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Monday, May 2, 2011

The Trouble with &

The cool thing about having five or six (seven? eight?) versions of D&D rules (and their clones) to pull from is that their very existence underscores the idea there is no "One Way," that you are, in fact, expected to pick, cut, and whittle a system of your own.

The downside for me is that I'm always getting confused which parts come from where.

On Friday a player asked me how many XP he needed to level up.  I proudly whipped out my visual experience chart.  Confusion ensued.  I realized we had been using the Swords & Wizardry Core progression tables while the chart I made used Swords & Wizardry Whitebox values.  And they were different! (and yes, Labyrinth Lord is different, too)

I've searched several times through the S&W Core rulebooks for spells with no luck, to have it finally dawn on me that they were introduced in 1st edition.  Sanctuary is one of my favorites of those.  Command is another.

During a game at the SoCal Mini-Con I was asked to pick a magic item for my character (we were starting at higher level).  I chose Robe of Wizardry which sounded comfortingly familiar, but then realized I didn't remember ever seeing such a thing-- Charm, Hold, and Polymorph powers in one item of clothing?!  Turns out it was introduced in the Greyhawk supplement of OD&D as a Wizard's Robe, and disappeared thereafter.

Have you ever been tripped up by the plethora of versions?  Looked for a spell or magic item in the wrong place, maybe had some confusion with monsters from different editions?
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14 comments:

  1. John Matthew StaterMay 2, 2011 at 2:57 PM

    When I'm writing, that usually happens with spells. Anymore, though, I'm at the point where I just rattle off the spell name and figure - whatever edition it came from, it's online somewhere and almost certainly for free. Find it, adapt it - I just can't be bothered to color in the lines anymore.

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  2. NopeMay 2, 2011 at 3:20 PM

    Yes! My solution is to just compile my own documents and print them out for our games. I've been organizing all my pdfs based on purpose rather than system since they are all mostly compatible. So when starting a campaign I just choose parts from different sources, and build the system from there.

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  3. Roger G-SMay 2, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    That's why I run my own non-clone clone ;)

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  4. JamesMay 2, 2011 at 3:26 PM

    I made my own LL based "clone," document, sans monsters, to help avoid that issue. The PH is re-written in my own words and has quite extensive changes from LL. The spellbook is an edited version of the AEC spells, incorporating, for example, Types of Magic and a Casting Time system. A few spells from other sources are added in and a few spells were dumped. So, everything's in my custom made rulings book or the spellbook doc. Of course, I've already started houseruling my "houserules clone." :)

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  5. JamesMay 2, 2011 at 3:28 PM

    @Aberrant Hive Mind - Capital idea! I think that's the approach I'll take, next time! Which means in a few weeks, when I get some time to start on it. :)

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  6. JohnMay 2, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    Yes - it's happening more and more - and like Matt said, it mostly happens with spells. Either which edition did a spell originate, or which "interpretation" applies - things like range and duration even have subtle differences between clone editions.

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  7. NopeMay 2, 2011 at 3:48 PM

    @James: Awesome bro!

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  8. AnonymousMay 2, 2011 at 5:37 PM

    I pick a rule set (either D&D or LL) and type up a short house rule document for my players. If I introduce new elements to the game, I type up a new or extra player's handout. This way we're all working from the same books and there's no confusion.

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  9. AnonymousMay 2, 2011 at 8:26 PM

    I own several clones, but we only play Moldvay D&D, so no... no confusion. It probably helps that I never had all that stuff memorized for any edition.

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  10. TelecanterMay 2, 2011 at 10:12 PM

    Yeah, I made my own custom digests with just what my players needed. Problem was I learned and changed and then I needed to revise the digest and I haven't yet.

    Even so, I think there is a place for a clone for things like the treasure tables. That would take a lot to redo.

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  11. AnonymousMay 3, 2011 at 5:04 AM

    Hehe, I have that problem with 3.0, 3.5 and Pathfinder... so that's not just an oldschoolclonething.

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  12. richardMay 3, 2011 at 7:36 AM

    One day I will write my post on the parallels between the development of Islamic Law and the OSR. For now I will only say that the Caliph Uthman, under whom the Koran was first compiled as a written document, was probably very wise but also made himself very unpopular when he had all variant editions destroyed.

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  13. TelecanterMay 3, 2011 at 5:14 PM

    That's reassuring rorschachhamster :)

    @richard: have you seen this post by Tavis?:

    http://muleabides.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/if-i-ruled-the-dd-world/

    I'm guessing we and Caliph Uthman have opposite goals? :)

    I hope people didn't take my original post as too negative, I mostly find this amusing.

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  14. richardMay 3, 2011 at 9:55 PM

    beautiful. No, I hadn't seen that. Talmudic scholarship of course fits the bill, too.

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