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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
What's the best introductory BX/OSR scenario for new players and DMs?
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<blockquote data-quote="Gus L" data-source="post: 9316236" data-attributes="member: 7045072"><p>In the other thread on this I had some similar capsule observations on the B series to yours here - agree that best of isn't exactly great always... Horror on the Hill's specific issues (and it's pretty good overall) are specifically related to the type of games I like to run. That is the dungeon is poorly set up for expedition based sessions (return to base at the end of each session) and has many elements of the 1980's TSR style that irk me, but tend not to bother some other folks.</p><p></p><p>For "Monster Zoo" here I don't mean variety, some variety is good, and B5 generally provides at least somewhat plausible connections between many of the monsters. What I mean is that the way the adventure is written the creatures and met in specific keyed areas without significant discussion (at least in the dungeon) of how they respond to intrusion. Plus almost every encounter is aimed at combat -- even when negotiation is offered (as with the red Dragon and Berserkers on the bottom level) the adventure pushes the encounter into combat. </p><p></p><p>The "Zoo" here is that the monsters in the adventure wait in their "cages" for the party to come along and kill them. </p><p></p><p>Obviously there's a tradition to this, and dungeon inhabitants are absurdly indifferent to the ruckus their neighbors make and tend to choose violence in almost every adventure ... but in B5 it feels like it goes beyond the standard version. This is especially true of the organized factions in B5 and the Dragon. I like my organized enemies (especially militaristic hobgoblins - who really should be brigands anyways, but it's weird to murder dozens of people for gold - even bad people) to act organized and have some schemes. I like my Dragons chatty. Overcoming foes in older style dungeon crawls should be possible through something other then rolling for initiative, or at least one should be able to sway that combat encounter so it can be over faster and with less danger through intelligent scheming. B5 (unlike B2) doesn't just fail to note this, but it's written with guardrails to prevent it. That's my take at least.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gus L, post: 9316236, member: 7045072"] In the other thread on this I had some similar capsule observations on the B series to yours here - agree that best of isn't exactly great always... Horror on the Hill's specific issues (and it's pretty good overall) are specifically related to the type of games I like to run. That is the dungeon is poorly set up for expedition based sessions (return to base at the end of each session) and has many elements of the 1980's TSR style that irk me, but tend not to bother some other folks. For "Monster Zoo" here I don't mean variety, some variety is good, and B5 generally provides at least somewhat plausible connections between many of the monsters. What I mean is that the way the adventure is written the creatures and met in specific keyed areas without significant discussion (at least in the dungeon) of how they respond to intrusion. Plus almost every encounter is aimed at combat -- even when negotiation is offered (as with the red Dragon and Berserkers on the bottom level) the adventure pushes the encounter into combat. The "Zoo" here is that the monsters in the adventure wait in their "cages" for the party to come along and kill them. Obviously there's a tradition to this, and dungeon inhabitants are absurdly indifferent to the ruckus their neighbors make and tend to choose violence in almost every adventure ... but in B5 it feels like it goes beyond the standard version. This is especially true of the organized factions in B5 and the Dragon. I like my organized enemies (especially militaristic hobgoblins - who really should be brigands anyways, but it's weird to murder dozens of people for gold - even bad people) to act organized and have some schemes. I like my Dragons chatty. Overcoming foes in older style dungeon crawls should be possible through something other then rolling for initiative, or at least one should be able to sway that combat encounter so it can be over faster and with less danger through intelligent scheming. B5 (unlike B2) doesn't just fail to note this, but it's written with guardrails to prevent it. That's my take at least. [/QUOTE]
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What's the best introductory BX/OSR scenario for new players and DMs?
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