Post by doc on Mar 9, 2008 14:58:41 GMT -6
Yesterday I ran Keep on the Borderlands with the OD&D rules in honor of out fallen Grandmaster. Half of our group is composed of younger (early to mid 20's) kids who think that 3.5 is the Best Thing Ever and routinely deride my love for old school gaming. The other half of us are in our 30's to early 40's (with me being 35). When I mentioned that I wanted to run a GG tribute game, the older folks quickly shushed up the young'uns and it was agreed upon that I would run the one Gygax adventure that introduced many of us to the hobby: KotB. Actually I was thinking about Tomb of Horrors, but that would have just been cruel.
It took some time for some of the players to wrap their heads around the fact that they could try to do ANYTHING, even if it wasn't expressly written down on their character sheet. They felt naked without their lists of feats and skills, but I told 'em to just concentrate on playing their character and not worry about what was written on their sheets.
By the time they began exploring the keep, they were acting in character and role-playing without worrying about the lack of Diplomacy or Intimidation skills. The thief found a potion of invisibility and used it to embark on a mini-crime spree that night, only to be caught red-handed in the act of pickpocketing a guardsman when the effect wore off far quicker than he thought it would. The group high-tailed it to the Caves of Chaos, where they learned that kobolds are puny, but not stupid, and that "bree yark" has nothing to do with an unconditional surrender. By the time that they were ambushed by the ogre, they had wised up to the fact that using your brain was just as important as using your sword-arm. One of the fighting men proposed a game of riddles to keep the ogre from eating the seriously injured party. In honor of E. Gary Gygax I even decided to use the riddle from the Hobbit where the answer is "an egg." He kept the ogre playing so the two thieves could sneak into position for a double backstab (a daring risk, as one of the thieves was at 1 hit point)! The gambit paid off; as the weakened ogre turned to face his attackers the fighting man hefted his axe and took it down. They soon afterwards decided to collect what loot they'd found and go find healing, but definitely wanted to finish exploring the Caves of Chaos next week.
Doc
It took some time for some of the players to wrap their heads around the fact that they could try to do ANYTHING, even if it wasn't expressly written down on their character sheet. They felt naked without their lists of feats and skills, but I told 'em to just concentrate on playing their character and not worry about what was written on their sheets.
By the time they began exploring the keep, they were acting in character and role-playing without worrying about the lack of Diplomacy or Intimidation skills. The thief found a potion of invisibility and used it to embark on a mini-crime spree that night, only to be caught red-handed in the act of pickpocketing a guardsman when the effect wore off far quicker than he thought it would. The group high-tailed it to the Caves of Chaos, where they learned that kobolds are puny, but not stupid, and that "bree yark" has nothing to do with an unconditional surrender. By the time that they were ambushed by the ogre, they had wised up to the fact that using your brain was just as important as using your sword-arm. One of the fighting men proposed a game of riddles to keep the ogre from eating the seriously injured party. In honor of E. Gary Gygax I even decided to use the riddle from the Hobbit where the answer is "an egg." He kept the ogre playing so the two thieves could sneak into position for a double backstab (a daring risk, as one of the thieves was at 1 hit point)! The gambit paid off; as the weakened ogre turned to face his attackers the fighting man hefted his axe and took it down. They soon afterwards decided to collect what loot they'd found and go find healing, but definitely wanted to finish exploring the Caves of Chaos next week.
Doc