[GenCon] History of D&D videos

[Finarvyn]

As part of the 50th Anniversary of OD&D, Peter Atkinson and the GenCon folks are putting out a series of videos about the history of the game. The first one features a "round table" discussion of the origins of the game, led by our own increment  (Jon Peterson) and talking through the sequence of how miniatures and wargame ideas combined with Braunstein to finally culminate in OD&D. The first 1:40:00 of the video is the round table, and the last few hours has Jon playing DM to run a game for the group. (I haven't watched the "actual play" part yet. The round table was great.)

youtu.be/mIzisBYQkyw

I think that the first four episodes are out (0E, 1E, 2E, and 3E) and there will be episodes on 4E and 5E to come. I can track down links if anyone is interested in the non-0E ones.

[Finarvyn]

I'm watching the "actual play" part. In general I have little interest in watching others play a game, but this has been interesting.

(1) Jon is explaining to players what the game was like in the 1970's. He started with pregen characters, rolled "3d6 in order" by the referee prior to the game session. The players chose to pick them at random, sight unseen, instead of looking at choices and picking from there.

(2) Jon is hiding behind a Judges Guild screen, which is the one I used for decades. His looks laminated and now I want to track down one of my old ones to see if I should laminate it as well. Or use page protectors. Or something. It has my mind going.

(3) He has a player represent "the caller" (which is in the rules but my group never really used) and another player as "the mapper" (which we did a lot at the start). He has had to explain the role of the mapper, as it seems that a few of the players are used to miniatures and mapboards and thus haven't experienced the concept of making a map. He suggested 10' for each square, which I think matches what I used to do, but modern maps all seem to be 5' so that one mini fits in each square.

[Finarvyn]

(4) Turn Undead -- once per encounter. I think that matches the way we played back in the day.

(5) All doors are stuck and require a d6 roll to open. Success on a 1-2. Everyone in the front line of the marching order (typically one or two characters) can make a roll.

(6) Listen at the door? It's a referee roll.

[Finarvyn]

(7) Traps are triggered on a secret referee roll of 1-2 on a d6. For each character.

(8) Travelling 120' takes a turn, and the referee will roll for a wandering monster each turn. For each six turns, the adventurers need to rest for a turn. (So, move 5, rest 1.)

(9) Referee rolls in secret to see if the elf sees a secret door.

[cheshiredinah]

Jun 9, 2024 8:28:30 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I'm watching the "actual play" part. In general I have little interest in watching others play a game, but this has been interesting.

(1) Jon is explaining to players what the game was like in the 1970's. He started with pregen characters, rolled "3d6 in order" by the referee prior to the game session. The players chose to pick them at random, sight unseen, instead of looking at choices and picking from there.

(2) Jon is hiding behind a Judges Guild screen, which is the one I used for decades. His looks laminated and now I want to track down one of my old ones to see if I should laminate it as well. Or use page protectors. Or something. It has my mind going.

(3) He has a player represent "the caller" (which is in the rules but my group never really used) and another player as "the mapper" (which we did a lot at the start). He has had to explain the role of the mapper, as it seems that a few of the players are used to miniatures and mapboards and thus haven't experienced the concept of making a map. He suggested 10' for each square, which I think matches what I used to do, but modern maps all seem to be 5' so that one mini fits in each square.

Yeah, his screen is definitely laminated. I can see by the rounded corners.

After watching the video, I decided to pick up a screen and get it laminated because it is suppose to be taped together,and you can write on it with dry ease marker or washable marker. Also lamination prevents tape residue from being on the sheets.

[Finarvyn]

Jun 11, 2024 13:17:51 GMT -6 cheshiredinah said:

...it is suppose to be taped together,and you can write on it with dry ease marker or washable marker. Also lamination prevents tape residue from being on the sheets.

Yeah, I have two of the JG screens. My original has tape marks because I taped it, but overall is in better condition. One I bought later off of ebay has some faded spots but no tape marks. That's probably the one I will have laminated.

[Finarvyn]

(10) Once a character dies, the player is given a replacement. A thief. Rather than using the Greyhawk thief, Jon has chosen to use the 1974 pre-Greyhawk thief. (This is interesting in part because Jon didn't allow any thieves in the original pregens, citing the fact that the thief wasn't a part of the woodgrain/white boxed set. However, as a pre-Greyhawk game, he has allowed a thief to enter the adventure late.)

playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2012/08/gygaxs-thief-addition-1974.html

[Finarvyn]

(11) For the final 10 minutes of the show, Jon shifts to Outdoor Survival for a very short hexcrawl.
--> Movement on foot of 3 hexes per turn.
------> Forest hexes cost 2 hexes of movement, so probably only one per turn unless there is a trail.
------> Mountain hexes cost 3 hexes of movement, so only one per turn.
------> Crossing a river is difficult unless there is a ford. (Fjord?)
--> After 6 turns you must spend 1 turn resting.
--> You may get lost.

(12) Symbology: a building on the map is a town, a catch-basin is a castle (where a Lord may come out and joust with you as per the rules in Chainmail).

(13) At the start of each turn we roll to see if we are lost, at the end of the turn we roll to see if there is an encounter. If we are lost, we roll a die to see which random direction we move our 3 hexes.
---> In a clear hex, a roll of 1 on a d6 means lost.

(14) The encounter resulted in a dragon, in which case Jon shifted over to Chainmail rules.

[Finarvyn]

Watched the first 90 minutes or so of the 5E video. They spent a lot of time discussing what had gone wrong with 4E and how they addressed this in their new design.

There was one point where Mike Mearls commented about the research they had done on levels that folks played their games. He said that a huge percentage of players ran games from level 1 to level 5 or so (maybe level 8) and then started a new campaign at level 1. That matches what my groups have done 98% of the time, and it does make me wonder why they marketed 5E as a levels 1-20 game. Why not market "basic" for 1-10 and then "advanced" for levels 11-20, or something like that? I think that a lot of Old School gamers would have been onboard with a level 1-10 product, but probably still bought the 11-20 book just to get spells for that evil wizard NPC.

I'm going to watch more tomorrow.

[aldarron]

Jun 12, 2024 9:53:02 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Jun 11, 2024 13:17:51 GMT -6 cheshiredinah said:

...it is suppose to be taped together,and you can write on it with dry ease marker or washable marker. Also lamination prevents tape residue from being on the sheets.

Yeah, I have two of the JG screens. My original has tape marks because I taped it, but overall is in better condition. One I bought later off of ebay has some faded spots but no tape marks. That's probably the one I will have laminated.

Lamination is a big no-no for any important documents in conservation because it is irreversible and the lamination tends to yellow and become friable over time. I've had high quality poster laminations done without any issues but I wouldn't do that to any original documents I wanted to preserve.

[ramblingcleric]

It would be interesting to see the handouts ("cheat cheats") on things like exploration that were provided to the players in the oD&D session.

[Finarvyn]

Jul 5, 2024 8:05:22 GMT -6 ramblingcleric said:

It would be interesting to see the handouts ("cheat cheats") on things like exploration that were provided to the players in the oD&D session.

Agreed. I mentioned it to Jon, but he was disinclined to acquiesce to my request. He said that it was just stuff out of the OD&D books, and seemed to discount that his organizing material into cheat sheets would be helpful.

I would also love to get a copy of the adventure he ran, which I assume was home-made. I think my home crew would have fun puzzling through the encounters and puzzles that he presented to his players in the video.

[ramblingcleric]

Jul 5, 2024 13:41:03 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Jul 5, 2024 8:05:22 GMT -6 ramblingcleric said:

It would be interesting to see the handouts ("cheat cheats") on things like exploration that were provided to the players in the oD&D session.

Agreed. I mentioned it to Jon, but he was disinclined to acquiesce to my request. He said that it was just stuff out of the OD&D books, and seemed to discount that his organizing material into cheat sheets would be helpful.

I would also love to get a copy of the adventure he ran, which I assume was home-made. I think my home crew would have fun puzzling through the encounters and puzzles that he presented to his players in the video.

Nice try! I was wondering if anyone asked. For me, I just find it interesting how others distill, interpret, and present the game.