Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 61 (Part A) of my series on OD&D, with The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures Vol. 3.
**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**
In the Underworld 1" equals 10 feet, in the Wilderness 1" equals 10 yards. That affects many things. One example would be spells. Let us say that a spell has a range of 10" - above ground that converts to 100 yards, but below ground in the absence of any explanation does it equal 100' instead? Not in my opinion, IMC it is still 100 yards; but in the Underworld you do take into account solid obstruction and the volume of spaces in ways that it would be unusual for it to come in play above ground.
For instance, a Fire Ball has a burst radius of 2" which is 20 yards or 40 yards in diameter which is a ball of fire 120 feet in diameter, so if you stand in a corridor in front of an open door and cast a fireball into a small 10' by 10" room, the Fire Ball will fill the room, envelope the caster and expand down the corridor in both directions until it reaches full size. Alternatively you could say it creates an over pressure effect and damage is increased 50% overall, but increased 100% where is blasts back out through the doorway (oops sorry Magic-User). A Lighting Bolt in a small area can rebound multiple times until it fizzles out. and its damage is thereby multiplied by the number of times it passes through your body.
Also tomorrow, I am going to spend some time talking about movement, movement rates, Exploration Turns, Melee Turns, Melee Rounds and time measuring.
This is one of the things that I will discuss at more length tomorrow.
I do not use this as written, my dad and I have walked for hours without pausing to rest, with farm work for most things you did not pause to rest. You might stop and take a drink and then go right back to work with elapsed time of less than 1-2 minutes. You kept working, kept moving because things had to get done, you had a limited time to get it all done when it needed to be done or before it rained. In fact, if rain was coming, you might work at double the normal pace for an extended time, to beat the rain.
You stopped for Dinner (Lunch for city folk) ate and went right back to work as soon as you finished, and you did the same thing at Supper (Dinner for city folk) especially during planting season, hay season and harvest season. It was the same way with the garden and canning and such. When I first had a job with a 15 min break twice a day, I did not know what it was for.
So I ruled that you stopped when you wanted to for whatever the reason was, such as spending time on creating the player map. If you skipped that there were consequences. Now if you were carrying treasure out, while you moved slower, you generally did not have to stop unless you were checking the map. Unless of course you were heavily encumbered, then you would take rest breaks. Of course after flight/pursuit took place you might have to rest.
This is pretty much used as stated. Note that when you are taking these actions, movement slows to a crawl or even is nil.
Here is where I separated out a Movement Turn and a Combat Turn. A Movement Turn is 10 minutes, a Combat Turn as I used it is 1 minute. A Melee Round in Combat is 6 Seconds. I made that change by the end of my first two weeks as a Referee. In OD&D for the most part in each melee round you get one opportunity to hit your opponent. And "Melee is fast and furious." In six seconds an archer can loose 6 arrows, in six seconds a swordsman can strike a dozen times with his sword. So I ran it that an archer takes plenty of time and takes one shot in the six seconds having lined it up for the best chance to hit. I ruled that the swordsman takes all those swings, but really only has one chance to hit at first level. I did this because IMO a one minute melee round is so extreme it breaks the suspension of disbelief. (Not as a player because I just ignore the whole concept and play, but as a referee who is tracking things it is a dissonant note. I will go into this more tomorrow.)
I used all of this mostly as written, with the chance for the Elves to sense a secret door they pass on a roll of 1 or 2. For doors, mine at times are much harder to open.
I changed this to they would not spring on a roll of a 6, but would spring on a roll of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. I made the assumption of reasonable competence on the part of whomever set the trap or built the pit trap. Think of Indiana Jones, how many traps failed to operate? Was he successful in avoiding death from the sprung trap? I run my game like that. So I added a saving throw for the character to save from the trap. Character walks over a pit trap and it springs, player makes saving throw and manages to grab the lip of the pit and then his friends can pull him up.
Tomorrow we will finish this section and I will add my more complete commentary.
Today is Part 61 (Part A) of my series on OD&D, with The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures Vol. 3.
**For those coming in, in the middle of this series I am giving you my take on OD&D during my first exposure starting in Sept of 1975. For this first part it is just the first three books of the original woodgrain box set and prior to obtaining the Greyhawk, Blackmoor and later Supplements.**
Next up:
In the Underworld 1" equals 10 feet, in the Wilderness 1" equals 10 yards. That affects many things. One example would be spells. Let us say that a spell has a range of 10" - above ground that converts to 100 yards, but below ground in the absence of any explanation does it equal 100' instead? Not in my opinion, IMC it is still 100 yards; but in the Underworld you do take into account solid obstruction and the volume of spaces in ways that it would be unusual for it to come in play above ground.
For instance, a Fire Ball has a burst radius of 2" which is 20 yards or 40 yards in diameter which is a ball of fire 120 feet in diameter, so if you stand in a corridor in front of an open door and cast a fireball into a small 10' by 10" room, the Fire Ball will fill the room, envelope the caster and expand down the corridor in both directions until it reaches full size. Alternatively you could say it creates an over pressure effect and damage is increased 50% overall, but increased 100% where is blasts back out through the doorway (oops sorry Magic-User). A Lighting Bolt in a small area can rebound multiple times until it fizzles out. and its damage is thereby multiplied by the number of times it passes through your body.
Also tomorrow, I am going to spend some time talking about movement, movement rates, Exploration Turns, Melee Turns, Melee Rounds and time measuring.
This is one of the things that I will discuss at more length tomorrow.
I do not use this as written, my dad and I have walked for hours without pausing to rest, with farm work for most things you did not pause to rest. You might stop and take a drink and then go right back to work with elapsed time of less than 1-2 minutes. You kept working, kept moving because things had to get done, you had a limited time to get it all done when it needed to be done or before it rained. In fact, if rain was coming, you might work at double the normal pace for an extended time, to beat the rain.
You stopped for Dinner (Lunch for city folk) ate and went right back to work as soon as you finished, and you did the same thing at Supper (Dinner for city folk) especially during planting season, hay season and harvest season. It was the same way with the garden and canning and such. When I first had a job with a 15 min break twice a day, I did not know what it was for.
So I ruled that you stopped when you wanted to for whatever the reason was, such as spending time on creating the player map. If you skipped that there were consequences. Now if you were carrying treasure out, while you moved slower, you generally did not have to stop unless you were checking the map. Unless of course you were heavily encumbered, then you would take rest breaks. Of course after flight/pursuit took place you might have to rest.
This is pretty much used as stated. Note that when you are taking these actions, movement slows to a crawl or even is nil.
Here is where I separated out a Movement Turn and a Combat Turn. A Movement Turn is 10 minutes, a Combat Turn as I used it is 1 minute. A Melee Round in Combat is 6 Seconds. I made that change by the end of my first two weeks as a Referee. In OD&D for the most part in each melee round you get one opportunity to hit your opponent. And "Melee is fast and furious." In six seconds an archer can loose 6 arrows, in six seconds a swordsman can strike a dozen times with his sword. So I ran it that an archer takes plenty of time and takes one shot in the six seconds having lined it up for the best chance to hit. I ruled that the swordsman takes all those swings, but really only has one chance to hit at first level. I did this because IMO a one minute melee round is so extreme it breaks the suspension of disbelief. (Not as a player because I just ignore the whole concept and play, but as a referee who is tracking things it is a dissonant note. I will go into this more tomorrow.)
I used all of this mostly as written, with the chance for the Elves to sense a secret door they pass on a roll of 1 or 2. For doors, mine at times are much harder to open.
I changed this to they would not spring on a roll of a 6, but would spring on a roll of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. I made the assumption of reasonable competence on the part of whomever set the trap or built the pit trap. Think of Indiana Jones, how many traps failed to operate? Was he successful in avoiding death from the sprung trap? I run my game like that. So I added a saving throw for the character to save from the trap. Character walks over a pit trap and it springs, player makes saving throw and manages to grab the lip of the pit and then his friends can pull him up.
Tomorrow we will finish this section and I will add my more complete commentary.
No comments:
Post a Comment