Post by foster1941 on Feb 4, 2005 18:08:46 GMT -5
Last night I was looking through the Holmes Basic rulebook, comparing it to OD&D, and I was struck anew by how much I like the Holmes set and think it's an almost ideal introduction to the game for new players, but that levels 1-3 just aren't enough to show a full picture of the game -- mostly because there's no downside to playing a demi-human and no real upside to playing a magic-user (even 3rd level magic-users are pretty wimpy, especially when a 3rd level elf has just as many spells plus combat ability).
Looking at the OD&D rules I discovered that there's actually a very natural breaking point for an 'introductory' D&D set -- 6th level. At 6th level fighters' hp advantage is starting to show over clerics, clerics have a good selection of spells (up to 4th level -- neutralize poison, cure serious wounds, etc.) and have a chance to turn all of the undead creatures (including vampires), magic-users can use 3rd level spells (fireball, fly, etc.) and are starting to come into their own but don't yet totally dominate the game, dwarfs are at their max. and hobbits and elves (as fighters) have already reached their max. so the notion of demi-human balance is addressed.
Keep the Basic D&D focus on dungeon-only adventures and eliminate the wilderness-only monsters (rocs, griffons, sea monsters, etc.) and some of the toughest underground monsters (purple worms, balrogs, efreeti, etc.) as well as some of the higher-end magic items (since the treasure lists in OD&D are generally organized most to least powerful it's easy to just lop off the last couple of items from each table -- no wand of polymorphing, no staves of withering, power, or wizardry, no rings of multiple wishes or djinni summoning, no norn of blasting, girdle of giant strength or mirror of life trapping, etc.), keep all the info from vol. III about designing dungeons (and the stocking and encounter tables for levels 1-6) but remove all the info about wilderness adventures, strongholds, mass combat, etc. and you've got a ruleset that could probably fit into a single book only a bit longer than the Holmes book (say 64pp instead of Holmes' 48pp) and provides a much wider variety of play -- gaining 6th level should take somewhere on the order of 25 sessions (assuming ~5 sessions per level) which for most groups will be between 6 months to a year of play, which is enough that many groups would probably be satisfied enough and never feel the need to go on to anything more -- wilderness adventures, building strongholds, higher level characters and spells, etc.
Just idle musing, but I was struck last night by how such a 'not-so-Basic' set would've served and represented the game much better than the level 1-3 only basic sets did (but then again I suppose that was the point -- that levels 1-3 gives you just enough of a taste to make you curious for more so that you'll buy more books, and the Basic set was never intended to be self-sufficient like this not-so-Basic set would've been).
Looking at the OD&D rules I discovered that there's actually a very natural breaking point for an 'introductory' D&D set -- 6th level. At 6th level fighters' hp advantage is starting to show over clerics, clerics have a good selection of spells (up to 4th level -- neutralize poison, cure serious wounds, etc.) and have a chance to turn all of the undead creatures (including vampires), magic-users can use 3rd level spells (fireball, fly, etc.) and are starting to come into their own but don't yet totally dominate the game, dwarfs are at their max. and hobbits and elves (as fighters) have already reached their max. so the notion of demi-human balance is addressed.
Keep the Basic D&D focus on dungeon-only adventures and eliminate the wilderness-only monsters (rocs, griffons, sea monsters, etc.) and some of the toughest underground monsters (purple worms, balrogs, efreeti, etc.) as well as some of the higher-end magic items (since the treasure lists in OD&D are generally organized most to least powerful it's easy to just lop off the last couple of items from each table -- no wand of polymorphing, no staves of withering, power, or wizardry, no rings of multiple wishes or djinni summoning, no norn of blasting, girdle of giant strength or mirror of life trapping, etc.), keep all the info from vol. III about designing dungeons (and the stocking and encounter tables for levels 1-6) but remove all the info about wilderness adventures, strongholds, mass combat, etc. and you've got a ruleset that could probably fit into a single book only a bit longer than the Holmes book (say 64pp instead of Holmes' 48pp) and provides a much wider variety of play -- gaining 6th level should take somewhere on the order of 25 sessions (assuming ~5 sessions per level) which for most groups will be between 6 months to a year of play, which is enough that many groups would probably be satisfied enough and never feel the need to go on to anything more -- wilderness adventures, building strongholds, higher level characters and spells, etc.
Just idle musing, but I was struck last night by how such a 'not-so-Basic' set would've served and represented the game much better than the level 1-3 only basic sets did (but then again I suppose that was the point -- that levels 1-3 gives you just enough of a taste to make you curious for more so that you'll buy more books, and the Basic set was never intended to be self-sufficient like this not-so-Basic set would've been).
