Advice on Running OD&D/Old School RPGs

[vladtolenkov]

Hey all, I haven't posted in a while, but I was looking at the Story Games forum where they had a thread on advice for running Swords & Wizardry, and it got me thinking it would be nice to have a thread like that over here. I've been DMing for a long time, but I think we all like to hear what other people do when they run games (at least I do).

So, what secret DM-fu do you use at the table?

What sort of prep do you do?

What advice would you give someone who's never run OD&D before?

[badger2305]

Here are some things that have helped me out:

• Decide how you want to handle various recurring aspects of game play: surprise, initiative, combat, etc. This also includes who rolls for what - do they get to roll for opening doors, or do you? Having this clear in your head will make play go much more easily.
  
• Get right into game play - once characters are created, have the party start where you want them to start: a tavern, or wayside inn, or right at the dungeon door. Where you start them will influence what their first experience of gameplay actually is, so choose it carefully.
  
• Generate a few NPCs that the characters are likely to interact with on a regular basis: the village smith, the innkeeper, the local army serjeant or knight, etc. Make them different enough from one another to make it easy for you to role-play.
  
• Have ready reference sheets for important stuff: to-hit tables, saving throws, price lists.
  
• I would advise against multi-page character sheets. Heck, I start 'em off with a 3x5 card. That avoids the attachment that can blossom not unlike kudzu if you give players room to over-imagine their characters.
  

Conceptually, I would recommend Matt Finch's Old School Primer.

[vladtolenkov]

Agreed. I don't think too many of would dispute that Matt's Primer is one of the best explanations regarding old school play.

[badger2305]

Oooh. More stuff.

• Keep good records. I started off using 3x5 cards as campaign session records: date, dungeon or location, marching order, turn marker. I realized I was going through 3x5 fairly fast, and I liked having them around for NPCs. So I now have an Ampad quadrille-ruled pad (either 5x8 or 6x9 will do) for doing this.
  
• Generate random encounters ahead of time. Either list them on a sheet, and then roll, or keep them on 3x5 cards and shuffle 'em, picking at random.
  
• I know somebody talked about this already on this board or nearby, but put important items (especially magic items) each on a 3x5 card, so when a player gets it or identifies it, you can just hand it to them. That means you can also take it back, later.
  
• Make 'em map. Make sure there's graph paper and hex paper, and make 'em map out where they are, designating one character as mapper. Dungeon maps don't have to be perfect, they just have to get them back outside. Again, if a mapping character dies, you can take their maps away. (Cruel, but fair if you warn them ahead of time)
  

More ideas!

[vladtolenkov]

Magic items on index cards. Awesome.

I'm going to have to use that.

[coffee]

Lot of good advice here.

I'd say (based on the one time I ran OD&D), be prepared to be surprised.

I started off with players looking very green when I told them "3d6, in order", but by the time two people had rolled their characters and started playing (when others joined in), I had people bragging to the newbies about how "bad" their characters were! Once they realized it didn't matter anywhere near as much as it does in other games, they just forgot about it and got down to enjoying the game.

Also, I second the 3x5 card advice above. I used them for wandering monsters. I took each entry in the Monster Level Tables (for levels 1-4) and wrote up a card for that monster, listing Move, AC, Treasure, HD, and Hit Points for what I guessed would be a reasonable number. Then when I needed a wandering monster, I just drew a card instead of rolling on the table.

[EdOWar]

Jan 28, 2010 15:22:03 GMT -6 badger2305 said:

Oooh. More stuff.

• Keep good records. I started off using 3x5 cards as campaign session records: date, dungeon or location, marching order, turn marker. I realized I was going through 3x5 fairly fast, and I liked having them around for NPCs. So I now have an Ampad quadrille-ruled pad (either 5x8 or 6x9 will do) for doing this.
  
• Generate random encounters ahead of time. Either list them on a sheet, and then roll, or keep them on 3x5 cards and shuffle 'em, picking at random.
  
• I know somebody talked about this already on this board or nearby, but put important items (especially magic items) each on a 3x5 card, so when a player gets it or identifies it, you can just hand it to them. That means you can also take it back, later.
  
• Make 'em map. Make sure there's graph paper and hex paper, and make 'em map out where they are, designating one character as mapper. Dungeon maps don't have to be perfect, they just have to get them back outside. Again, if a mapping character dies, you can take their maps away. (Cruel, but fair if you warn them ahead of time)
  

More ideas!

These are all great suggestions, but I especially like rolling up random encounters ahead of time and writing them out on 3x5 cards, then drawing one randomly when needed. That's brilliant.

My own meager contribution: Players will often want to try all kinds of crazy things. If you're uncertain whether it should succeed or fail automatically, and can't think of any other mechanic to handle the situation (like a saving throw), then have them roll a d20 and declare High/Low, Good/Bad (i.e. High is good or low is bad, or vice versa). The closer they get to their declared preference the better the outcome of the action. I've been using it for years and none of my players have ever complained about it, maybe because it lets them feel like they have a little more control over their fate.

[vladtolenkov]

One thing that works for me is to keep room descriptions/details fairly sparse as they can be improvised on the spot as needed. Too much detail in a dungeon can be limiting sometimes. I guess a good way to think about this might be: if you don't have to detail it--then don't. This can be applied to the campaign overall as well. Fill things in as the campaign grows.

James M's Dwimmermount campaign seems to be a good example of this approach.

[vladtolenkov]

However, even if my dungeon environments have lots of things that are undefined, I still think it's useful to have your monsters statted out fairly specifically so they're ready to go (I often write them up with boxes for their hit points).

[tavis]

Once you have your pre-gen characters together, I think it's a good idea to do a "dress rehearsal". I often do this step as a story-game with my seven year old, where we don't use all the rules but he just says what he wants to do and I think about how I'd dice it out at the event if I were using the rules & the party did that.

You can do this by yourself by assembling a party of pregens and imagining what'll happen as they walk through a section of the dungeon. "Over here there's a secret door: they've got the elf with them, so I'll roll a 1 in 6 auto-detect. Let's say they find it and go through: it'll shut behind them if they didn't spike it, and have to be bashed open, here's how I'll roll that. Over here is a pit that opens on a 1-2. By now they've been here long enough to roll for wandering encounters. Here's how I'll check and generate one if so. I'll roll distance like this, and reaction on 2d6. If it's 9 or more the monster will attack: here's how I'll do initiative, and when I'll check morale..."

The above focuses on the mechanics, but as I mentally go through the Rogue Trader game I'm planning to run this weekend at Nerd by Nerdeast I'm also thinking about how I'll describe things, seeing connections I can create between parts of the adventure, weird things PCs might try, etc.

[Deleted]

Poker chips for spell duration.

I used them for spell duration, when a MU or CL cast a spell in combat I would hand the player a stack of chips. Every round thereafter, I would take a chip from the player in question before resolving any other actions for that (combat) round. It worked very well for me. YMMV.

[eris]

Jan 29, 2010 22:29:43 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

Poker chips for spell duration.

I used them for spell duration, when a MU or CL cast a spell in combat I would hand the player a stack of chips. Every round thereafter, I would take a chip from the player in question before resolving any other actions for that (combat) round. It worked very well for me. YMMV.

I haven't done that, but I can see how it would work well. "Play" the spell card by placing it on the table and stacking the chip on top of it, removing a chip each turn. When the chip's are gone, the spell is expended...hum, that would work with almost any consumables wouldn't it?

[badger2305]

Jan 30, 2010 15:00:46 GMT -6 eris said:

Jan 29, 2010 22:29:43 GMT -6 @dubeers said:

Poker chips for spell duration.

I used them for spell duration, when a MU or CL cast a spell in combat I would hand the player a stack of chips. Every round thereafter, I would take a chip from the player in question before resolving any other actions for that (combat) round. It worked very well for me. YMMV.

I haven't done that, but I can see how it would work well. "Play" the spell card by placing it on the table and stacking the chip on top of it, removing a chip each turn. When the chip's are gone, the spell is expended...hum, that would work with almost any consumables wouldn't it?

Yes, but avoid using M&Ms or chocolate chips as spells tend to not last any time at all.