Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5717353" data-attributes="member: 42582">Yes. But they weren't "dungeon suvrival" focused. Many of them, like lost cities and races, hidden shrines, rescue scenarios and the like are much more "story" or thematically focused.In the AD&D PHB, Gygax talks about the importance of preparation, scouting, identifying targets, then pulling out, planning, and going in to hit those targets in a methodical fashion. This is what I take [MENTION=2067]Kamikaze Midget[/MENTION] to mean by "dungeon survival". It is certainly the approach that I associate in my mind with Gygax, Lewis Pulsipher and the general mega-dungeon orientation of early D&D.Whereas Moldvay is focused on scenario-dungeons, not mega-dungeons, and the goals and targets are typically going to be inherent in the scenario, not formulated by the players as part of the course of play, which is what Gygax assumes in his discussion in the PHB. And when you look at the sample adventure and examples of play in Moldvay Basic, with Morgan Ironwolf et al, you don't see Gygaxian play (or, at least, I don't). The players aren't systematically scouting, evaluating, planning and then targetting. The dynamic is closer to that of a story - they have a thematic/story goal which they are trying to achieve, and the dungeon is simply a backdrop to that, not itself the object of emotional concern.Again, this isn't what I hear when I hear dungeon survival. I mean, Rolemater at low levels, and Runequest at any "level", involve real possibilities of instant death and nasty traps. But they've never suggested "dungeon survival" (at least to me). It's the Gyaxian/Pulsiferian vibe that I feel is absent from Moldvay Basic, but very present in the AD&D rulebooks - especially the closing section of the PHB, and the discussions on designing and refereeing a dungeon in the DMG.</blockquote>

Verification