SOMETHINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO DISCUSS: Lee Gold's 13 Prompts for OD&D And 1 About Greyhawk

Bosch from the Haywain Triptych

I thought Jim Murphy's video about playing OD&D with the 3 "Little Brown Books" (or Delving Deeper or FMC) plus Strategic Review Vol 1 No 1 for the random dungeon generator was an interesting take a campaign idea. Not really for nostalgia, but simply to try and tackle D&D with only the resources folks might have had access to in 1975 a year after D&D's release. One addition I might make to this list would also be to add Alarums and Excursion #1 edited by Lee Gold.

The first reason is the inclusion of Mark Swanson's "Special Abilities" for 1st & 2nd level characters. And the second reason is in the back of the issue, Gold publishes 13 questions about Dungeons & Dragons as prompts for folks to respond to when submitting a piece for the magazine. The interesting thing is that this APA essentially functioned as a collection of paper "blogs", with each author titling their own section and responding to other submitters.

Here is Lee's "MELEE MAYDAY" "if you didn't find any comment hooks anywhere else"

1. If a Caveman (essentially Neutral) puts on a Helm of Chaos and then picks up a Neutral or Lawful Sword, does he receive damage? How about if he does it in reverse order?
2. How much is a +1 Sword with an IQ of 9 worth? On what basis, in general, do you decide the worth of magical treasure?
3. If a character is Charmed, is the spell stopped when
1. The spellcaster who throw it attempts to lift it? (Does the Charm get a save throw?)
2. The character who threw it is slept? runs away?
3. The character who threw it is killed?
4. The character who threw it is killed?
5. A Charm, Hold, Dispel Evil, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic is thrown from the other side? (Does the Charm get a saving throw?)
   If not, what happens when these things take place?
4. How do you handle Elves? The rules say "Elves can begin as either Fighters or MUs and freely switch class whenever they choose from adventure to adventure but not during the course of a single game. Thus they gain the benefits of both classes and may use both weaponry and spells.
1. How do you allow Elves to go up levels?
2. When do you allow Elves to use weapons? to throw spells?
3. Do elves who have topped out at both fields gain any special advantages? What if they've topped out at one field?
5. If a player has a Hobbit (who never misses with missiles) with a low dexterity, how would you handle it?
6. Are there any minimum requirements of strength, dexterity or constitution you insist on for the use of certain weapons?
7. Are there any additions to the shopping list you have come up with? Particularly any new weapons?
8. Do you allow Neutral Clerics? How do you handle allowing them to use the underlined spells (e.g. Cure/Cause Wounds)?
9. Do you allow creatures other than Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Half-Elves, and Humans? How do you handle Were-creatures? How do you handle such half-breeds as a half-centaur/half-unicorn?
10. Do you allow characters to speak languages of alignments other than their own? How do you handle their communications in such a tongue with those whose native alignment tongue it is?
11. Protection from Normal Missiles allows the recipient to become "impervious to normal missiles. This implies only those missiles projected by normal (not above normal) men and/or weapons." Does this mean that fire by elves or dwarves or hobbits will penetrate? Does it mean fire by men higher than first level will penetrate (given the statement on I, 19) that "normal men equal 1st level fighters.)
12. If you use the Alternative Combat tables, do you run a battle between a party and, say, Bandits, letting both groups use Attack Matrix One, or do the Bandits use Attack Matrix Two on the grounds that (I, 12) "the term 'monster' includes men found in the dungeons."
13. What other loopholes in the Rules have you noticed?

    And what do you think about GREYHAWK?