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Post by jcstephens on Aug 11, 2008 13:24:19 GMT -6
Whatever the DM wants to happen, of course! Me, I'd just rule that it broke the enchantment, making it into an ordinary bag. A crueler sort might pop open a wormhole, and toss everyone into whatever dimension Bags of Holding exist in.
That's Old School.
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Post by jcstephens on Jun 5, 2008 12:26:53 GMT -6
All that, and I have the sneaking suspicion that when he says "retro", he is saying "Larry Elmore and chicks with 80s hair". And feathers. If it's Elmore, there's gotta be feathers.
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Post by jcstephens on May 26, 2008 11:21:36 GMT -6
Since no megadungeon is complete without obscure pop references, there needs to be at least one reference to "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" as well.
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Post by jcstephens on May 20, 2008 0:03:08 GMT -6
I don't remember much about my first game, it was something cobbled together from the Geomorphs and the Monster and Treasure assortments. But I definitely remember my first character, Gantor the Invisible. Why the title Invisible, you ask? He was a magic user, with only 1 hit point. Any time a fight started, after he threw that one spell he was GONE. After he picked up another level and some more hit points he got a little bolder, but the name stuck.
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Post by jcstephens on May 19, 2008 15:11:58 GMT -6
Why am I here? It's all Proctor and Gamble's fault, I suppose. Let me explain:
A while back, they came out with the five bladed cartridge razor. FIVE. BLADES. At that point my over marketed, over brainwashed to consume soul finally rebelled. I refused to have anything to do with such an abomination.
I sought an earlier, simpler form of hair removal. I considered straight razors, but I could hear the Blessed Saint Murphy whispering in my ear, "Dude. I don't want to kill you but I will".
So I went with a somewhat less old fashioned double edged safety razor. From there I discovered shaving mug soap, and I've never looked back.
My recently acquired fondness for OD&D follows the same pattern. Many years ago, after a brief fling with Tunnels & Trolls, I bought into 1st edition AD&D, and followed it well into 2nd edition. I bought as much stuff as I could afford, and envied those who had more. Life intruded, and I eventually drifted away from gaming.
Lately, I've much more time on my hands, and I'm returning to my old hobby. But I look at this thing called 3rd Edition, and the rumors of the 4th, and my soul once again rebels. So, I've gone back to the source. I downloaded Drivethru's OD&D bundle, and I'm studying them diligently. I've got some friends who might be interested in some old fashioned dungeon crawling, and we'll see what happens from there.
Think of it as reenactment: just as some people put on Civil War uniforms and shoot muskets at each other, I game using an ancient rule set. We are both studying history as well as having fun.
One final note: Anything I post should be considered to begin with the phrase "In my opinion...", and end with "But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong". I am not and do not pretend to be in charge of anything but my own game.
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Post by jcstephens on May 19, 2008 13:33:48 GMT -6
Unless Hasbro goes down the tubes, and whoever picks up the pieces decides to sell off the stuff in the attic.
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Post by jcstephens on May 19, 2008 13:27:54 GMT -6
I prefer something like AD&D's secondary skills. For example, if you have "sailor" as a secondary skill (which is really something like a previous profession or character background), the referee and players assume that the PC knows how to do the stuff a sailor would know (e.g. how to sail a ship, tie a variety of useful knots, speak the lingo to mix with other sailors in port dives and bars, et cetera). I'm not sure how useful actually making a list would be, though; I don't see a big benefit. I've been toying with something like this: In addition to a class, characters also take an occupation (their day job, so to speak). During play, they become the 'go to' guy for any task associated with their occupation. Taking your sailor example, Bob the Sailor knows how to swim, and handle a small boat, and work as part of a ship's crew. He also knows something about knot tying, and can predict the weather. If he starts using nautical terminology and saying "Arrrr!" a lot, so much the better. The point is that there's no set list of tasks, just the player's imagination and creativity. Other characters can swim too, and tie knots and guess about the weather. But Bob's the one who gets XP for it. I'm still working on how much, it should be enough to encourage Bob to look for chances to do sailor stuff, but not so much that it overshadows monster whacking and treasure grubbing. Finally, a character can change occupations each time he gains a level. This allows for shifts in campaign focus, or if a concept just isn't working out.
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Post by jcstephens on May 19, 2008 11:30:37 GMT -6
However, T&T 7E (and I presume the next version of this) takes the game and changes much of the philsophy (not as much as 3E changed D&D, but quite different indeed). So, I don't know if 7E counts as OS or not. What's different philosophically between 7E and earlier editions? They've added a skill system. Skill systems imply that any action not part of your 'skill set' is prohibited. In Old School T&T, you were an adventurer, and you knew how to do things. Whatever you could dream up in the way of action, you could attempt with a stat roll against the appropriate attribute. That to me is an integral part of the Old School philosophy.
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