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Post by cadriel on Jan 29, 2016 5:31:50 GMT -6
Three points on why Gary included Chainmail references:
1. As Rob says on the Ruins of Murkhill thread, there was a compatibility element to this. The idea of D&D was new, so letting people use Chainmail as a sort of familiar starting point from a more typical wargame made sense.
2. There was an expectation that experienced wargamers would have their own way of resolving situations that would come up in D&D combat. It was a small scene and changing the existing rules was the norm.
3. Gary had a financial interest in D&D drumming up some sales for Chainmail. He wasn't blind when it came to money, and if one game could help sell copies of another, all the better.
There was certainly no expectation that forty-two years later, people would be parsing his rules with a fine toothed comb and discussing them as we are today.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 31, 2015 8:20:21 GMT -6
Ouch. I'm sorry you don't like the organization Wayne, but I'm not sure that's quite a fair assessment. Generally, the format followed the OGL source model. The topic order by chapter is really quite straghtforward. In any case there is an index that makes quick look up of any of the usual specific info needs pretty easy. However the book is truly not intended for beginners and so isn't very beginner friendly. It's aimed at experienced adults. I'm sorry if that comes off as uncharitable, but I honestly had problems finding things as I was looking through the book to discuss some of its ideas, even when I had already encountered them in the book. As far as organization goes, if you handed the book to a player and said they had to make a PC for a game an hour from now, I'm not at all confident that they'd be able to get to everything. Once they realize chapter 1 is for the referee, chapters 2 and 3 are straightforward, but after chapter 3 ends on page 41, they next have to go to page 60 to find the equipment list, and then page 77 to find the weapons and armor that their character can use. Then they have to go all the way to page 130 for their saving throws. Whereas, with OD&D I just have to give them Men & Magic and they don't need to skip through 20 pages of rules to find the next thing they should do. Or, in another example, the appendix on monsters (not sure why this was an appendix and not a chapter) reproduces a weakness of the OD&D booklets by including monster stats in one large table separate from their descriptions. The problem is compounded because the table goes across two pages without the header repeating, so if you're looking at True Trolls, for instance, you have to flip back to the previous page - even harder in PDF. Saying that it's not for beginners doesn't really help, unfortunately. Game books are works that have to be referenced quickly and in a social environment. I can deal with OD&D's organizational weaknesses because I've spent years reading and gaming with the booklets and have a solid memory of where most of the rules I want to use are going to be found. I'm not going to spend a comparable amount of time with Champions of ZED to learn its ins and outs. Delving Deeper is closer, but my problems with Swords & Wizardry and with Champions of ZED are almost direct opposites. I like how S&W presents a streamlined character creation and combat section, but I think it's very weak as far as non-combat procedures and treasure generation. Those areas are the strengths of CoZ, in my opinion, so it would be more of a case of merging the better parts of the two clones. (And also fixing the S&W numbers, such as experience points and so on, to match CoZ.) I may actually fiddle with that at some point; both rule sets are Open Game Content and the RTF of S&W Whitebox is available.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 30, 2015 16:38:28 GMT -6
I think the author of Champions of ZED, Dan Boggs (a member on this forum) is a good guy and meant well with the game. But I think, unfortunately, it missed the mark.
The book is incredibly poorly organized and laid out, to the point where I wouldn't want to use it as a reference while running a game. The first four chapters are a weird mix of procedures for generating a world, creating a character, and running hexcrawl adventures. But for instance, players start in chapter 2 and then go into chapter 3 for character creation, but have to dip into chapter 4 for their equipment, chapter 5 for combat details, and chapter 7 for saving throws. Referees are likewise in a bit of a tizzy.
Some of the procedures are interesting. Some are a mess even in concept - there are three combat systems. One uses Target 20, one adapts the Chainmail mass combat tables, and one adapts the Chainmail man-to-man tables. Things are complicated further by a location-based critical hit system that only appears as an appendix. Monsters are relegated to another appendix; there are some interesting ideas, but the organization is a hot mess. A few things, such as OD&D's treasure by dungeon level, are missing entirely.
CoZ does have some bits that shine through the organization and layout. For instance, its processes for making and running a hexcrawl could be turned into a productive section of a clone like Swords & Wizardry Whitebox. In fact, I think the most productive thing someone could do with CoZ would be to rip out the sandbox procedures in chapters 1 and 4, and the morale and fatigue rules in chapter 5, simplify some of the writing, and merge them into chapter 5 of S&W Whitebox. Then replace S&W's swap-out treasure system with the CoZ "prize" rules. The changes to character classes, races, spells, and monsters are better off folded to the appropriate sections of S&W. All that would remain is to replace S&W's single saving throw with the six of CoZ. The result would be a pretty strong system.
But short of doing all that, I couldn't see a reason to use CoZ in a game. There's just not enough to justify picking it up in itself and not as a means to an end.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 26, 2015 12:57:58 GMT -6
The coolest? Definitely Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl.Seriously, though, my favorite modules are B2 Keep on the Borderlands* and S1 Tomb of Horrors. The Keep because, despite the dungeon levels being too close-packed, it presents a thoroughly detailed home base, a wilderness sandbox that's easy to expand, and a dungeon full of factions and options. It's instructional and should be read (and run) as a how-to for creating a Gygax style situation. (Also I think it would be awesome to run it as a Diplomacy or wargame scenario with players taking the part of the faction leaders.) If KotB is instructional, Tomb of Horrors is a master class. It's Gygax showing how to make one of the deadliest dungeons in history without shoving monsters at the players. Just walking down the (fake) stairs kills you, much less looking into the legendary green devil face. The D-series (Descent into the Depths of the Earth) is also cool, it introduced the idea of an "underground wilderness." And the modules by Jennell Jaquays, particularly Caverns of Thracia and Dark Tower, should be studied for map design - Jaquays is one of the greats in terms of thinking in a 3-dimensional space. I'd probably say overall that I'd be comfortable with a top 5 of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, S1 Tomb of Horrors, D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, Caverns of Thracia and Dark Tower. * Module codes are a common shorthand although I guess it's preferable to always give the full name the first time you reference them.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 22, 2015 12:41:42 GMT -6
I brought this up elsewhere, but in the analysis aldarron did of Dalluhn / Beyond This Point Be Dragons (he calls it BTPBD) he says of saving throws: So I'm curious what folks here, especially @gronanofsimmerya , think of that.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 19, 2015 15:39:02 GMT -6
SPOILERS But, I have a question: Is the new EP 7 now a better setting for a Star Wars RPG than the original trilogy? I think it might be as now we don't really know the future of the galaxy. It's wide open. Plus, in the original SW, the Empire already has control of the entire galaxy. Here, the First Order, is ascendant. This adds another element to use in a story as it's still possible to win a battle against FO forces whereas the only method of fighting the Empire was guerrilla raids or sabotage. It's like it's 1977 again. I think it's better than the original trilogy, though not better than the pre-Empire original Star Wars was.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 16, 2015 5:31:46 GMT -6
The "buy a PDF" add-ons for Kickstarters generally leave me cold. I'm sitting at $100 for the leatherette book plus the source pack and not planning to move from there for the KS.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 14, 2015 19:58:42 GMT -6
I'm on Otis Adelbert Kline's Planet of Peril as a change of pace after Thuvia, Maid of Mars. I'm a quarter of the way through and it's a nice fresh take on ERB-style planetary adventure. I like Kline's Venus so far.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 13, 2015 8:22:14 GMT -6
Well, I think that the high profile re-release of Runequest 2 is going to have an impact. They're pretty much going to reprint the back catalog, which is tremendous if you think about it. The old school scene is extremely fragmented, although I know a lot of gamers pay attention to more than one of these publishers and sources. You can pretty much break things down as I have below: - Lamentations of the Flame Princess. So Raggi's going to release things, including hopefully a number by people I like a good deal. I think Jeff Rients's Broodmother Sky Fortress is going to come out, as well as Dave Brockie's Towers Two (which I'm pretty sure is going to offend a lot of people). Not sure if 2016 is the year for the Ref Book or not but he's been talking about a couple of bestiaries, and I'm also hopeful for a Rafael Chandler module or two. I think our own geoffrey is going to be putting out another Carcosa book, which falls roughly in this audience. 2015 didn't have any significant new releases, but this is because of a significant backup in production; 2016 could be huge. - Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. The 4th printing with extra excess is going to come out along with expanded versions of a number of modules. This might also be the year that Joseph Goodman finally puts out Mutant Crawl Classics, which does for Gamma World what DCC did for D&D. I expect DCC to continue to grow and explore further Appendix N themes. Also, Goodman Games will probably release more reprint material, in addition to new DCC. It's a force that I think will only continue to grow. DCC and LotFP are both the biggest and most idiosyncratic segments of the old school scene. The below segments are generally well supported but not as trend-setting as those are. (I mean, Joseph Goodman put out a Kickstarter for a book and a d50 at a total of $30 and got almost $20K in 2 weeks.) - Swords & Wizardry. This is going to continue to string along as a bastard stepchild through Frog God Games, receiving publications that you always suspect were more intended for Pathfinder or 5e but have had the lengthy stat blocks simplified and skill check DCs stripped out. On the other hand it does mean that there will be more high quality supplements continually published for S&W. - White Box / White Star. This is a fairly new side of things, but since James Spahn's White Star there is kind of a thing now of folks doing Whitebox hacks out of genre. White Lies is already out there, and I think there's going to be a Western one called High Noon. There's also increased S&W Whitebox support totally separate from the Frog God S&W material. I think this milieu will continue to grow and change, and has a lot of potential. - Autarch / Adventurer Conqueror King (ACKS). They've been slowly carving out a niche, and the stuff in the current Kickstarter positions them for further growth. Dwimmermount meant that it took a while for them to really take off after the initial ACKS book, but they've got some robust growth in the last year and a half, and with their Lairs & Encounters KS I expect them to continue to develop a devoted niche following. - 5e Old School (As one person dubbed it, "O5R"). I see 2016 as a make or break year for this segment. It hasn't really taken off in a coherent way, even though Goodman Games and Frog God / Necromancer have both made forays at the market, and a number of smaller OSR publishers have released modules, but there's no unified feel or messaging. If something "O5R" doesn't really capture attention, this isn't going to emerge from the general 5e scene and is not going to be a "thing." - TSR Creators & Related Folks. There should be more new Metamorphosis Alpha material around Gary Con, though with Jim Ward's health I am not sure if it's going to be done in time. I still think it'll be out. Ernie Gygax's Marmoreal Tomb should be coming out next year. Bruce Heard has another Calidar supplement in the works. - Other old school. There are decent scenes, mostly on Lulu and RPGNow, of self-published OSR material that have been chugging along pretty much uninterrupted for eight or so years. Expeditious Retreat Press, for instance, should keep on releasing quality OSRIC modules. This includes all of the Labyrinth Lord and OSRIC publications and the people who've kept on keepin' on for so long with OD&D, AD&D or Classic D&D. While it's probably larger than any of the other scenes, it's no longer really the driving force. Excellent products will keep coming out of this angle, though. I don't see a huge niche for a new "it clone" to come into, but someone might still be able to come up with one. Mostly I think the old school scene will be most visibly led by the wildest and most out-there participants, while stolid bedrock old school folks just keep on going.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 7, 2015 5:43:59 GMT -6
Given the fact that magical swords have alignments, it would seem to make the most sense to say it could heal anyone of the proper alignment. It comes a lot closer to the "Stormbringer" archetype if magical swords are difficult like that.
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Post by cadriel on Dec 3, 2015 4:58:16 GMT -6
Even though it has laser swords and mystic powers, the WS experience system sucks the Star Wars out of actual play, unless you envisage saving Leia as purely loot and scoot with the resulting medals worth xp. I reskinned Whitestar as a fantasy Pirate game for my kids and that works - nobles, demihuman mystics and brutes, easy ship-to-ship combat. Yeah, my "Talking White Star Blues" post is basically about the fact that it has some really neat material (and good support) but never stops being D&D with a Star Wars theme. Star swords are 2-handed swords, blasters are crossbows, XP is for treasure, there's even what amounts to a space dungeon in the rulebook as a sample adventure. You could hack it but I'd want to throw out too much (replace Star Knight powers with psionics, for a start) to make it worth doing. The one idea I'd like to do in White Star is to use it to run a game like Poul Anderson's The High Crusade: have Swords & Wizardry Whitebox PCs who run into an alien ship. Then they take it over and go exploring the galaxy. I think this would work best with a party around level 5, so the magic-users have Fireball.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 30, 2015 8:49:16 GMT -6
I found a Dover edition of some Burroughs Barsoom novels ( Thuvia, Maid of Mars; Chessmen of Mars; The Master Mind of Mars) at my local used bookstore, and I read Thuvia over Saturday night and Sunday morning. It has some excellent illustrations, which got me looking and I found that the version on Amazon is also illustrated. As a bonus, I ordered it last night and it came before I went to work this morning, so I know what I'm doing on my lunch break. (Namely, I want to go back and re-read Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars since I re-read A Princess of Mars not too long ago.) It's my first time through the second batch of books, but I'm stepping back because a good adventure jaunt is always worth it.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 29, 2015 17:43:25 GMT -6
This is my non-review of White Star: Talking White Star Blues. It has good stuff (I mean, come on, it has Space Monkeys) but it's S&W White Box In Space, with a Star Wars type skin. If that's not what you want, then White Star isn't for you.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 23, 2015 6:29:01 GMT -6
1. The Little Brown Booklets - go-to sources for D&D rules. 2. Supplement I: Greyhawk - for other rules etc. 3. Ready Ref Sheets - indispensable both in prep and during play. I probably use them more than the rulebooks. 4. The Arduin Grimoire - I sometimes use its critical hit table, which is horribly imbalanced and wickedly fun. (Those 4 are the ones I regularly reference during play.) 5. Supplement V: Carcosa - I use the generator for Spawn of Shub-Niggurath when I want a weird creature in my games 6. Dungeon of the Unknown - I use the generator for globs and gloops when I want an ooze of some sort. (this is currently PDF only) 7. The Dungeon Alphabet - I use this for inspiration when coming up with room details 8. Supplement II: Blackmoor - I occasionally skim the monsters and consider inflicting the disease rules on PCs. 9. Metamorphosis Alpha - this is a pretty much OD&D-compatible book of sci-fi powers, monsters and tech. 10. Empire of the Petal Throne - this is a pretty much OD&D-compatible book of fantasy with a very non-Tolkien flavor.
Edit to add: Honorable mention - First Fantasy Campaign. I'd like to use its equipment stuff but I never actually have used it.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 21, 2015 6:00:00 GMT -6
So Vile Traveller, that was quite the post on OSRGaming ... but when will this IndieGoGo for BLUEHOLME™ Compleat be coming out?
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Post by cadriel on Nov 21, 2015 3:19:08 GMT -6
In the comments to that blog post, Jon actually points out that the 3 LBBs refer to the other dice in places. The Monster Reference Table itself requires a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20 to generate all of the "Number Appearing" ranges. Yeah, I'm aware, although technically those mostly come up in prep. During play you could bring 3d6 and 2d10 and never need to substitute. And someone who only had the "percentage dice" of the early '70s and such six-siders as could be scrounged from board game boxes would be able to simulate d4 (d6 reroll 5/6), d8 (d10 reroll 9,0), d12 (just as the d20 but using two six-siders), and of course the d20. Only the referee needs to roll them, and emulating dice is only really onerous when you have to roll multiples of a type other than d6 or d10. That doesn't happen until Greyhawk changes the monster hit dice type to d8s.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 20, 2015 14:59:28 GMT -6
Jon Peterson ( increment) wrote a lengthy and interesting article on this: How Gaming Got Its Dice. It includes a chart similar to the one above, but for two six-sided dice instead of three. If you stick strictly to the 3 LBBs, OD&D requires only a d10 (preferably an icosahedron numbered 0-9 twice) and a d6 to play. Multiples make life easier. I have some really beautiful Gamescience dice that Lou Zocchi inked, and have taken to rolling them the way Tim Kask spoke of it recently, where you roll the d10 and d6 at the same time, with 1-3 meaning you read the face value of the d10, and 4-6 indicating that you add 10, so a 4 and 0 makes a 20. Of course, we now live in times of glorious dice excess. I have dice for every integer from 2 to 12, every even number up to 24, plus 30, 50, 60 and 100 sides.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 19, 2015 5:25:21 GMT -6
It looks like this section was removed from the Wiki page. If you want to tell the story of something, a place other than Wikipedia is probably the place to do it. Wikipedia has a lot of restrictions that make stories other than ones told in major media and books hard to discuss.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 18, 2015 13:47:53 GMT -6
It's wonderful. $80, yes, but it will only ever be available in print (because of certain reprint rights that were given) and it contains everything you could want for Metamorphosis Alpha, except for the other material released with the Kickstarters.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 18, 2015 13:45:28 GMT -6
Thanks for sharing Stormcrow. I like that you separated things into three colors. I'll keep my comments to the "black" stuff. You wrote "This procedure was designed to help the referee fill a dungeon, not to replace the referee. Fill as much as you like the way you like; use this procedure to do the bits you don't want to invent yourself." and "Devise several important and valuable treasures to be hidden on the dungeon level..." To my mind the way you have put this adds a spin on U&WA that isn't in the original. What is actually says is "The determination of just where monsters should be placed, and whether or not they will be guarding treasure, and how much of the latter if they are guarding something, can become burdensome when faced with several levels to do at one time. It is a good idea to thoughtfully place several of the most important treasures, " p6. I think that pretty clearly is saying that the normal random stocking procedure "can become burdensome" (it takes bloody forever in my experience) so to reduce the massive number of dice rolls the normal procedure involves, it is a "good idea" to reduce your workload with some "thoughtfully placed" stocking. What I'm saying is that you've taken a suggestion and made it into a primary rule. My other quibble regards "All treasure in the dungeon is guarded by monsters, traps, or tricks. For each treasure placed so far, add a suitable monster, trap, or trick (including simply being hidden)." Your use of "guarded" here is a bit confusing since you are also covering what is called "unguarded treasure" in U&WA. I wouldn't normally consider a treasure with no monster that is hidden under a rug to be "guarded" by the rug, for example. On treasure determination, you're reading U&WA virtually upside-down. The sentence immediately after "The determination of just where ..." is: "It is a good idea to thoughtfully place several of the most important treasures, with or without monsterous guardians, and then switch to a random determination for the balance of the level." This is exactly the opposite of what you are saying: thoughtful placement of monsters and treasure is too time-consuming, and should be done procedurally with dice rolls. The actual random stocking of dungeon levels is relatively rapid, in my experience. Random stocking is for rooms not already allocated, and the process documentation should indicate this. It does mean that the proportions of rooms are not entirely meant to follow the logic laid out (1/6 with monster and treasure, 1/6 with monster and no treasure, 1/9 with treasure and no monster, the remainder empty) but it should still be inclined that way. U&WA has a clearer definition of what to do with unguarded treasure: "Unguarded Treasures should be invisible, hidden behind a secret door or under the floor, locked in hard-to-open strong boxes with poison needles or deadly gas released when they are opened. (There are many variants of the above possible, and many other types of protection which can be devised.)" So I do agree that the verbiage in point 2 is off. Treasure is either guarded, hidden or trapped.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 17, 2015 16:23:40 GMT -6
In a megadungeon campaign, a fifth level magic-user should be pretty much the best solo character you can think of.
The magic-user preps the day before the dungeon expedition, casting Invisibility on himself. Then on the day of the adventure he casts Infravision, letting him see in the dark, and prepares the following spells: Sleep, Charm Person, ESP, and Phantasmal Forces. He casts ESP when he goes down to the fifth level, since it only lasts 12 turns. Then he uses those 12 turns to go through the level, detecting which rooms have monsters (via ESP) and avoiding them. In the empty rooms he looks for treasure.
Our magic-user is actually looking for very specific treasure: he wants gold pieces, but primarily gems and jewelry. (This is based on page 7 of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.) On the fifth level he'll get 1d6 pieces of jewelry in 20% of treasure rooms. 1/9 rooms will have no monster (4 in 6 chance) and treasure (1 in 6 chance). So one out of every forty-five rooms should have jewelry and no monsters. That jewelry has an average value of 11,935 GP - nearly enough for a M-U to get from fifth to sixth level. It only takes a good gem find or some gold pieces to make up the difference. This may take three or four trips down, but will be worth it as it's a low-risk operation.
At sixth level, he can use both Infravision (lasting all day) and Clairvoyance (12 turns), which means he can go in 60 foot increments scanning the entire sixth dungeon level for treasure. At seventh level, Dimension Door should make him pretty much able to get out of any jam he may find himself in. Also, he should be finding some pretty nice magic items by now.
The magic-user should be able to solo straight from fifth to twelfth level in a megadungeon, as long as it's populated using the chart on page 7 of U&WA. Ironically my plan generally avoids using Fireball and Lightning Bolt, which are often considered the go-to spells as if the magic-user was artillery. But in a 1 GP = 1 XP campaign, Clairvoyance is a more powerful spell by far.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 12, 2015 18:11:45 GMT -6
Runequest 2 will be back in print from Chaosium in January 2016! You can see photos of the book here: plus.google.com/u/0/106190330912720100528/posts/MYK4gSPvv4GPer the discussion this is mostly a reprint: Looking at it, the layout seems different in mostly minor ways. The page counts are different from my copy of RQ2 by a page or two here and there. (This is also what WotC did in its reprints of OD&D and AD&D.) And the price is extremely reasonable: I'd be tempted by both, TBH.
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Post by cadriel on Nov 2, 2015 5:24:09 GMT -6
For anybody interested in running LotFP, Carcosa by our own geoffrey has just been reprinted (with a glossy hardback instead of the previous edition, which is a beautiful leather tome). Ideal for anyone who wants blood sacrifice, dinosaurs, alien technology, psionics, and the Cthulhu mythos in their games.
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Post by cadriel on Oct 28, 2015 13:19:25 GMT -6
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Post by cadriel on Oct 26, 2015 3:43:49 GMT -6
The spirit of Clark Ashton Smith seems to be haunting the OD&D boards recently: there are two recent discussions on Smith in General Board, plus a reference to Smith in Fiction/What Are You Reading? And now this. Increasing my sense of eldritch synchronicity, yesterday I completed reading Deepest Darkest Eden, a collection of new stories set in Smith's Hyperborea. I purchased and printed out The Secret of Cykranosh earlier today--looks like it will be nice exercise in old-school gaming crossed with a bit of the pulp horror tradition. I wonder--did you set this up with the expectation that it would be specifically situated in Smith's Hyperborea? Thanks for picking it up! I hope you enjoy it. My intention was that Smith's Hyperborea sits in the far past of the fantasy realm, providing deep background but not the immediate environs.
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Post by cadriel on Oct 25, 2015 9:49:09 GMT -6
Announcing The Secret of CykranoshI created this module based on OD&D plus Greyhawk, although I designed stat blocks that could be used in Holmes as well. Inspired by Clark Ashton Smith's "The Door to Saturn," this is a dungeon crawl with eldritch secrets behind it. And it's available Pay What You Want, although I'd appreciate a buck if you enjoy it. The whole module text (as well as the map and cover image, which are from CC sources) is also under a Creative Commons license and can be re-used by any other publishers in any way they like.
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Post by cadriel on Oct 24, 2015 4:01:20 GMT -6
I have a modestly thorough listing on my blog of OSR RPGs on Lulu that I've put together because I buy this stuff. (The page pretty much exists to drop on occasions like this.) I keep it updated when I find new and excellent stuff. Among it, I must strongly recommend Yoon-Suin. It's a toolbox for gaming in a very unique setting sort of inspired by Tibet, and has some amazing ideas throughout its pages.
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Post by cadriel on Sept 15, 2015 11:53:07 GMT -6
I adhere to one and only one definition of old school.
Charles Dickens, in Bleak House:
It's good enough for me. People were playing radically different games from Dave and Gary in 1975, and the divergence widened rapidly from there. Trying to define things beyond what Dickens said is nailing jello to a tree. Run OD&D by your own lights and don't give two g-ds what other people think, and you're probably running in an old school fashion.
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Post by cadriel on Sept 14, 2015 18:29:45 GMT -6
I got my book completely unexpectedly today.
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Post by cadriel on Aug 30, 2015 6:44:54 GMT -6
I think you're just wrong. D&D requires every referee to select rules unknown to the players prior to play. And then use them to generate maps and stats of those maps for every construct in the game. Why do you think we are required to have referee campaign maps in OD&D, modules, and stats for everything before they can be added to the game? The referee is never allowed to improvise. That's rule #1 in D&D. To be a fair and impartial referee they are only to reveal elements from behind the screen - another essential element to D&D which hides the code being deciphered (aka enabling game play). Players cannot do everything, just as in life. Players may attempt anything, but the results are due to the game's design. Just like in trivia or the game Mastermind. Mike Mornard (@gronanofsimmerya) put it a few threads back: D&D is a descendant of Free Kriegsspiel. The rules are just laying out the scenario; the referee's judgment is absolute. There is a great deal that not only can, but must be improvised. It is physically impossible to account for every place, character and situation that the players, who have total freedom in the imagined world limited only by the referee's judgments. My "campaign map" might have a bunch of gnolls in it, but at best I may know what their relationship to the kobolds down the corridor is. Once the players start to interact with the situation, it is going to evolve in a way that requires intensive improvisation. No version of D&D that I have ever read (and I've pretty much read all of them, though I admit to skipping bits of 3e and 4e) has ever had as "rule #1" that improvisation is not allowed, and I'm not aware of any quote from anyone who matters (pretty much Dave or Gary to be honest, as far as defining D&D) forbidding the practice.
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