ampleframework
Prospector
Searching for the portal to Blackmoor
Posts: 72
|
Post by ampleframework on May 6, 2020 10:30:16 GMT -5
I started playing D&D sometime in 1994, and my first DM gave us pre-generated characters, but in the years following that I played in and ran several games loosely based around the BECMI product line, and in almost every single case there the players rolled up their own characters and the rule book made it clear this was the way it was done.
However, I discovered something fascinating decades later when I first began studying the three original D&D booklets thanks to their renewed availability - in the original Men & Magic book, it's assumed the referee, not the players, rolls up the stats ahead of time! I wonder how many people actually went by that back in the seventies, or how many people continue to do so? The inverse, while it was codified as the de facto method in all the Basic and Advanced sets, was not what was recommended in Men & Magic at all.
Therefore, unbenownst perhaps to many, it would seem the most common house rule for OD&D is when players roll up their own character. A house rule indeed in that it is a departure from the booklet. Of course, most of us make several dozen major departures from the booklets when we run the game, I'm sure, but this one is almost universally overlooked it seems. It does change the tone and expectation of the campaign when you're given a character (or a small list of potential ones, as in the first game I played in. I chose a Dwarf because they're the best!) as opposed to conceiving one yourself. I'm not sure either way is objectively better or worse but it feels different, for sure.
I'll have to meditate on this a while during my project of outlining my custom Men & Magic booklets for my next campaign.
|
|
|
Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 6, 2020 16:55:32 GMT -5
I started playing D&D sometime in 1994, and my first DM gave us pre-generated characters, but in the years following that I played in and ran several games loosely based around the BECMI product line, and in almost every single case there the players rolled up their own characters and the rule book made it clear this was the way it was done. However, I discovered something fascinating decades later when I first began studying the three original D&D booklets thanks to their renewed availability - in the original Men & Magic book, it's assumed the referee, not the players, rolls up the stats ahead of time! I wonder how many people actually went by that back in the seventies, or how many people continue to do so? The inverse, while it was codified as the de facto method in all the Basic and Advanced sets, was not what was recommended in Men & Magic at all. Therefore, unbenownst perhaps to many, it would seem the most common house rule for OD&D is when players roll up their own character. A house rule indeed in that it is a departure from the booklet. Of course, most of us make several dozen major departures from the booklets when we run the game, I'm sure, but this one is almost universally overlooked it seems. It does change the tone and expectation of the campaign when you're given a character (or a small list of potential ones, as in the first game I played in. I chose a Dwarf because they're the best!) as opposed to conceiving one yourself. I'm not sure either way is objectively better or worse but it feels different, for sure. I'll have to meditate on this a while during my project of outlining my custom Men & Magic booklets for my next campaign. Yes, back in the 70s my group always rolled up their own characters. My most recent face to face game that started in July of 2009 and ran until I shut it down because of my wife's health, we only had 4-5 hour games once per month, so for that I handed out a stack of pre-gens and let people pick what they wanted and I gave them some options to pick from (independent of which pre-gen they picked) that they could choose from before their first game.
|
|
ampleframework
Prospector
Searching for the portal to Blackmoor
Posts: 72
|
Post by ampleframework on May 7, 2020 10:23:13 GMT -5
Do you have a personal preference as a player, or is it all about the same for you?
For me, I'm actually impartial. I'll roll a character up or take a pre-generated one and make it my own. A little personal interpretation. After all there's a thousand ways to play "Dwarf Fighter" or "Human Magic-User".
|
|
|
Post by mao on May 9, 2020 4:26:05 GMT -5
I don't think I actually owned the LBB back in the day. I rana game without reading it and it went fine.I had no idea of this "house rule".Wild stufff from the olden days
|
|
ampleframework
Prospector
Searching for the portal to Blackmoor
Posts: 72
|
Post by ampleframework on May 9, 2020 11:46:27 GMT -5
I don't think I actually owned the LBB back in the day. I rana game without reading it and it went fine.I had no idea of this "house rule".Wild stufff from the olden days . A lot of the assumptions we have about how OD&D works stems from the Basic sets and subsequent editions. Another example is that if you read only the booklets and none of the clarifications from Basic or Advanced, you might assume Clerics use spellbooks or spells can be cast multiple times from a single slot. I run my 0e game with the clarifications in mind so in a way I'm not running it 100 percent as written but rather with hindsight of later versions in mind.
|
|