer than main course. Things will be different once they find certain spots of interest. Plus, there have been some close battles despite the sleep & hold person always being at the ready.

Wilderness battles can be seriously deadly. The normal limits on challenge don't apply. A 4th level party can *really* find itself in trouble deeper in the isle, and getting back can be tricky.

I like X1 as it stands, but you can really add in more details to it (like goals and plot) to make it even better.

Cheers!

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I like X1 as it stands, but you can really add in more details to it (like goals and plot) to make it even better.

That's my take on X1, too. It excels as a setting/backdrop for your own mini-plots. When I run X1, I usually roll up a bunch of encounters, and then try to flesh out each one (kind of a "book of lairs" approach). If I can brainstorm some plot to go with them, that's good. (A lot of time X1 mini-plots fall into your lap during play, based off what the players do/ask/look for -- be ready to seize those opportunities.) Rolling up the random encounters before-hand also lets me think about things and nudge them if the encounter is way out of the PC's league. For example, I remember rolling a young red dragon when the PCs were still on the low-end of the module levels. That became the sighting of a dragon "on the wing," that they hid from and watched fly to a ridge of moutains in the distance. (They later hunted that dragon with assistance from the neanderthals it was terrorizing, so it became a mini-plot of its own -- but that was down the road.)

X1 is one of my favorite modules. Just thinking about it makes me want to run it, again.

 

[diaglo]

dittoing Philo here.

get a bunch of prepped out encounters that are still random or wandering. but with some flesh specific for the campaign.

a native fleeing or hunting in the jungle. and monster X his prey or predator.

a predator feasting on some animal X.

strange etchings on trees. or shrunken heads on spears or feather tokens/fetishes

or bizarre treasure... like Large hollow rocks for currency.

 

[Quasqueton]

Give some thought on how to bring in new PCs in the event one or more are killed. If your luck is like mine, one, some, or near all PCs will die at some point when they are far (distance and time) away from where they could find another PC.

Quasqueton

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Give some thought on how to bring in new PCs in the event one or more are killed. If your luck is like mine, one, some, or near all PCs will die at some point when they are far (distance and time) away from where they could find another PC.

When I run X1, the PCs usually have a small baggage train, (kind of like a 19th century "African expedition"). They usually have at least one henchman per PC, too. (That's probably not typical for a 3E group, but it is common when I run B/X or AD&D -- or C&C, for that matter.)

 

[diaglo]

Anyway, any thoughts or comments are appreciated. I've already gotten some great advice over on DF, but I'm sure there's more to be had here.

other things to help with resource management/control and potential roleplay.


1) are the PCs natives to the isle? do they speak the same languages as the natives? do they eat the same foods? use the same religious idolitry? have the same customs?

all of these can be used to make noncombat spells more important. or to use pantomiming and body language as potential barrel of fun laughs for the players.

do something with flora. make some berries look appetizing. some can have different medicinal effects. or drug like effects. illusion spells cast on them after eat the Brownberries. or scraping the sap of the tree. say they watched a bird eat the berry so they thought it was edible. but the bird was immune and they ain't.

2) volcanic eruptions are always fun for chase scenes or big end of the combat battles

 

[Quasqueton]

They usually have at least one henchman per PC, too. (That's probably not typical for a 3E group, but it is common when I run B/X or AD&D -- or C&C, for that matter.)

My groups very rarely have/had more than their personal PCs in an adventure, in any edition. Even on an expedition like to the Isle of Dread.

Quasqueton

 

[Gentlegamer]

Put some Velociraptors on the Isle of Dread!

 

[Delta]

One thing is that, with less than one encounter a day, the casters always have a full complement of spells for every encounter. But, maybe that's OK since the wandering encounters are more appetizer than main course. Things will be different once they find certain spots of interest. Plus, there have been some close battles despite the sleep & hold person always being at the ready.

Secondly, the kinds of wandering encounters you find on the isle tend to not have treasure. In RAW Expert D&D, that means little XP. But, again, maybe that's OK. They're just the appetizer.

That is sort of the intention of wandering monsters in OD&D/Basic/1E. Versimilitude-wise, they should be moderately infrequent (how many times/day does a hiker really encounter mortal danger?). They are supposed to be an obstacle to delay or suck down magic items in the encounter -- it tests better players to learn to nix them quickly or avoid them, thereby achieving the end goal quickly and at full power. They're not supposed to be rewarding encounters, they're supposed to be an obstacle to success.