tog
Level 4 Theurgist
Detect Meal & What Kind
Posts: 148
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Post by tog on Feb 23, 2013 17:07:17 GMT -6
It *is* a game, after all, isn't it?
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tog
Level 4 Theurgist
Detect Meal & What Kind
Posts: 148
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Post by tog on Feb 23, 2013 9:39:05 GMT -6
BTW, Cameron, may I just take this opportunity to say how much this amuses me. (I'd say "kobolds", but that's just me.)
"I'm cuttin' 'em down!"
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tog
Level 4 Theurgist
Detect Meal & What Kind
Posts: 148
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Post by tog on Feb 23, 2013 9:30:37 GMT -6
Thet's a lot'a talkin', there, son! He is considered a "Hero" at that level... there's a reason that's the term Gyagax chose! In wargame terms he's, by this point, the legendary officer who rallies his men and charges them into the bunkers (thus also the immunity to randomized missile attacks). He's basically John Wayne in every WWII movie. ;D I'd buy that. "Level" figures have always been considered exceptional, and any given suit of armor in OD&D isn't that horribly expensive, anyway. (Plate mail is only 50 GP.) An average roll on starting funds of 90 GP lets a Veteran buy a sword, a shield, a suit of plate and still have funds left for general equipment. Stuff on Dragons is probably inspired by The Hobbit (Smaug being impervious to just about anything but an arrow fired into his weak spot) and legends in general. It does solve the question of why a Hero is needed to kill the dragon instead of raising an army to beat the snot out of it. I can't pinpoint it, but there always has been the assumption, from what I'm given to understand, that the "to-hit" roll is the total of all attacks, feints, parries etc. in one round, and, as a Chainmail figure is considered as representing multiple "normal" men, that's what's being referred to - the back-and-forth of melee combat. From The Strategic Review, issue 2: Which implies 2 things: "Level" figures are the only ones who get multiple attacks, and such attacks are equal to one's level - therefore a Veteran still only gets 1 attack. BTW - "WS&IM" is Wooden Ships & Iron Men, a classic sail-era wargame from Avalon Hill. It, like a lot of the old AH games, had maps mounted on heavy board, and there's a reference to it in the old Dragon article "What To Do When The Dog Eats Your Dice": ;D
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