Quote from OD&D

"Final Note: If sea monsters or monsters of the sea do not get a ship, perhaps it will sail off the edge of the world!"

From rpg.net

"The "Less DM power " idea is an insidious reaction to bad DM's (I played with many of them) and the simple fact players buy more books."

Reasons Magic-Users Did Not Dominate Play in Early Editions of D&D

Truth.

Brilliance from EPT

From someone's recent Empire of the Petal Throne game:

Stuff I like:

• Marching Order rules
• No Read Magic (I think...)
• More Use of Saves
• Int & Con use - I'm curious as well.
• Fighter class skills
• Spellcaster class skills and bonus spells
• Critical hits

There's some more cool stuff there, but not for an D&D-based dungeon crawl game.

Read this again.

Really. Read it.

Wisdom.

"If you didn’t think of checking the tavern for one-armed men, consider it a comment on your skill as a player."

Wait til I talk about house rules.

Call me crazy, but I'd like to lock myself in a room for a week and rearrange the contents of the DMG and PHB. Especially crazy since my layout experience is limited to many years of cursing at Microsoft Word.

Anyway, here's my first stab at rearranging the contents of the DMG and moving sections elsewhere.

Dungeon Hack Rules Review

Firing in the Melee

By the book, you would roll semi-randomly based on relative size and numbers before the "to hit" roll is made. ("The minor difference represents the fact that there will be considerable shifting and maneuvering during combat which will tend to expose both opponents to fire on a near equal basis.") I don't know if it's worth the continual effort, though I think we've found how advantageous missile fire is when playing by the book. I wouldn't be opposed to make that semi-random determination only if the shooter misses the "to hit" roll for the intended target.

Spellbooks

We assume every magic-user starts with a standard spell book. A travelling spell book costs 500 gold pieces for materials, and five of them can fit in a backpack. I think the spellbook "capacity" as listed in Unearthed Arcana is a little harsh. We'll worry about it when people start accumulating 40 or 50 spells. The primary reason to have a travelling spell book is so that you don't lose your only copy of your spells. NOTE: It does cost 100 gp per level for each spell to record a spell in your spellbook.

Training (since people are slowing approaching 2nd level)

p86 of the DMG has (as I'm sure you're shocked to discover) a pretty extensive system for the cost and time of training. While I think the concept has merit, I don't think we want the *average* 1st level character to disappear for training for 3 weeks at a cost of 4500gp to reach 2nd level.

Here's my suggested compromise, which I've used in past AD&D campaigns: Upon gaining sufficient XP, you get the new hit points immediately. Training is required for improved saves, to hit, class abilities and must be done by an NPC of the desired level or higher (until name level). This process takes 1 week and at a cost of 1000gp of pre-advancement level. Service, oaths, quests, loans, and trades of magic items can all reduce or eliminate the training fee.

Deity list (for Mark)

• Hanalla - light, hierarchy, pride, political power
• Thumis - wisdom & education. Scholastic, fussy and over-precise, well meaning old duffers.
• Belkanu - the afterlife and other planes.
• Avanthay (f)- the elements, fertility, harvests etc.
• Karakan - Glorious War, honour, violence in the cause of the state.
• Haru - darkness, chance and mystery.
• Kasarul - knowledge, secrets, and magic.
• Sarku - Death, or more precisely Undeath and Immortality.
• Dalamelish (f) - beauty, enjoyment and pleasures of all kinds.
• Vimula - Violence and burning things.

Shields

• A small shield can be counted against only one attack per melee round.
• A normal-sized shield can effectively be counted against two attacks per melee round.
• A large shield is counted against up to three attacks per melee round.
• Attacks from the right flank and rear always negate the advantage of the shield.

Tim Kask Method of Rules Adjudication

Try following this step-by-step procedure to resolve situations not covered by the rules:

1. Make something up.

Bugbears are silent?

Listening at Doors, from the DMG

Race Of Listener Chance Of Hearing Noise

Dwarf 2 in 20 (10%)

Elf 3 in 20 (15%)

Gnome 4 in 20 (20%)

Half-Elf 2 in 20 (10%)

Halfling 3 in 20 (15%)

Half-Orc 3 in 20 (15%)

Human 2 in 20 (10%)

Once you add in the racial modifiers, these are the same percentages as a 1st or 2nd level thief.