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Post by dwayanu on Mar 18, 2009 22:43:21 GMT -6
I got the fundamental "Aha!" experience from one session of playing OD&D, then went for some time without someone else's exemplary text to guide me. Finarvyn probably had more experience (meaning simply "some" ) with miniatures campaigns than I had when he taught himself "cold" from the LBBs. I'm not sure I would have been able to make head or tail of them without experience of actual play. It was another kettle of fish from picking up an issue of Strategy & Tactics. Accounts from other people with even less "knowledge base" further suggest that Holmes was tremendously helpful.
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Post by machfront on Mar 19, 2009 2:41:42 GMT -6
I'll be totally honest... I don't know how you guys learned how to play as was intended without someone to guide you and without an example of play. Not that I mean you couldn't possibly, I really mean I do not know how.
The first times I played, all we did and said were things on the order of "I attack." and "I'm going to try to break down the door." Nothing more. Only a year later, I wouldn't have wanted to play that way, let alone years after, let alone now. If I didn't have other people, I wouldn't have even know that, though. I didn't read the example of play when the Holmes book was loaned to me and when I had B/X I didn't read it then either. So I essentially had no example of play (though the fault lies squarely with me). Bearing that in mind, it makes me wonder how anyone would figure it out without an outside influence or an explaination in the text. *shrug*
It would be interesting to turn the clock back on myself and read the example(s) of play to see if, all alone, I could have gotten it through my thick head...
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Post by geoffrey on Mar 19, 2009 7:48:37 GMT -6
Our play was all screwed-up (but fun!) for about the first year. Through my study of Holmes (and, later, the AD&D tomes) we gradually started playing "right".
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Post by ragnorakk on Mar 26, 2009 19:40:47 GMT -6
I don't have them handy anymore...(the shame)...but how about Melee and Wizard by Steve Jackson? Wait! I'm on the internet! Hold on... Melee: 17 pages Wizard: 32 pages (includes combat rules from Melee) say ~45 pgs
Was this a 'complete' (enough) role playing game? My guess is that the concensus would probably say no. In my earliest days of gaming though, we were doing dungeons-crawls on hex-maps and house-ruling how to jump across pits and such. This without The Fantasy Trip (which I have yet to see). So, I dunno. Pretty dang brief! A viable with elbow-grease.
I love Holmes' Basic. I think it is in many ways the ideal in length and level of detail. It does a good job of fleshing out some of the more niggling considerations (time/movement/light/etc) without becoming too rulish. Chargen, Equipment, Combat Tables, Spells, Monsters, and Treasure Tables all in one book!
Good idea!
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Post by harami2000 on Mar 26, 2009 22:09:08 GMT -6
I'll be totally honest... I don't know how you guys learned how to play as was intended without someone to guide you and without an example of play. Not that I mean you couldn't possibly, I really mean I do not know how. The first times I played, all we did and said were things on the order of "I attack." and "I'm going to try to break down the door." Nothing more. Mhmm... IMHO it's all too easy to become a MMORPG when there's no "example of play" either in the book(s) and/or from RL. (Well, for those systems that aren't designed as MMORPGs in the first place. I don't have them handy anymore...(the shame)...but how about Melee and Wizard by Steve Jackson? Wait! I'm on the internet! Hold on... Melee: 17 pages Wizard: 32 pages (includes combat rules from Melee) say ~45 pgs Was this a 'complete' (enough) role playing game? My guess is that the concensus would probably say no. Depends what one means by "complete" and even outwith considerations for "complete enough for a one off" vs. "complete enough for multiple campaigns". Dinky Dungeons, for one example, is most definitely a RPG. Going beyond that, personally I've run a superhero campaign (my one and only, before you ask!) lasting several dozen sessions with only character sheets, a percentile based limited-set skill & attribute system and no written rules (but semi-diceless by nature). If those "rules", such as they were, had been written down, the "pick" system for skill development and other general guidelines might just about have covered a single sheet of paper. And it was a *big* success for all involved. The key component is still imagination and it's all too easy to stifle that with 20 volumes of rules where optimisation is more important than immersive character development where thinking on ones feet is not bound to, or subservient to, the mechanics of the game. But hey, that's sounding kinda cracked-record around here, I know. In my earliest days of gaming though, we were doing dungeons-crawls on hex-maps and house-ruling how to jump across pits and such. This without The Fantasy Trip (which I have yet to see). So, I dunno. Pretty dang brief! A viable with elbow-grease. Cool... sounds like fun! It helps, of course, if all involved are willing to "go along for the ride".
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Post by gkaralunas on Aug 30, 2009 17:29:07 GMT -6
Been read this and I can remember back when all we had was OD&D & 1E.
Went to WarCon at Texas A&M in 79 and got roped into DMing a session, They handed me T1 - The Village of Hommlet (Fresh off the Presses) to DM. I scanned it on the fly and kept the maps and half the NPCs - - the say the least the 2 hours became 4 hours, and afterward they bestowed the Official TSR Title of a 3rd Ranked DM with a certificate signed by the TSR Rep.
Did me good at the Detroit Metro Gamers Club (but still had to pay $1.00 per session). At the Bunker we had a Membership fee, but it was for discounts on products not to play or use the Tables.
Now It(Certificate) will not get me in the front door of any 'Official WotC gaming session, go figure<grin>
As I said earlier, all I know is OD&D & 1E
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2009 18:44:05 GMT -6
What is this "1e" of which you speak? ((giggle))
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