Allow me to demonstrate how simple getting started with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition is.
Step One: Your Starting Hex
Get a piece of blank hex paper. You can use this downloadable template to print off your own.
Grab your copy of the Dungeon Master's Guide and go to Appendix B. Start rolling, and record the results.
Roll 1d4 to determine which corner hex you're starting with: 1 = Top Left, 2 = Top Right, 3 = Bottom Left, 4 = Bottom Right.
There are eight terrain types. Roll 1d8. The number you get determines what column you roll under. Then Roll 1d3 for Climate; 1 = Arctic/Cold, 2 = Temperate, 3 = (Sub)Tropical/Hot.
Bob rolls a 4, which puts him on the Rough column reading left (1) to right (4). On that column he rolls a 14, which are Hills and with an addition 1 in 10 chance of being forested hills; he rolls that 1, so they are Forested Hills. For Climate, Bob rolls a 2 for a Temperate climate. All Outdoor Random Encounters in this hex use the Temperate table and roll on the Hills column.
A starting hex is presumed to have a settlement. The Inhabitation subtable has eight results (including Ruins), so again Bob rolls 1d8; a 3 indicates a Hamlet with 1d4x100 in population, so Bob rolls 1d4 and gets a 3 for 300 people. This influences what manpower and expert NPCs are going to be available initially.
As no other information is required at this time, the Referee moves on to the nearby dungeon.
Step Two: Your Starting Dungeon
Get a piece of blank graph paper. Click here download a template to print off if you need it.
Flip to Appendix A. There are five sample starting rooms provided. Roll 1d5 and place that one in the center of the page. Roll on the Ruins sub-subtable in Appendix B for what it looks like on the surface.
Bob rolls a 4. He writes down the 3-by-5 (with a two-square staircase) space with five doors in the center of the map and leaves the rest blank for now. He notes that it is 12 miles away from the hamlet, and a roll on the sub-subtable of 61 notes that its surface is a ruined shrine.
Step Three: Create Context
Bob has an area of Forested Hills wherein a Hamlet of 300 people dwell near a ruined shrine. What is going on, and why?
Bob does not know. Bob does not need to know. All Bob needs at this time is (a) who runs the Hamlet and (b) what is available for adventurers?
Bob does not need to roll on any charts for this. The rules are silent; this is at his discretion, so Bob lets it sit for now.
Step Three: Write It Down
Open up a clean Notepad/Office document, or a real notebook--yes, there's templates for that too--and write down what you generated so far. It won't take more than a page, maybe two if hand-written. You can do this entire process between the time you order pizza and when it arrives at your door, and yes that includes doing it wholly old-school with everything hand-written and using real dice.
Then let it sit until it's play time. Players will generate their mans, and when they go off the hex map you just roll to see what's there. When they go exploring around the area, you roll on the Random Encounters to see what's there (and if they have a lair). When they go into the dungeon, you roll to see what they find when they open that door or turn that corner or run into random monsters.
It's that simple. Hell, you can even make the players do the rolls; believe it or not, this has psychological effects- players blame whomever rolled the dice for what happens.
The context to explain all of these results will come up emergently as play proceeds. It may be a silly explanation, but it will make sense; people will invent patterns where none exist, so lean into that and let it happen. This is why lore is irrelevant to proper play.
All of that now become particular and peculiar to your table, even if you and everyone else in the campaign play exactly by the rules as they are written. The various tables in the #BROSR are Proof Of Concept; Trollopoulus is not Minas Mandalf is not the Caribbroean Isles is not BROVenloft, etc.
It is simpler, easier, and more satisfying to (gasp!) play the game by the rules! And you don't need to CONSUME PRODUCT to make it achieve what it promises.
I've been reading your blog for years, but never quite got the hang of "Rules as Written". My college gaming group in 1979 never used the appendixes, as we preferred to create megadungeons with megabackstory instead. We never used the appendixes.
ReplyDeleteThis post worked. I am now imagining what might have happened if I followed your instructions back in the day, and let the dungeon and backstory emerge from random rolls.
Took me a while to find the Ruins subtable, though...
I'm still waiting to see a video or hear a podcast where someone does this with their table, live and unedited, to see how long it takes to generate these things.
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine the players sitting around the table waiting while the dungeon master flips - flips - flips through the book looking for the tables and roll - roll - roll the dice and compare this and compare that and then "oh look it's troglodytes. You are surprised by troglodytes!"
To which the players respond "How come we didn't smell the troglodytes down the hall? They smell terrible."
"Oh, well, um, I didn't have anything at all prepared cuz the guys on Twitter said that #zeroprep was awesome, so here we are."
Appendices A and B are fantastic tools but they are not meant to be used live at the table every session all session.