Erich the Fuzzy
Explorer
I assume the "level 1 dwarf" meant a level 1 character (any class) who was also a dwarf (referring to her small physical size). Although he could also be implying she was only playing Basic, in which dwarf was actually a class. (He is using the AD&D DM's screen, thus they group is playing AD&D).There were a number of flubs from a mechanics perspective in that scene indicating the writers were modern players, not players with experience in the 1980s.
- Level 1 Dwarf?
- Rogue?
- Kukri?
- Vecna missing an arm?
- A rogue rolling percentile dice in AD&D - in combat? Maybe...
- But someone rolling a d4, a d8 and a d10 (percentile) all at once? And then a d4, d6 and d10 at the same time?
- How do the players know how many hps Venca has? Or that a powerful spellcaster in AD&D is going to be hurt, much less killed, by a weapon attack?
- Odds of success are 20 to 1 - and the PCs are rolling one attack roll each, with no need for a damage roll on the 'critical hit' (assuming they're using alternate rules for critical hits from Dragon or another source)? That makes no sense unless Dustin's attack was irrelevant.
- Most of the terrain and figures were time appropriate - but not quite all. And some of those dice did not look like 80s dice.
I'd love for someone to really get it right.
Rogue is wrong - should be thief (or, given the poison knife, assassin). And given that some of the moral panic against D&D was driven by thief & assassin being player classes, it's an odd mistake to have made - having her openly play a thief or assassin would better feed into that season's theme.
Kukri wasn't introduced until 1993 (in Dragon) but I can accept it as a re-skin of a dagger or even short sword.
In the AD&D lore (from the DMG relics listings), Vecna was totally destroyed, leaving nothing behind but a hand and an eye - hence, missing everything. So I just presume that whatever process recreated his body was incomplete or unfinished. Or the DM used a figure that was already missing an arm rather than damage a perfectly good figurine.
As noted by others, the percentile dice were probably related to her trying to be sneaky enough to get in a backstab for extra damage. (Hide in Shadows or Move Silently).
There is no justification for those weird 3-die combos. We already know they have d20 on hand and they are passing it around so they don't have to do the d10/d6 (or d4) "fix" for lacking a d20. This was just sloppy. There were plenty of ways to have a real roll of 3 dice, such as some weapon damages (vs. large targets, 3d4 or 3d6) or you could roll the d20 to hit plus 2d4 or 2d6 of some normal weapon damages. (We always rolled to-hit first, then damage, but perhaps this group came up with the time-saving trick of rolling both at once).
It was not unknown for the DM to let the players know how many HP a monster had, or had left, especially in a critical final battle. Some DMs didn't make any attempt to hide/obscure a monster's stats.
I assume they needed a 20 to hit (would go with AC -6, such as a lich with ring, cloak, and bracers of protection +2 each). Dustin missed so no damage roll was required; Erica hit and if it was a backstab (quintuple damage at level 14) with a +2 or better weapon it would be enough to do 15 hp even with a damage roll of 1, or maybe it was because of her poison (which undead were not immune to in AD&D). Hence there is no need to assume they were using a critical hit system.
I was about the age of the ST kids at that time and played D&D continually from 1980 to the early 90s; I don't recall percentile dice with a 00-90 and 0-9 dice (we just had two 0-9 dice) but they may well have existed as premium dice for convenience. (When we put cash into premium dice, we went with attractive "crystal" clear dice of the normal configurations).
I didn't recognize any of the particular figures but there were a very large variety available from many sources; terrain could also be gotten not only from RPG sources but also from wargaming or diorama sources, the latter possibly re-purposed from a parent's model railroad hobby.
So the only definite flubs were the use of the term "rogue" (which would describe a PC's personality, not their character class) and the weird 3-die roll combinations. Since neither of these changes improved the narrative, I would have preferred that they had gotten them right, although I still enjoyed that episode immensely.