Celebrating 2020 - The Year of Blackmoor - 50th Anniversary of Blackmoor and of Role-Playing!
Today is Part 74 (Part B) 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.**
Let us proceed,
This is all pretty straightforward and can be devastating if one ship is a sailing vessel that is both fast and maneuverable.
Dead in the water for three turns, which leads directly to grappling, although ships do not have to be dead in the water to attempt grappling, it does make it easier.
This is dead in the water once grappling is successful. They may or may not be dead in the water when attempted, but being dead in the water is a result of successful grappling.
Pirates are always going to attempt to grapple and board merchant vessels or smaller vessels. Pirates will always attempt to escape from military vessels In areas where pirates are many, a merchant vessel, instead of being loaded with cargo, might be loaded with marines to lure pirates in.
For combat you may use either Chainmail or the regular (so-called alternate system) method. Either one will work well in my experience.If you are dealing with large numbers on both sides in addition to the PCs I have used quick and dirty methods that IME work just fine.
As I noted immediately above.
We have generally run things that each side seeks to assume control of the situation, before there is any focus on loot. Anyone that focuses on loot first is considered distracted and may be easily attacked from behind if any opposition is in position to do so.
Special note: This advice can be applied throughout your campaign in many different situations. Examples are battling near a cliff face, battling on stairs, or on a platform. Other examples are fighting near deep pools of water, pits, boiling springs or geysers, lava flow or pits or other hazards both in dungeons or wilderness. Always be on the lookout for things usable in one situation that may also be used elsewhere.
Again these are things that can apply anywhere in your game when running encounters.
Let us look at these additional suggestions.
These all make sense; but I will have some comments in a moment.
Again there are principles here that will stand you in good stead elsewhere in your campaign.
OK, now a few comments: Depending on the number of men in this battle, I run it like this 1 Captain to 2 Lieutenants to 4 Sergeants. This extends the control quite a bit with the step down from Lieutenants to Sergeants being the same as from Captain to Lieutenants.
Also intelligent humanoid monsters will also have command control problems. Unless you have already specified they are just an undisciplined hoard, but often this will not be the case. IMO if they do not have command control problems, it is cheating in favor of the monsters.
And last a turn is 10 melee rounds. An order to withdraw in three turns is 30 melee rounds. I cannot think of any combats I have ever run that went 30 or more melee rounds. In suggestion 6 above I substitute the word round in place of turn. I do this for two reasons, one is that I believe that is the intention of the rules and two I think making some wording changes here and there makes things make more sense and is useful if you are mentoring someone to referee. Of course once they start refereeing they can run it anyway they like.
In my next post, we will pick things up with swimming.
Today is Part 74 (Part B) 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.**
Let us proceed,
This is all pretty straightforward and can be devastating if one ship is a sailing vessel that is both fast and maneuverable.
Dead in the water for three turns, which leads directly to grappling, although ships do not have to be dead in the water to attempt grappling, it does make it easier.
This is dead in the water once grappling is successful. They may or may not be dead in the water when attempted, but being dead in the water is a result of successful grappling.
Pirates are always going to attempt to grapple and board merchant vessels or smaller vessels. Pirates will always attempt to escape from military vessels In areas where pirates are many, a merchant vessel, instead of being loaded with cargo, might be loaded with marines to lure pirates in.
For combat you may use either Chainmail or the regular (so-called alternate system) method. Either one will work well in my experience.If you are dealing with large numbers on both sides in addition to the PCs I have used quick and dirty methods that IME work just fine.
As I noted immediately above.
We have generally run things that each side seeks to assume control of the situation, before there is any focus on loot. Anyone that focuses on loot first is considered distracted and may be easily attacked from behind if any opposition is in position to do so.
Special note: This advice can be applied throughout your campaign in many different situations. Examples are battling near a cliff face, battling on stairs, or on a platform. Other examples are fighting near deep pools of water, pits, boiling springs or geysers, lava flow or pits or other hazards both in dungeons or wilderness. Always be on the lookout for things usable in one situation that may also be used elsewhere.
Again these are things that can apply anywhere in your game when running encounters.
Let us look at these additional suggestions.
These all make sense; but I will have some comments in a moment.
Again there are principles here that will stand you in good stead elsewhere in your campaign.
OK, now a few comments: Depending on the number of men in this battle, I run it like this 1 Captain to 2 Lieutenants to 4 Sergeants. This extends the control quite a bit with the step down from Lieutenants to Sergeants being the same as from Captain to Lieutenants.
Also intelligent humanoid monsters will also have command control problems. Unless you have already specified they are just an undisciplined hoard, but often this will not be the case. IMO if they do not have command control problems, it is cheating in favor of the monsters.
And last a turn is 10 melee rounds. An order to withdraw in three turns is 30 melee rounds. I cannot think of any combats I have ever run that went 30 or more melee rounds. In suggestion 6 above I substitute the word round in place of turn. I do this for two reasons, one is that I believe that is the intention of the rules and two I think making some wording changes here and there makes things make more sense and is useful if you are mentoring someone to referee. Of course once they start refereeing they can run it anyway they like.
In my next post, we will pick things up with swimming.
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