| Great Gaming - Old School |
[Jun. 29th, 2007|10:25 am] |
Thursday night is “Guy’s night” for some friends and me. We do a fairly standard rotation of who picks the activity. Normally it’s a board game or “just hang out”.
Last night, as somewhat of a surprise, we played OD&D. It was a 1979 copyright version from a boxed set that seemed to be somewhere between White box and Moldvay Basic. Our friend picked it up for $1.99 at a thrift store. (OK, in researching this I see that it’s Basic Set, “D&D/Original 2” according to the rpg.net index.) This is atypical in that most of us usually play the current versions of D&D and other RPGs.
We used hardcore ability generation: 3d6, no rerolls, straight down the line. (Technically, 2 players got full rerolls due to having no stats above 10.) No automatic max hp at first level were given either. Character generation took all of 20-30 minutes for 6 players and that was slowed down mostly by there being only one book to use for equipment purchase and class ability review. We were “auto-leveled” to 3rd which merely meant more hit points and a couple extra spells for the spell casters.
From there it was on to The Caves of Chaos; the fun part of B2 “The Keep on the Borderlands” module. We raided the goblin cave* in a good old fashioned hacky way, as well as taking on exaggerated stereotypes for the roleplaying interaction. I played a somewhat noble Human Fighting-man motivated to protect our Con 5, 3 hp Cleric. One of the first things we did was split the party, of course. We killed Goblins and an Ogre, with only one casualty. We were given modern day leeway with that where he was placed in the “unconscious and bleeding” mode.
We started off really silly, but as the game continued some of us began feeling attachment to the characters so we played more conscientiously. We had developed some sort of personality for the characters as well as party dynamics. The party was low on hp and exhausted of spells, so we made a “tactical withdrawal” in order to rest and recuperate. So what started off as a last minute potential one-shot now has a chance at continuing.
I haven’t had this much pure unadulterated fun in an RPG in a long time. It was awesome.
*Technically we went for the “closest cave on the left” which happened to be the Goblins’ cave. |
|
|
| late to the party |
[Apr. 14th, 2007|11:06 pm] |
This one made its first go around some time ago. However, the site was blocked from one of my usual surfing locations, and I would forget about on the weekends...
| You scored as Casual Gamer. To the Casual Gamer, a roleplaying session is first and foremost a social activity enjoyed with one’s friends. The Casual Gamer enjoys gaming well enough, but participates mostly because that’s what his friends do. He’s usually the one least into the game rules, campaign events, or even his own character, and may even get distracted during the session—but that doesn’t mean he isn’t having fun. For the Casual Gamer, the greatest reward of the game is just hanging out and having fun with friends.
With apologies to Robin Laws.
Casual Gamer | | 85% | Character Player | | 75% | Weekend Warrior | | 60% | Storyteller | | 60% | Tactician | | 30% | Power Gamer | | 15% | Specialist | | 5% | </td>
What RPG Player (Not Character) Type Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com |
The result is peculiar to me in that one one hand I totally agree, in terms of style and specifically related to when I play - as opposed to running/GMing. So, including that side, I'm the guy who usually runs and organizes the games, hardly casual behaviors... |
|
|
| Back in the Saddle |
[Dec. 12th, 2006|03:15 pm] |
Well, my DMing burnout seems to be coming to an end. I ran for the first time in about 6 months this past Sunday. The players were my son and his friend, with fresh new 1st level characters.
I'm running Mysteries of the Moonsea. I used the Pirate/Bandit camp adventure, and there was lots of sneaking and negotiating involved. I was rather impressed with them, especially since I didn't really have to persuade them into these choices. They had a bit of combat trouble, since I didn't really tune down the encounters for having only two players. However, I did allow them fat Ability scores, and started them with 300 gp. They ran once and were defeated once, but I turned the defeat into a capture.
I don't know that it will be a regularly scheduled game, but it feels good to be back. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
bobmungovan's journal