Best Version of DnD?

[Doug Sundseth]

20 minutes ago, BlazingTornado said:

Ok a round is 6 seconds, so that's... every minute? And then a 1 in 6 chance? Eek that must make overland travel complete hell...

 

I'm pretty sure that a round in that version of the game is one minute and a turn is 10 minutes. Which means that you're likely to get one random encounter per 2 hours.

 

Aside: In OD&D, this meant that a fighter in full plate traveled at 3'/minute indoors. 

[BlazingTornado]

Ok so B2 gives me a turn as 10 minutes too, that gets a mention.

It also says unencumbered men not wearing metal armor can move 40 feet per melee round, encumbered men or men in metal armor can move 20 feet per melee round and encumbered men in metal armor can move 10 feet per melee round.

 

 

So I guess at BECMI's point, fighters in plate could move faster than 3 feet/minute.

 

But yeah, no mention of how often to roll for encounters in the module proper despite all this other info that is also likely in the basic Rules.

[Doug Sundseth]

14 minutes ago, BlazingTornado said:

Ok so B2 gives me a turn as 10 minutes too, that gets a mention.

It also says unencumbered men not wearing metal armor can move 40 feet per melee round, encumbered men or men in metal armor can move 20 feet per melee round and encumbered men in metal armor can move 10 feet per melee round.

 

 

So I guess at BECMI's point, fighters in plate could move faster than 3 feet/minute.

 

But yeah, no mention of how often to roll for encounters in the module proper despite all this other info that is also likely in the basic Rules.

 

Ah, but you see melee round movement only applies in melee, not in "turns".  (I don't actually know what the non-combat rates are in BECMI.)

[Unruly]

The more I read of 2e, the more I'm glad that I came in during the d20 era. Although, at the same time, if I'd been playing 2e I'd probably be much, much better at basic arithmetic than I am. Faster with the numbers. Also, it makes me kind of long to play a game where everyone uses the original 3d6, take 'em as you roll 'em, stat generation and where hit die cap out around level 10 and then you just get a small, flat, increase to HP every level. Of course, this wouldn't really work in 3.x, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could work out somewhat in 5e. It would just be a game with a very high potential for lethality...

[DocPiske]

For anyone wanting to play Keep on the Borderlands (or any old D&D module, really) Basic Fantasy RPG is a free download. It s a retro-clone of the BECM rules, with a couple of tweeks to make it easier to run, like ascending AC. Saves a little coin over having to buy the OoP books. Retro-clones are available for 1st ed AD&D (OSRIC) and 2nd ed (For Gold and Glory). Even the original 1974 version of D&D has one (Swords and Wizardry).

[TheAuldGrump]

The ludicrously long melee rounds in D&D came from Gygax's love of old movies - where swashbuckling battles took a fair amount of time on the screen.

 

It is also why people go from unimpaired to dead - with the combatants striking, dodging, and parrying - until one of them is run through, and drops like a rock.

 

So, don't think of it as simulating real combat, think of it as simulating Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, and Tyrone Power.

 

The Auld Grump - in 7th Sea there are rules for jumping away from explosions....

 

[Unruly]

I've had Swords & Wizardry since the Bones 1 KS because a free copy was included. It looked like a d20 version of old school D&D, because everything was still based on the d20 compared to what I'm reading now in 2e.

 

If I had a more reliable gaming group, I'd be much more likely to actually try out various systems. As it is, I get to game a handful of times per year, so we all tend to settle on whatever version of D&D is popular at the time. When I first met these folks, it was 3.x and Pathfinder, and now it's 5e. I've tried to get them to give other stuff a chance, but no one wants t stray from the known because of how little we get to play.

[Crowley]

On 9/22/2017 at 6:49 PM, PaganMegan said:

Definitely Barbossa!

 

Matthau is OBVIOUSLY Dungeon Crawl Classics!

Okay, I take it back.

 

THIS is 5e!

Late to it, but Matthau is definitely DCC! Love that game... I wonder if I could get my 5e players to give it a try...

 

On 9/28/2017 at 11:28 AM, TheAuldGrump said:

 

*The Knight's Tale was an amazing mix of flying purple anachronisms and little tiny details that only history buffs would catch.

I was so ready to hate that movie... and then it was actually enjoyable. It was... kind of insane how well it all meshed. 

 

On 9/28/2017 at 6:23 PM, TheAuldGrump said:

I can honestly say that I have never found it forgettable.

 

Maybe because when I was watching it I went 'That's the Fair Maid of Kent!' - so many huge anachronisms, but also these little tiny details that show that, yes, they did do their research. (They got the scoring system for jousts right, for the love of mud!)

 

So, instead of complaining, history buffs could take it as a game.

 

I loved that movie.

 

But, here, have the official D&D movie....

(My gaming group, which did not include Megan, at the time, went to see this turkey in the theater.... By far the best part of the film was the preview for Shrek. )

 

The Auld Grump

I also enjoyed the original D&D movie... but that was most definitely in spite of how bad it was, and largely because of the insane delight that radiated off of Jeremy Irons as he gleefully chewed scenery and spit it out knowing that it was trash, he was getting paid for it, and that he was going to make the absolute most of it he could. 

[Green Eyed Monster]

On 10/5/2017 at 1:31 PM, PaganMegan said:

I WISH I could say THAC0? What's that?

 

Grump tells me that THAC0 was an IMPROVEMENT! That it used to be WORSE, and you needed to look on tables that only the DM had.

 

He SMILES when he says that.

THACO = To Hit Armour Class Zero

Which meant extra calculations to do for every combat action.

Been a long time since I used it so I'd have to brush up considerably before I could give a coherent expanation of the why's and wherefore's.

GEM

[TheAuldGrump]

At the game, Duncan pointed out that the focus of 4e was on the encounter, not the adventure.

 

So, an adventure was a lot of tactically interesting battle encounters, but not so good as an actual adventure, until later - when they started ignoring their own advice, and came out with Shadowfell.

 

Duncan is the only player in the group that actually liked 4e, and used to play in the Encounters at one of the semi-local game stores.

 

The weird thing is that we agree on a lot of things - but draw different conclusions therefrom.

 

The Auld Grump - Shadowfell, where the PCs traipse through a faerie ring and interact with the little people....

D&D is emphatically not the game of fairy-tale fantasy. D&D is a game about slaying horrible monsters, not a game about traipsing off through fairy rings and interacting with the little people.  - James Wyatt 4e D&D Design Team

 

[TheAuldGrump]

13 hours ago, Crowley said:

I also enjoyed the original D&D movie... but that was most definitely in spite of how bad it was, and largely because of the insane delight that radiated off of Jeremy Irons as he gleefully chewed scenery and spit it out knowing that it was trash, he was getting paid for it, and that he was going to make the absolute most of it he could. 

Many years ago, there was a rumor that Frank Langella had been forced by contract to play Skeltor in Masters of the Universe, and that he hated that movie with a passion.

 

Years later, I encountered an interview with Frank Langella where he was asked what his favorite movie role was....

 

Yep, Masters of the Universe - he had a blast playing the part - yeah, bad movie, but sometimes those can be a lot of fun

 

For me, the best line in the Dungeons & Dragons movie -

 

The Auld Grump

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

So, while I was at the FLGS for their gaming weekend, I jumped into an AL game.  The group had been playing together for a bit, but there was an opening, and they had a big battle coming up.  Character levels ranged from 1st to 5th, with the average being 3rd.  We were teleported up to a floating cavern and addressed by what turned out to be a lich.  The lich offered to give us information if we gave up an NPC (the NPC was much higher level than us, but still lower than the lich) to her.  That offer was declined.

 

So what followed was 6 characters and an NPC punching way above their weight class.  The biggest problem was that the lich was immune to non-magic weapons.  So, my rogue and the two fighters were basically reduced to killing some zombies and trying to stay out of the way.  The two clerics and the wizard (the first level character) were attempting to take down the lich, while the NPC used an item to cast Bigby's Hand and beat away at the lich.  Until the lich used dominate monster on him that was.  Then he was teleported to cage and had disintergrate cast upon him.  Damage rolled was one less than his total  hit points (he had some temp hit points so he was at 7 remaining).  My rogue knew the NPC in the cage had a magic dagger, so I rushed over there to grab it from him so I could contribute.  Just as I get there, the lich casts prismatic wall around the NPC so we couldn't reach him.  The Goliath grapple fighter used the Prismatic wall to great effect by grabbing zombies and shoving them into it.  The lich would be dimension dooring around the room and dropping spells on us; counterspelling most everything the cleric were throwing at it.  I eventually lit a torch and tried to sneak attack the lich with it.  Unfortuanately, a torch is neither a ranged or finesse weapon so no sneak attack was allowed.  So I managed to do 1 pt of fire damage as the other fighter threw a flask of alchemists fire.  We were rewarded with a Cloudkill.  In the meantime, the NPC threw off the Domination, and dimension door-ed out of the Prismatic Wall.  Eventually, we were able to hit the lich, who failed her Con check and dropped Cloudkill, allowing the final couple of points of damage to be done.  

 

Evidently there was a teleportation circle in another room that she was trying to get too, but we kept being in the way so she couldn't get away.  I guess the adventure was supposed to see if we would give up the NPC, and if not have her kill him and then leave.  The DM did not expect us to actually prevail.  Fun times. 

[Chaoswolf]

>summoned to the conversation by mention of THAC0<

 

THAC0 hard to understand? Balderdash!! Things were better in the old days, I tell ya!

 

Yew kids git offa mah lawn!!

And take your silly CR37 fiendish, vampiric, half red dragon, half fire giant 3rd level ninja berserker with you!

 

Edited October 8, 2017 by Chaoswolf

[TheAuldGrump]

I'll take 'Unnecessary mathematics for 500, Alex'

'This unnecessary number in Dungeons and Dragons meant that you needed three calculations in order to derive a number that could have been determined with a single calculation just by having the numbers go up instead of down'

'What is THAC0? Alex!

 

The Auld Grump - something that I really don't miss about the older editions....

[BlazingTornado]

Yesterday little miss Chaotic learned not to bother archmages.

 

After losing her joke of a pet giant wolf spider ("She's going to boop the cleric on the nose with her paw! ...Wait what do you mean my character's the comic relief of the party??") to a flameskull's fireball, and getting stuck with a cursed -1 rapier, she starts going about town inquiring about a jeweled mirror she found in an earlier adventure. She really wants it to have scrying properties ("An undead killed my spider! I want it to be able to scry on ALL the undead so I can find them all and kill them all! ....Wait what do you mean my character's the comic relief?") but it's just mundane but valuable... so she decides to go bother the reclusive archmage who lives in the big tower in the middle of town...

Banging furiously at the main gate until she feels it vibrate, but no one answers... Decides to try and scale the outer gate's walls, and that only results in her getting a 6th-level Lightning Bolt from the tower, knocking her back down (fortunately for her I rolled TRIPLE ONES on my d6es for her falling damage).

So she heals herself quickly (she was down to nine, got twelve back from a cure wounds)... and after the town guards decide she's not worth the hassle of arresting for attempted tresspassing, she resumes banging furiously on the main gate... til she eats a Sunbeam to the face. No more hit points, she falls unconscious.

 

And she didn't tell the party of anything she wanted to do so as far as they're concerned she's up a tree or something....