Gameday: What went wrong? What went right?

FYI, this is not a blog about the session events, this is a blog about today's revelations for me and my group. Stay tuned for session notes!

Well, today was the day. The day I have been waiting for. The day where my friends and I put aside the comfortable 3.5 rule set and rolled up new OSRIC characters. We got to our first battle and I laid out the combat rules. There were a few unexpected growing pains. It took a little getting used to and my players were less then happy with the OSRIC combat sequence. Mind you, my group grew up on 1st and 2nd edition D&D, but that was a long time ago. Their most recent experience with a Dungeons & Dragons combat system has been the god-awfully slow 3.5 version. What is there not to like about the OSRIC combat system? The Party Initiative? The Morale rules? It's combat greatness and lickity-split! Well, one issue that my group had was they did not like not being able to pick a target when in melee with a group of monsters. I can see why they would be frustrated. They feel like they are out of control when they can't designate a victim. I get that. Of course, combat is frantic, so after explaining the dynamics of OSRIC combat once more, we continued our day's adventure. We searched every nook and cranney for treasure, fell into a pit trap, and even touched a statue that caused electrical damage to one of my fighter's for 8 of his 10 hit points. It was dungeon exploration at its finest. The day came to an end and we all decided to honestly review what we liked and did not like about the new rule set. I felt for sure that the group would have fallen in love with OSRIC and yet, they only loved parts of it... and the truth is that most of the parts they did like are not even OSRIC specific. First they loved how much more involved the room searches were when we were not rolling towards a DC like one does in 3.5. They also loved mapping the dungeon as we explore it instead of having a map thrown at them to follow. One OSRIC specific rule that my players did love was how you earn XP for finding treasure and not just killing monsters. This rule discourages the "run from room to room killing monsters" type of play. With those three new ideas, my players requested something that I never expected. They wanted to go back to playing D&D 3.5! Only this time, they wanted to go back to playing D&D 3.5 with modifications to incorporate these new things they loved about our OSRIC experience.

How could this be?

I never saw this as a possibility. I came at this idea of trying out OSRIC knowing that it was an experiment and my players may not like it and want to go back to playing 3.5, but I thought the lack of so many rigerous rules would make them feel "free" in regards to roleplaying and they would feel that 3.5 was to big and cumbersome of a rule set. Well I was half right becuase they realized that dungeon exploration is more fun for them when they take an active role in it instead of just walking in to a room and throwing the 20 sided to reveal whatever their search and spot checks will reveal.
After playing today, I realized that there is no reason for me to feel so "bound" to following the 3.5 rules. I can adjudicate them in the same way that I would OSRIC. My game, my rules. Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 has such a vast array of rules to determine every little thing that could possibly happen, that when the time comes to refrence a rule, if I don't know it, I felt compelled to stop the game and look it up. We all know that is a major no no, but with so many tables to refrence, it seems a shame to just make something up when someone else already has. That is where I need to grow as a DM. I can simply make a ruling on the spot and the players have to go with it. Later on we can go back and see if we should or would have wanted to handle it differently. Hell, they even have that written almost word for word in the 3.5 DM guide. Why did I need to play 1st edition just to cement that point home in my head? As far as combat is concerned, we are going to focus on speeding that up too. There are a number of ways to do this, but I don't want to go into it untill I try out the tecniques and know what works and what does not.

So were does that leave us now? Well , my group really wants to try playing 3.5 again, with the modifacations I have mentioned. Will it work? We shall see. Is it "Old School"? In some circles the answer is no. But for me it will be old school once I have that familier fantasy feeling in my heart after a sesson. That is why I am never going to stop hunting the old school RPG.

A Matter of Preference.

For my friends and I, this book was the tome of our "Old School". We all had a copy. Some of us had 2. We paid around 20 or so dollars for it. We knew the rules inside and out. Between the 4 of us, we had all the tables memorized. If you are reading this blog then odds are you had some edition of a Players Handbook for some system that you were just as nerdy about.
When we played, I would always play as a Fighter. Now when I think back to those days I wish I made a Magic User. What was my deal with always picking the Fighter anyway? I guess I loved getting in and dealing massive damage with my hands and the deadly blade they were carrying. It was always a Bastard Sword. I would hold it with 2 hands for max damage. I would be proficient with the blade AND specialize in the use of a Bastard Sword and just like that I had a +1 to my attack roll and a +2 to my damage roll.
Now I am about a week out from refereeing my first Dungeons & Dragons 1'st Edition game. I have been reading every forum, blog, and rulebook in order to get my skills as sharp as possible. My goal in this new campaign as I have previously stated is to "try" to capture some of the wonderment of those old days. I know it is a tall order, but I have to try just the same. I recently remembered how rewarding it was to buy a better sword once you found enough gold to go shopping. Remember that? Well in an attempt to simulate that experience, I have limited the starting gold and the items available in the starting city. We will see how that goes.
One feature of the 1'st Edition rules that I like is the basic nature of it. Now I know that I could play the original Dungeons & Dragons and get even more basic and open. I say open because I would have more room to add house rules, but for me I believe 1'st edition will be close to the system we started with so it should not be as much of an adjustment to learn. Boy was 3.5 odd to get used to at first. AC is better going up? Where was THAC0?! But with that being said there are many changes we will need to get used to. One change that I want to touch upon is the fact that there is no Weapon Specialization rule like there is in 2'nd Edition that gives you bonuses to your rolls right from the start. (ok, ok, I am aware of the supplement Unearthed Arcana, but I am talking about the OSRIC rules here) After a bit of thought I have decided that I am going to like the absence of the players getting an additional +1 to attack and +2 to damage. From what I can see, a magic weapon with a +anything added to it was a special and rare thing. I don't want to have a rule in my campaign that steps on the wonderment of a magic weapon. I like the idea that +1 means something again. To me this feels "Old School". Of course I am referring to my personal idea of what "Old School" is. This is especially obvious after our playing the 3.5 edition. I am sure this is a matter of preference.

EDITION WAR!!!!

Or that is what "they" are calling it at least. How do I fit in to all of this? Well I don't think I have picked a side. I am not "fighting" for anything. You see, I have been enjoying playing Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. I love the system. I suffer from being one of those types that prefers and needs clear and concise rules in life. The same can be said about my RPG's. That being said, I also like to be able to fly by the seat of my pants, so I have an attraction to OD&D and AD&D1E because of their intentional ways of leaving the rules vague and up to the reader to interpret. I have recently decided on this "venture" into the world of a new campaign using the first edition rules because of my internal quest to try and capture just a small portion of the nostalgia from my youth. Not because I believe it to be a superior edition, but because I want to capture a glimpse of the good old days. I am not expecting a time machine-like experience, but I have a hunch that the later rules of D&D may be harder for me to use as a catalyst for stirring up that tiny spark of nostalgia that I crave. If my experiment works, then for me, I will know what side of the war I am on.... Maybe I can be a medic or something... I don't want to fight on the front lines. I've got a family man.

A return to the hobby after 20 years.

Well now that I think about it, 20 years is a bit of an exaggeration. Lets say it is more like 15 or so, but anyway. Gaming for me began with the D&D Red Box back in the late 80's and quickly moved to AD&D Second Edition. Being about 11 years old then, I was amazed at what I was playing. Every Friday night for my friends and I was game night until the wee hours of the morning and then after a few hours of sleep we played all day on Saturday too. Back then the gamers diet consisted of Pizza Rolls or the Little Caesars "Bigfoot" Pizza. We would wash that all down with endless glasses of Sprite and/or Kool-aid. Life was good... Nay... Perfect! If we only knew how great we had it.

Now here I am almost 20 years later. OMG. The days of gaming faded as I grew older. Now with a wife and 2 children of my own I have began reminiscing of the adventuring days gone by and yearning to pick up the sword and light my torch so to speak. It is not like I completely forgot the game. O no. In fact, there were thousands of times where I would be doing some unrelated activity (driving, working, etc...) and I would think of the good old days. I even made sure in the 20 years of my non-gaming life to stop in the Role Playing Game section of my local book store to see what was happening in the hobby while I was growing older. I remember looking at the 3rd Edition books with disgust. As it turns out, I was not angry with the idea of a 3rd edition. I was just angry that my gaming days had died years before.

Well last year in the summer of 2008 I was standing in a Barnes and Noble and decided to take my self-torturing walk through the Role Playing Game section. What I saw that night changed something in me for the better. There standing in front of the Dungeons & Dragons books were 3 teenagers. They were talking Dungeons & Dragons the way my friends and I used to. They were "True Nerds" of the hobby. I even heard them discuss how they were going to stop and get some food on the way home so that they could start their game that night and not need to stop to go back out for some grub. Immediately I wished I was about 12 years younger and going home with them for an endless night of rolling the dice. For me.... that was the turning point. pulling my cell phone from my pocket I dialed my good friend and began putting the heat on him to play D&D once again. Once he gave in the others were a lot easier to convince.

The 3.5 Core Rule books were purchased and a good thing too, because 4th Edition was released a few weeks later and the 3.5 core books seemed to disappear off of the bookstore shelves. After looking it over, I decided I was not interested in 4th Edition because things seemed new enough with 3.5. Our first game was 2 weeks later. We all had a blast. We made sure to play in the dark dampness of my basement, eat greasy and terrible food, and drink a beer or two to help break the stiffness of roleplaying after years of being old-non gamers. Things were looking up...

After a few more sessions however, something began to bother me. I could not put my finger on it. After lurking around a few of my favorite RPG Blogs, it began to fall into place for me... I think. Blogs like Grognardia, and Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG Blog ooze the magic of the old days. (links to both of these blogs are at the end of this post.) The common element is that James from Grognardia and Chgowiz play older systems. 0 edition and 1st Edition. These systems have a "old style" flexible rules system where the Dungeon Master decided the outcomes on the fly instead of having an expansive set of rules that could be used to determine just about any player idea that could ever be conceived... But I think I like that idea. It was comforting for me as a DM returning to the hobby after 20 years to know that my decisions are backed by a set of rules. 20 years away from the hobby has left me feeling insecure to say the least and with 3.5 edition, my thinking is that I won't have to worry about my players not liking my decisions because they will all can be blamed on the rules. Rules are rules and that will be that! Well I am starting to feel for me that type of thinking is wrong wrong wrong. I have downloaded OSRIC. I am going to start from scratch in my campaign, and this upcoming weekend, we are going to test out the 1st Edition rules and see if things are the way I suspect they will be.

This blog is going to be my journal of our game sessions. Two of my favorite bloggers are already doing this for their campaigns so be sure to jump over to...

Grognardia

and

Chgowiz's Old Guy RPG Blog