Hasn't DnD always had the Five Minute Workday?

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 7:22 am

So here I am jotting down some notes and setting up things to teach my faithful friends Basic Fantasy DnD (It's like B/X 1e DnD), because they're new to table top games. They've played the munchkin cardgame, and lots of pc/video games, so they're familiar with the idea of it all, they're just new to the pencils and paper and little moving tokens part.

So I'm sitting here and looking at it closely to see what will be available to them at first and second level, having only seriously played only WoD and Shadowrun for quite a long time, and it seems like there's no incentive at all to not just spam all your spells out really fast and take the kills xp (or at least the treasure) and then run away.

As someone who got into table-top games around '97 when 2e was already dying out, I'm not entirely familiar with the earlier stuff. I have, however, loosely gathered that this was actually the intended behavior for the players to follow? Kill everything you can and haul the treasure back to a "safe location" to heal and take on the dungeon once more? That's all how the game was supposed to work, and newer notions about things that aren't dungeons to be cleared slowly rooms at a time are the new strange things that make DnD not work right.

Am I on track, or completely off base?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 7:34 am

The utility function was made somewhat more complex by the existence of wandering monsters that were randomly generated of of tables, and the fact that treasures got bigger the farther into the dungeon you went. Coupled with the fact that treasures were specifically not tied to your level at all, and there was substantially more reason to conserve resources and press on.

To an extent it was pretty much always the case that taking short assault trips and lots of rests was the way to go, but earlier editions also held out the promise of asymmetric power if you took a bit more risks. The moment the idea of wealth by level came down, the incentives for doing anything other than alternating ambushes and sleepy times were completely removed. So that's what the game gravitated towards.

-Username17

mlangsdorf · Post by **mlangsdorf** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:42 am

A lot of the early material also mentioned the non-static and adaptive nature of the dungeons. If you do a hit and run on the bandit camp, expect them to have more alert sentries and more traps the next time you come through. Do it twice, and they may send a raiding party back to your camp.

Blowing your wad meant that you had no reserves when something unexpected happened.

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 3:49 am

From memory it was often more like a one-hour work week or a one-day work week. Buffs which lasted a decent time were commoner, healing took longer.

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 4:27 am

Healing in the bad old days was balls. Seriously, a full day of bed rest in the best room with the best medical attention restored 2 HP.

B - A - Double - L - S

A party in any protracted encounter without a dedicated cleric heal bitch was FVCKED.

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 5:20 am

So is there any particular reason to not just tell my players "you heal 1 hp per level per day of rest" (like the 3e rule)? If not, I'll just use that.

I mean, I haven't worked with 1e other than having played BFRPG one other time a while back, but there didn't seem to be any particular reason for healing to be slow other than "i think it should be nya!".

Bill Bisco: Isometric Imp · Wed Mar 17, 2010 10:03 am

Indeed there are wandering monster charts which can be used to intimidate the PCs from resting. However, in my experience playing the PCs have always been given the opportunity to rest if they need to.

That being said, you are of course absolutely right, PCs should definitely practice spamming their spells off and then going to sleep after most encounters. An issue was of course the plethora of people who played Fighters and Thieves who had no spells.

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:25 pm

I think I might write up my own quick little game with the old school feel, but oriented towards quicker learning and swapping out some of the chart bloat. Maybe give the fighters and thieves some nifty powers to use during combat or something. I had forgotten about random treasure charts based on dungeon depth, and I'll keep that idea in for sure.