Just a quick one today! I came across something I felt was interesting when I was running through a wilderness adventure. The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures book (D&D Vol. III) dedicates just 1 and a 1/2 pages of it's 30 plus pages of rules to movement across a wilderness hex map. There are a couple of references to OUTDOOR SURVIVAL, the early 70's wilderness survival board game. For the most part OD&D implies that terrain penalties are the main thing to be adopted if using a "Referee's map" for "exploratory adventures." But the text regarding lost parties is intriguing.  ..read more

First level characters roll 3d6 * 10 Gold Pieces and buy their starting equipment from the equipment list in Men & Magic. After a few successful expeditions into the underworld the characters lucky enough to survive are very quickly kitted out with everything they might need: the best armour, useful equipment to cover most conceivable situations, horses, perhaps a wagon? A small boat to travel the waterways of the kingdom. But it soon becomes apparent after a handful of levels have been gained that there is much more loot to and not much to actually spend it on! This might influence a char ..read more

I recently came across a situation in my OD&D campaign: "The Castle of the Quest", where my party had defeated and apprehended half a score of bandits who were considered "subdued" as 9 had been put to sleep with a sleep spell and the remaining bandit failed their morale check and surrendered. I decided to sit down with my OD&D books and have a read through to see if I could find something that might indicate what should happen with subdued creatures. Whilst flicking through Vol.1 Men & Magic I noticed the following text in the section regarding non-player characters: "Capture of N ..read more

Construction of strongholds in OD&D, or any version of D&D for that matter, has always been quite a vague subject with just a few rules scattered around the rulebooks which mostly seem to have been ignored. Here are some quick insights I have noted to help shed some light on to the subject... Underworld & Wilderness Adventures explains that it’s “mandatory to hire an Engineer to build any major stronghold.” and an engineer costs 750 gold pieces per month, but the book gives no indication whatsoever of how long it takes to build any structure! The AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide hel ..read more

 It probably occurs to most people when looking at the OD&D thief abilities for the first time that the chances of succeeding when using any of these said abilities at 1st level is pretty slim! At first glance it seems quite harsh on the player. Imagine a 1st level apprentice thief who is a dwarf (so gets some bonus) is attempting to follow an unlawful merchant back to their hideout to retrieve stolen goods. The thief wants to remain hidden and silently so the relevant skills would be the ability to Hide in Shadows and Move Silently. The apprentice only has a 25% and 15% chance of bei ..read more

I suppose when it comes to the subject of buying and selling in an original Dungeons & Dragons campaign, the general rules of such matters are very much down to the way the economy of the fantasy “world” operates. This is a subjective thing and dependant on the world the referee has decided to build. A quick browse through the three little brown books and the AD&D core rules does not offer much guidance on the matter. OD&D Selling and Pawning Mundane EquipmentIn Men & Magic it says “It will be necessary for players to equip their characters with various basic items of equipment ..read more

It’s no surprise to any familiar OD&D player just how deadly combat can be for low level characters. Using ranged weapons against the enemy can offer a huge advantage. The obvious choices are short bows, longbows and crossbows etc. But bows aside, what other weapons can be used in this way? The three little brown OD&D books don't tell us anything about how hand hurled weapons can be used. But with a little digging we can quite easily figure things out. OD&D Hand Hurled WeaponsThe basic equipment listing on Men & Magic doesn’t really clarify which weapons can be thrown but there ..read more

If one were to referee a situation in OD&D where a player character wants to try to be stealthy to either surprise and ambush an enemy, sneak past a sleeping guard or just move quietly through a corridor to negate any chance of being surprised then how would this work? Could we consider this to be subsumed into the surprise mechanic detailed in OD&D Book III “Underworld & Wilderness Adventures”? Here is what that book says regarding surprise: “A Condition of surprise can only exist when one or both parties are unaware of the presence of the other. Such things as ESP’ing, light, an ..read more

In OD&D most of us eventually come to the conclusion that when a creature of 2 Hit Dice or higher (whether a player character, non-player character or monster) is fighting a creature of less than 2 Hit Dice they are allowed to make multiple attacks. OD&D Book II “Monsters & Treasure” tells us that: “Attack/Defence capabilities versus normal men are simply a matter of allowing one roll as a man-type for every hit die, with any bonuses being given to only one of the attacks, i.e. a Troll would attack six times, once with a +3 added to the die roll. (Combat is detailed in Vol. III ..read more

There is a rather curious piece of text that Gary Gygax wrote in Strategic Review issue 2 published during the spring of 1975. The article in question is the famous “QUESTIONS MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED ABOUT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS RULES” and regarding a combat example between a Hero (4th Level Fighter) and orcs it says: “As they outnumber their opponent so heavily it is likely that they will try to over-power him rather than kill, so each hit they score will be counted as attempts to grapple the Hero [...]” What’s curious about this is the implication that forces outnumbering player characters m ..read more