Museum of Role Playing Games OD&D Page - great starting point if this stuff is new to you
Delta's D&D Hotspot
Original D&D Discussion
Philotomy's OD&D Musings
The Grognard's Tavern OD&D Cloister
An Overdue Apology
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First of all, I am not being compelled or forced to do this, at least not
by any external agent. This is all about acknowledging my mistake. When the
alleg...
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Posts
Cool stuff. I notice there's a thread at the Grognard's tavern discussing one of my favorite things about OD&D - the lack of variable weapon damage (although the thread-poster doesn't seem to realize some form of that rule was present even up through Mentzer Basic ... I don't recall if they kept it for the Cyclopedia). The last time I ran D&D (about a year and a half ago, now) we played that way. It was one of my favorite things about original WFRP, too.
ReplyDeleteYeah, everything doing d6 seems quick and easy. I have heard of at least one DM on Dragonsfoot who uses class-based damage. All MU and thief attacks do d4, all cleric attacks do d6 and all fighter attacks do d8, regardless of weapon employed.
ReplyDeleteOh man, that would lead to some serious craziness with the kind of people I run with. Unless you don't consider something like a book, wooden spoon, or dead pigeon to be a weapon. What I do like about that is that it might encourage players to pick weapons they think are cool, rather than whichever does the most damage or has the best crit.
ReplyDeleteYeah, everything doing d6 seems quick and easy.
ReplyDeleteAnd it emphasizes character choice over hardware choice, which is something that makes me smile.
The class-based approach you mention is pretty groovy; I like that. May try it out sometime.
What I do like about that is that it might encourage players to pick weapons they think are cool, rather than whichever does the most damage or has the best crit.
Exactly so. I often phrase the same thing upside-down: It doesn't punish players for choosing the weapon that's right for their character, instead of the weapon the designer thinks most highly of.
I don't advocate it universally; there are plenty of campaigns where I prefer variable damage. But there are also quite a few where I don't ...
I was mightily amused when someone commented that Fly From Evil's approach (which also partly shuns variable weapon damage) seemed very "modern" for an old-school designer like me. I politely directed them to two of my earlier designs (Pokethulhu and Risus) which have similar focus, and then reminded them that it goes all the way back to original Dungeons & Dragons, so it's hardly "new school" :)