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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7393516" data-attributes="member: 29398">And now back to our previously-scheduled programming...I'm more the mechanist type, I guess.And dealing with one fireball can take way longer than 5 minutes, if any magic-laden PCs fail their saves... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />My example is trying to hold the line in a 10'-wide passage.  The game assumes two normal-size people are all that's needed for this; but three is far more realistic (some SCA types I used to know played around with this once) as two leave far too big a gap.  Never mind the issue of little spindly Elves and little tiny Hobbits being part of the equation... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />That said, if the two people holding the line are both using greatswords that's a different matter.1e rules are famous for their disorganization, but seeing as I/we have pretty much rewritten them over the last 35+ years we've been able to work on that a bit. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The trick is to have all the most commonly-referenced charts and tables nailed to (or printed directly on) the back of your DM screen.Easy enough for the DM to just secretly roll a die to see how many he started with, then count what he fires... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I think I might have had this same argument with pemerton about 2 months and 1000 posts ago in this thread: lack of knowledge is not a test of player skill.I'm generally not, as I've yet to meet a player who won't sooner or later use that knowledge when or where they shouldn't, even if unintentionally.  Ideally PC knowledge directly equals player knowledge at all times; in practicality this is nigh-impossible but I prefer to keep it as close as I can.Hence for example if the Thief goes ahead scouting everything is done by note or in another room such that only the Thief's player knows what happens, and can then role-play reporting back to the party should he survive that long.Conversely: if they're playing to find out, what's the point if they already know?The substance (or lack of) of any decision isn't always known until after the fact; sometimes well after the fact.Left or right could have massive substance: left means you shortcut around most of the dangers and right means you plow straight into them.  But you won't know this until you've done it, or done some divinations if you're really suspicious.Or conversely, there might be no substance to it at all: the passages rejoin after 50 linear feet of curving hallway.  Again, though, you don't know until you explore it and make some decisions.The 1e chart has a few glaring oopses but yeah, on the whole it's more than adequate and the big mistakes are easy enough to fix.Lanefan</blockquote>

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