Which one do you prefer your character suffer? Death vs Rust Monster vs Level Drain

[Raven Crowking]

RC - No, there is no false dichotomy here at all.

The false dichotomy is: "EITHER one must assume that PCs of X level have access to magic weapons OR I must assume that they do not".

Your wight example demonstrates why you believe this to be a true dichotomy, but that doesn't make it so.

In Gygaxian D&D, you can put a wight in the random encounter table whether or not the PCs have a magic weapon, and thus you do not need to make assumptions about what the PCs have. If the PCs run into the wight without magic weapons, that's unfortunate, but not the DM's problem.

In Gygaxian D&D, fair play assumes that there is a potential to survive the adventure site, nothing more and nothing less. It does not assume that all encounters are beatable, or even that -- once the players have committed to rash action, or have even been unfortunate -- that the chance of survival need be very high at all. PCs die. It happens. It's too bad, and the DM doesn't want it to happen per se, but neither does he go out of its way to prevent it from happening. Perhaps next time, the group will include a cleric (and other spellcasters).

In Gygaxian D&D, fairness means that you place a few magic weapons, scrolls, etc., where cleverness (or spells) can locate them. If the PCs find them, then they have them. If they do not find them, then they do not have them.

You can also put the wight on an encounter chart for a 1st level adventure, btw. You can put the wight on an encounter table even if you know as a fact that the PCs have no magic weapons. Have you looked at the wilderness encounter tables in the back of the 1e DMG? The DM doesn't modify those tables by party level. Have you seen the random dungeon encounters? Again, they are based on dungeon level, not party level. A party of 1st Ed adventurers can get in way over their head quite easily. And, within the context of Gygaxian D&D this is not only fair it is the way that the game should be.

Without understanding how the game was intended to work when it first appeared, it is impossible to understand how much has changed.


RC

 

[Mallus]

Without understanding how the game was intended to work when it first appeared, it is impossible to understand how much has changed.

That's true RC, but figuring out 'how the game was intended to work' can be somewhat... complicated.

For example, assuming 1e, you have the rules-as-originally-written, the rules-as-modified-by-supplements (ahem, UA), the rules-as-modified-by-periodicals (ie, Dragon), the rules-as-modified-by-adventures (ie, new items, spells, and monsters), and examples-of-play-provided-by-supplements (ie, pregen characters and their starting equipment).

And that's just the stuff TSR published. You also have to consider how gamers actually used all that material. While you're at it, you might as well look for common patterns in house rules...

Which is to say, the only real way to figure out how the game was originally played was to survey how people originally played it. When I do that, I see a game that in almost every case, very much assumed PC's had certain kinds of magical bling by certain levels.

As for the original question: rust monster every time. I can always get new gear, but I have a limited amount of good new character concepts and clever characterization.

 

[billd91]

True, they could just run away (assuming they're faster than a wight - my knowledge of PC movement rates and a wight's is lacking). But, claiming that a random encounter isn't assumed to be a combat encounter is a bit of a stretch IMO.

Out in the countryside, PCs encounter a patrol of the King's men off an encounter table. I'm not going to assume it's a combat encounter. That's up to the PCs.

With the case of the wight, PCs are servants of a necromancer who wants to recruit. May not be a combat encounter.

Yes, you can predict whether or not a random encounter is likely to be hostile... if you know the PCs reasonably well. But it IS a stretch to assume that all random encounters will be combat encounters. That assumes, again, that the creatures out in the world are for PCs to smackdown and little else.