2014-01-23

Happy 40th Birthday, D&D


Did you know that this weekend, Sunday January 26th counts as the 40th birthday of D&D being on sale to the general public? (If the date is good enough for Jon Peterson, then it's good enough for me.) Oh, D&D, you're like a goofy younger brother to me.

So make some time this weekend to hoist a tankard of ale, or prestidigitation up a cake, or bend some iron bars or whatever seems most appropriate. Fight on!


11 comments:

  1. Ah yes! And in fact, to celebrate I am going to have an extra-long one-shot session of B/X (a diversion from our current 3.0 game.)

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  2. As it happens, I'm planning a special one-shot session of LBB-only OD&D as a change from our ongoing B/X game. And there will be cake.

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  3. I ran a game using OED last night, including for somebody who'd never played any edition prior to 3.5 before. Everybody had fun, though it was a rolling TPK (nobody finished with the same character they started with).

    I did have one question, though, about your initiative house rules... when it says "each party to move and attack, in order" does that mean the traditional (Chainmail style) each side moves, then each side attacks, or the side with initiative moves and attacks then the other side?

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    1. Great, thanks for trying it and telling me how it went! (My condolences.)

      My initiative is not like Chainmail. I do have each player move & attack together, then we move on to the next player. I find that's easier for casual players to get into and focus on (matches expectations from a boardgame).

      And when I write "in order" what I mean is that you can't, as in 3rd Edition, swap things around and do an attack-then-move. You have to move-then-attack when your turn comes up (which means that when you flee, your opponent just got an attack on you, and you have to forfeit any return attack).

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    2. No condolences necessary, the players had a blast. I suspect if it hadn't been billed as a one-off they might have been more cautious.

      Yeah, handling each player's turn completely before moving on to the next is a lot easier... it's what we were doing but on re-reading the rule I wasn't sure if it was what was intended.

      Incidentally, do you make an .odt version of the 1.0 rules available? I was hoping to make a derivative document of my own house-rules (sticking Clerics back in:P ), but the latest version of the odt I find on my drive is v08

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    3. I was just debating with myself yesterday, as I was updating things, exactly where I should put the .odt documents online. For now, check this under-construction page:

      http://www.oedgames.com/addons/houserules/index.html

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  4. Great stuff, and I'm running my 1st edition game this week in celebration!

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