The Ruins of Murkhill™ - OEOEFASRPG™

Hail Fellow and Well Met! This is my Original Dungeons & Dragons blog named for my main campaign The Ruins of Murkhill™. I have been playing and refereeing OD&D since Sept. of 1975. I am apt to talk about almost anything game related here. Open Ended Original Edition Old School Fantasy Adventure Sandbox Role Playing Games™ (OEOEFASRPG™) The Open-Ended Sandbox Exploration of Dungeons, Wilderness and Cities. World Building is one of the great pleasures of life.

Thursday, February 13, 2020

2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary - Day Forty-Four

Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary!

Here is a recent post over at the DM DAVID blog about XP (and other related things)

XP Started as One of D&D’s Breakthrough Ideas. Now the Designers Don’t See the Point

He says:

When Dave Arneson ran a session of his Blackmoor dungeon for his Dungeons & Dragons co-creator, Gary Gygax’s biggest impression came from two innovations: (1) the dungeon expedition and (2) how characters improved with experience. In Playing at the World, author Jon Peterson describes reactions to the revolutionary game and shows new players and reviewers always touting the experience system. The steady reward of experience and levels forged an obsession for many players. I shared their fervor. In my junior high cafeteria, when I overheard some kids talking about a strange game where you could kill an orc, gain experience points, and get better at fighting, that single notion hooked me.

A couple of quick comments here, the first month or so I played had no dungeons and once I started reffing it was a couple of months in before I created my own dungeon with the only guidance being the tiny amount of information in the OD&D rules. For me the primary draw was I got to pick up a sword and stand between the monsters and the non-fighters. I also got to (i.e. chose) stand in the gap during a strategic retreat. Leveling up with gained experience was tertiary for me, gaining treasure was my secondary draw. But for me protecting others was my primary pleasure as a player.

Now once I ran a dungeon, I really got hooked on dungeons. But the other ref in our group did not run dungeons and during the four years of college gaming I never ran a character as a player in a dungeon. In fact, I first got to run a character as a player in a dungeon after 2013. From the time I left college in the spring of 1979 I did not play other than as a referee until after 2013.

So please read the article, because tomorrow I am going to comment in some detail as I revisit the article itself.