Timewaster's Guide Archive
Games => Role-Playing Games => Topic started by: Eagle Prince on June 02, 2007, 08:55:27 AM
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I was reading this post on Enworld basically on how fast you would level in 1st dnd compared to 3rd edition. Basically it just did a side-by-side using published adventures, and it looked like you'd level up just as fast in the original dnd compared to the current edition. The older adventures also gave way more money in coins, and probably about the same in magic items (from what I could tell). 42 ran us through two of those adventures using 3rd ed. characters, and it looked like our game matched up to the average results that the comparison was showing.
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Another big difference was that you got exp for treasure found as well as for killing, that really boosted leveling in earlier edtions.
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Ah, the good old days...xp for treasure.
That brings back memories.
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I probably played the old TMNT more than 1st edition, but if I have the facts straight, I think you got 1 xp for every 1gp of treasure you found, excluding magic items. For those, you'd either idenify and sell them, and the whole group would get a certain amount of XP, or someone could use the item, and they would get XP for using it. I think at least half of the XP you got was from treasure, killing monsters didn't give much XP.
When 42 pulled out his old books, another thing I thought was interesting was fighters and dwarves had an ability that dealed double damage when making a mounted charge with a lance, or double damage when using a spear set against a charge. Now those are just interent to the weapons, but in 1st ed. they were actual class abilities.
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you got set xp for finding magic items, then you could sell them if'n you want at whatever market conditions the DM set.
It was a good way to give XP for avoiding monsters instead of just killing everything.
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I think one could still do that sort of thing, as long as players are willing to consider different definitions to "defeating" an enemy. If the goal is to get the item, who cares whether you kill the big bad or sneak around it? I'd give same xp either way.
Especially if the guardians are home-brew Shadow Golems, that have +15 to hit, do 3d12+20 damage, are nearly impossible to hit, and when they kill something they send its soul to Gehenna, no save.
And the PCs are 3rd level in a low-magic campaign setting.
And the level/CR disparity is such that they don't get XP for "defeating" them.
Of course, it could be argued in that case that they're not supposed to fight the bad guys....
:D
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well, 3ed+ supposedly already has that in place. But seriously, you've got to make it ridiculously easy for them to sneak around if you've got a creature that powerful -- it's not really good GMing to do that to them, imo.
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It was ridicuously easy. The things didn't move at all until the PCs grabbed the item, and once they did, only one attack was made the first round -- against an animal companion, to show how insanely nasty and unbeatable these things were. When the PCs ran, the golems only made double moves. It was all flavor, unless anyone was suicidal enough to try and fight it out. Bad GMing? I don't know. Ask Eagle Prince or 42, they were the players there.
And thank you for reminding me that if it has to be explained, it's not funny.
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Strange, I was watching the Big Sleep this morning and was just thinking that you'd probably like it, Harbinger. Humphrey Bogart with lots of witty jokes.
I don't remember all the details of this. It seems like we were in some underground ruins by an old rock quarry or something, with giant insects. Or might have been at the very end, when we climbed up the mountain, but I think we somehow got to lvl 6 by then and BJ was playing too, iirc.
We were up against a lot worse than those golems. Everything the characters did was about sneaking around things that could smash them into oblivion, trying to gum up the works until our higher level characters could roll in and mop up. It was more about commoners doing some heroic things to thelp the real heroes out. My PC was still a teenager, and spent more time working a regular job than he did adventuring.
I've still never come up with a good name for my undertaker's spiked chain.
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Yeah, you climbed up the mountain to reach some ruins, right at the end of the campaign. I thought someone else was there, but I didn't remember who. You might have leveled by then, I don't remember. Giant insects was different ruins, early on for those characters. Do you remember why we started new characters for everyone?
Another friend recommended Big Sleep to me a few months ago, it's a great movie. And I watched Night Watch not too long ago, I don't remember if I told you already.
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That was my 2nd time watching the Big Sleep, and I could almost keep up with the plot. There's more double-crosses in that show than characters.
I remember what led up to those new characters a lot better. Hextor's clerics managed to finish the ritual on the other side of the river, raising up the old bridge. Then all the skeletons came at us, most of those just got turned/destroyed. Then the drowned came at us, but we managed to take it down. Then the lady challeged us to a battle of champions. I had been wanting to do that before, back during the civil war, but we let the spiked chain weaponmaster have at it instead. And of course, she ended up being a vampire and kicked the crap out of him. So then we surrendered the city, but 42 got a resistance started before we left. Then for some reason, it ended up with just me, you, and 42 for about a month, so we set our main characters on the backburner and started the 1st level chars, rewatching the vampire battle and then joining the resistance.
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2nd edition D@D I believe took out the experience from gold unless you used optional rules and were one of the few class that received that adjustment bards and thieves I think (it's been a long time).
You also should consider in 1st addition like other additions there are many DMs that never use a dungeon module so whats listed in an average dungeon module probably isn't what many players recieved in their 1st edition experiences. This is especially true when running games based on themes such as primitive tribes.
Most DMs were not and are not as generous with self made adventures as the store bought adventures are.