D&D 1E Thinking of bringing my 1e AD&D DMG to my 4e game.

[S'mon]

Been ruminating - I never need my 4e DMG during a 4e game. It has some useful advice, but really nothing I would want to use at-table, in-play. By contrast my 1e DMG has lots of useful stuff, in dissasociated subsystems that seem easy to plug into a 4e game - random encounter tables (a big lack in 4e), random terrain, construction & siege rules, followers, hireling rules, NPC wage costs (which need a bit of editing and conversion to 10 sp= 1 gp, but are a useful starting point), detailed-but-eccentric NPC personality tables, dice based slot machine emulators, rules for getting lost - all kind of weird and wonderful stuff, stuff I might actually use in play. Heck, I might even use the random treasure and magic item tables, they're certainly a lot more fun than doling out treasure parcels! I'd have to keep an eye on the vorpal swords and artifacts, but that shouldn't be too hard.

I was wondering if anyone else does this? Am I crazy?

 

[Keefe the Thief]

You're not crazy. I never did it, but bringing creative DM tools to the table is always ok. I personally would scan the pages i need and create a kind of "DM portfolio" in .pdf which is easy to expand with other, similar resources. Forex, some of the ideas in the old stronghold builders guidebook are still quite useful.

But if you are really familiar with the book and dominate the Gygaxian secret of 1e DMG organisation - why not? I admit it would be easier for me to find an exit from Untermountain than something i need on the fly in that book.

 

[Weregrognard]

Funny, I was thinking of doing the same thing for my Neverwinter campaign to "fill in the blanks", or so to speak.

Can't wait to see the look on the player's faces when they encounter a "slovenly trull" and her "sly pimp" lurking nearby (both wererats, of course)

 

[jcayer]

After the article a couple weeks ago about the top 10 books a geek should read, I dug up my AD&D DMG and have been looking through it. Reading it cover to cover might cause me to go insane with all the Gygaxian prose, etc.

But there is an AMAZING amount of content in that book. The information is the numerous appendices is astounding. There is a table with the different rooms you might find in a castle. Off the top of my head, I can come up with 8-10. There's something like 25 in the list. There is a page and half dedicated to different herbs.
I can't imagine how much effort went into writing that thing.

My 4E campaign wraps up next week, but I will definitely use it for inspiration the next time I DM.

 

[the Jester]

The 1e DMG has definitely got stuff worth having at hand in any medieval or pseudomedieval game, regardless of system.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

There's some good stuff in it. OTOH there's some rather questionable stuff too. Some things like the hiring system are kind of nice things to have in your back pocket. Terrain generation can be handy now and then, though you have to take it with a grain of salt. Some of the lists and such are decent references too.

OTOH I don't recall ever using random treasure or pure random encounters even back in the day. It sounds fun, but you quickly find you have to fudge it so hard to keep things on the rails that it isn't really worth bothering with IMHO.

My 1e and 2e DMGs and a few other reference books are on my shelf. I do use them now and then, but more for inspiration when I need something specific than anything else. Frankly if I WERE to do up random encounter tables I'd go with the 2e DMG's framework. It was a good bit more flexible and better thought out. It takes a bit more work to fill out your tables, but the results are far more sensible and widely applicable.

 

[S'mon]

Funny, I was thinking of doing the same thing for my Neverwinter campaign to "fill in the blanks", or so to speak.

Can't wait to see the look on the player's faces when they encounter a "slovenly trull" and her "sly pimp" lurking nearby (both wererats, of course)

Ah, I had forgotten the Wandering Prostitute table - and yet it would be perfect for my Conanesque sword & sorcery 4e-Wilderlands campaign!!

 

[TerraDave]

I have done this. Off the top of my head, I have used the urban encounter tables (including the wandering prostitute one) and also referenced the ship movement & encounter rules.

 

[S'mon]

OTOH I don't recall ever using random treasure or pure random encounters even back in the day. It sounds fun, but you quickly find you have to fudge it so hard to keep things on the rails that it isn't really worth bothering with IMHO.

I'm not generally trying to keep things on rails, though.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I'm not generally trying to keep things on rails, though.

Yeah, but I bet you'll be fudging that thing left and right, trust me... It never worked.

The prostitute table OTOH, pure gold. Have fun with it! lol.