A recent conversation made me interested in why AD&D initiative works as it does. Or at least, why the description is so darn complicated. In doing so, I went back to Chainmail, which has two initiative systems. The first is for regular mass battles. They work like this: Both sides make an initiative roll on d6, with the winner of the die-roll choosing to move … Continue reading The Development of AD&D Initiative
Yesterday, Mike Mearls previewed the map that is in the upcoming D&D Starter Set. For those who bought the Neverwinter Campaign Setting book – surely one of the best campaign supplements ever published – the map should be strangely familiar… Although the artwork, by Mike Schley, is unchanged, the labels on the map have changed. Here are a summary of the changes: Labels that have … Continue reading Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set Wilderness Map notes
After entering in 129 Armour Classes from the SRD into my spreadsheet, I’d gotten as far as “G”, so I realised there were a *lot* of monsters in the core D&D 3E monster manual! However, it was about the same number of monsters I’d added as part of the Monstrous Compendium Annual, so I decided to create some charts from the information so far. It … Continue reading Armour Class in 3rd Edition – a first look
This isn’t a very good analysis, and is not particularly deep, but seeing as I had the book sitting on my hard-drive, I decided to have a look at the Armour Classes of creatures within… Here’s the count of Armour Classes of each number. It’s a bit odd seeing the spikes on AC 6 and AC 0, mucking up what would otherwise be a nicely-shaped … Continue reading Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume 1 – Armour Class analysis
Armour Class is one of the more unusual of Dungeon & Dragons mechanics. As far as I am aware, it is a system first used in naval miniatures games, particularly by Fletcher Pratt and Jane’s Fighting Ships. Dave Arneson designed a naval game himself which used it, and from there it passed into Dungeons & Dragons. You’ll find no actual mention of the numeric Armour … Continue reading A look at Armour Class in original D&D and First Edition AD&D
Mike Mearls has enlightened us a little more about the contents of the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. And there’s a big surprise for people buying the set: No character creation rules are in the D&D Starter Set! Well, that’s not what I expected – or had inferred based on his previous posts. Mike has clarified that the Starter Set is aimed at Dungeon Masters, … Continue reading More on the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set
The three big releases at the end of the year are, of course, the three core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. They’re not all coming out at once, but instead are being released in a staggered format. This is not particularly surprising given their cost! At US$49.95 each, I expect a number of cash-strapped players will be going to discount sites like Amazon … Continue reading D&D 5E Releases: The Big Three
One of the effects of mostly experiencing the playtest rules only through my weekly D&D Encounters sessions is that I’m now very familiar with low-level play in the game. And, likewise, I have no idea what happens at the higher levels. This Saturday, I’ll get a chance to see something new: play at the dizzying height of sixth level! Fifth and sixth level have generally … Continue reading D&D Next: The Dizzying Heights of Sixth Level
I’m not very experienced with playing or running druids in AD&D. I saw them being exploited quite a bit in 3rd edition – thanks, Dave! – but in the wilder, woollier days of AD&D, we were busy with the “standard” classes of cleric, fighter, thief and magic-user. So, having druids in the party now is something of a new experience. Brian’s druid died before it … Continue reading Playing an AD&D Druid
Dungeons & Dragons has an underlying tension between the power of the monsters and the power of the characters. There will be combat in a D&D campaign, and what happens then is of paramount importance to how the game plays. If every combat ends with the monsters being destroyed in one round, then it’s not a very satisfying game. Likewise, if the characters end up … Continue reading Monsters, Adventure Design and Balance
