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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9474263" data-attributes="member: 6799660">Despite 6 or more* distinct versions of A/D&D in the TSR era, a huge number of play assumptions were never really spelled out. So naturally any number of groups missed, ignored, glossed over, or explicitly removed one or more of the rules or play patterns supporting or predicated on those assumptions. *depending on how you count themAs a different example, BX and BECMI listed Morale rules as optional. Now, that might have been with the thought that experienced DMs could decide when enemies broke, but many treated it as meaning that the norm was enemies fought to the death. Beyond unrealistic, this makes enemies all that much harder (and undead less scary, as that's otherwise their schtick).Because I'm always curious about how others got a challenging thing to work, I'll ask: how'd you make it work without the PC + henchman mega-crowd?When I started*, we didn't use henchmen. However, the 3 main players had 2-3 characters (a fighter for everyone, plus 1-2 of the other classes). That, plus we picked up a bevvy of pet blink dogs, displacer beasts, and eventually dragons along the way which fleshed out the party. We also had unarticulated zone-of-control houserules in that the monsters would lunge forward and engage the fighters, even if nothing prevented them from swarming the magic user and thief. I think we also had retreating to the wilderness to lick our wounds (TSR era clerics taking several days worth of spell load-out to heal up even a small party) with only small chance of encounter (and none of the 'rest days happen in real time,' or 'another party might come along and clear out the dungeon while you rest' stuff that West Marches play uses).*note: as kidsWe have <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/how-did-i-survive-ad-d-fudging-and-railroads-apparently.706918/" target="_blank">another thread</a> going on concerning* whether people "fudged" (OPs definition is wide enough to drive a truck through, and includes most any not-played by-the-book). My attitude has been, 'if you didn't play with 8-12 PCs, plus henchmen, well then something else must have been tweaked.' Possibly just numbers-appearing of the monsters or other what challenges you take on (also when you left the confines of the dungeons). *plus the definition of railroading, which has dominated.</blockquote>

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