Myths & Legends

A question that comes up a lot is how do you handle stealth for non-thieves in AD&D? A lot of people expect there to be some kind of default probability, less than that of a 1st level thief, but some sort of probability in the same vein as the Thief Abilities. Some veteran AD&D players simply allow the surprise check to work as a de facto stealth check, with Thief Abilities representing skill above and beyond that. But that seems to raise more questions than answers. How exactly is Move Silently or Hide in Shadows supposed to be integrated with the surprise system? There is something in the PHB to suggest that being silent would boost the surprise probability from 2 in 6 to 3 in 6, as would being unseen, and both would boost it to 4 in 6. So what do you do? Call for a hide in shadows check, a move silently check, and a surprise die roll just for a thief to sneak about? I can understand how the extra stealth skills of a thief would enhance the surprise ability, leaving the a...

I view the phrase "make sense" with suspicion. Because at the end of the day, what it's always really going to be is "make sense to my puny human brain," and I don't think anything, in the real world or fantasy world, is obligated to make sense to puny human brains. In fact, I've done some experiments in creating dungeons straight out of Appendix A. What I found is that in designing dungeons that way, you take on something very similar to what the first-hand experience of players going through the dungeon will have. By not knowing from the start what this dungeon is supposed to be, I found my mind constantly working to figure it out. In other words, the dungeon didn't have to "make sense"--my brain would try to make sense out of it. At first, things wouldn't make sense at all. Not enough information to draw any conclusions. And this had me endlessly curious to find out what was behind the next corner. This is HUGE. You read any advice o...

Style vs Approach in Playing RPGs How Your "Play Style" Is Holding You Back For some reason, the term “play style” has always struck me as somewhat suspect. What does it actually mean? In terms of how it’s used, and I don’t think many will say otherwise, play styles vary according to preference. There are many of them. No one way is right. They allegedly must match up well at the game table for everyone to have the best possible experience. If play styles do not mesh well, it leads to unsatisfying play and can sometimes even result in bad feelings. We like to acknowledge the “play style” of others as a reminder that there are many different ways people can have fun playing RPGs, that the way others play may not be our cup of tea, but as long as they’re having fun, that’s all that matters. So what could possibly be suspect about this? Well, for starters, if there are so many different ways to play the game, and if play styles have to sync up when several different people ...

This is a quick and dirty system I threw together for cramming a Campbell-style Hero's Journey into a single 4-hour RPG session with some starter random tables to be able to generate the adventure randomly. Note that this is based on my own imperfect knowledge of Joseph Campbell's work, and even where I do know better, I sometimes have to sacrifice accuracy in order to systematize something that is really intended to have such a human element to it that it defies any system. That said, here are some barely organized notes I cobbled together about a year ago, and I would welcome any ideas for further development. Hour One - The Ordinary World Introduction Call to Adventure Equipment and Aid Challenge #1, Crossing the Threshold This segment is back-ground heavy. We know where the heroes come from, we know why they’re doing what they’re doing, and we know what steps they’ve taken to prepare. The segment ends immediately after its climax. Hour Two - The Extraordinary...

Recently, someone asked why someone who didn't cut their teeth on AD&D 1E would choose that edition over the others. What follows is an account of my personal experience playing RPGs, from my first books to the present day. I think it shows that my "why" has evolved over the years. The first D&D books I ever owned was red box which I got for Christmas when I was 8 years old. I'd been saving up my money to buy it myself, so I was able to use that money to buy the expert blue box. My grandmother noticed my interest, and because she ran a flea market, she was always at auctions and thrift stores looking for bargains, and any time she'd see a D&D book, she'd get it for me, so I quickly ended up with a mish-mash, and by the time I was in 6th grade and running my first long-running campaign, 2nd Ed had just come out, so we were playing a mish-mash of BECMI, 1E, and 2E. The group I played with in high school had gravitated towards 2E--they were just ...

Busting Myths, Slaying Dragons This one's going to be a bit long. For those of you who like the short version of things, I'll drop the conclusion up front. Dragons are deadlier than you think. Use the 1st Ed stats. Anything else is too powerful. The response I always get is some high level character, about 10th or so, decked out, buffed, and otherwise optimized to specifically fight the dragon. The unspoken assumptions that go along with this is that a 10th level character is somehow a reasonable, middling level character, not on the highest ends of the spectrum, so it surely shouldn't be able to whack the monster the game was named after. Now I strongly feel that any one of those assumptions can be attacked as dubious. But I'm not really going to get into any of that here. I generally prefer to zero in on things that don't get talked about rather than talk about things that have been done to death. I - Aerial Combat I have no idea where to find the ...

Question: What if an archer is in a very small room with a door, bow at the ready and a fighter opens the door quickly weapon in hand wanting to strike the archer, (in melee range) , the archer can’t fire the bow at close to point blank range? Answer: I assume we're talking about a room so small that whoever walks through the door doesn't need to "close to striking distance." If that is the case, this falls under " weapon strikes during the course of the round with respect to opponents who are engaged in activity other than striking blows "--which is the same rule for striking someone casting a spell. The tricky thing here is whereas the PHB tells us how many segments a spell takes to cast, it doesn't tell us how many segments missile fire takes up. Not directly, anyway. You can infer this from RoF. A bow & arrow, with a RoF of 2 normally takes 5 segments. In this situation, though, the archer is already ready, and presumably already aimed at th...

By request, a sequel to 16 Town Encounters, Day or Night . To skew the use of this list and its prequel in favor of more ordinary townsfolk, simply use this list only when a "random encounter" is called for but otherwise assume there will always there will be some ordinary folk around during the day. Multiply the rolls of two d4's to determine the number. Randomly decide whether they are male or female, and then assume they are "nondescript" unless you think of something better fitting to the situation. At night, there will only be people out and about when a "random encounter" is called for, but alternate or randomly select (50/50) whether to use this table or to randomly roll for ordinary folk. A garish but otherwise well-dressed woman that is 50% likely to be confused as a magic-user or 50% likely to be confused for a haughty courtesan but is actually a goodwife! (F0, 2 hp) Any offensive treatment or seeming threat will be likely to cause the...

I know a man named Miles Davis. Not the famous trumpet player. Although the Miles Davis I know does play the trumpet. He studied trumpet and music in college. He's got a masters degree in it, in fact. As a masters student in music, you learn a lot about the writing styles of famous artists and composers. And your asked to compose in the style of so-and-so. This struck him as odd because it's not like Mozart set out to compose in the style of Mozart. He set out to play what sounded good to him. Mozart's style was only later defined by scholars in hindsight. Miles also told me that when you're a trumpet player named Miles Davis, people expect you to be familiar with his music. And so Miles came to realize a few things. The famous Miles Davis wasn't a great trumpet player in terms of technical ability. And the music he wrote reflected his limitations--how he'd tend to avoid certain notes towards the ends of his phrases because he lacked the breath to pull i...

If you’ve read my thoughts on The Best RPG Advice in the World , you have some idea of where this is going. Dungeon adventures are such a significant chunk of the hobby, the topic does deserve some attention all its own. Someone recently posted a link to another blogger’s article with their advice for designing dungeons. And without the slightest sense of irony, the person who posted the link commented about how as young teens the dungeons were completely random with no logic, and it was fun. But now he puts more thought into things. Things always used to be fun, it seems. What happened? The answer is always assumed to be "we just grew up." My answer is a bit different. I can only speak for myself, but maybe a lot of others have experienced the same thing. I used to have fun, then I started reading advice like the one in that blog post linked. And, by the way, I don’t need to link the article because chances are you’ve already seen the advice. it’s always been the same ...